Lava tells the story of a lonely volcano, yep really. Anyway this volcano spends his days singing and that's the general premise of this. Generally I adore these beautiful little shorts and Piper (2016) really set the bar. Don't get me wrong Lava is good, it has your usual Pixar charm and hits you right in the feels but it just didn't have "It" whatever "It" may be.If I saw two one man bands competing for the attention of a little girl to get a shiny gold coin (One Man Band: 2005) I'd laugh and cheer, if I saw a magician trying to keep his unruly rabbit in check (Presto:2008) I'd be in hysterics, if I saw a baby bird brave the new world I'd d'awww (Piper:2016) but I can confidently say if I saw a singing volcano I'd run screaming in soggy trousers (It'd be sweat I swear).Sweet, heartfelt, but a lonely singing volcano really?

A lonely volcanic island sings a song of hopeful love over the years: just as he goes extinct and sinks below the surface, a new volcano arises, inspired by his song: but will they ever be together? Lava is the Disney/Pixar short which accompanies Inside Out. It is, as usual, visually beautiful but, for me, it falls quite a long way short of the usual standard of these short films: it is trite and obvious, and contains little of real substance other than its visuals. I was also not terribly amused by the conflation of "love/lava" in the song lyrics.Sorry to be out of step on this one.

Lava is a great short film with a well developed story and a terrific voice cast. The film manages to tell a very sweet story in the space of less than ten minutes, and also within this small amount of time it takes place over hundreds of years, it's very impressive how a short film can do that and we feel a genuine connection for this talking volcano and want him to succeed in his dream. As far as Pixar's short films go, this isn't one of the greats, I would normally find myself given these shorts a rating of nine, but Lava is missing that magic that is evident in shorts such as Day & Night and For the Birds, and it simply isn't as memorable. The voice acting is outstanding, there are only two voices heard in this movie, which is quite rare for a Pixar short, their singing is beautiful and perfectly conveys the overall ton and message of the film, to never give up on your dreams. It's not Pixar's finest short, but Lava is a fun and a very sweet seven minutes that will warm you up for Inside Out, definitely worth the watch. A volcano struggles for millions of years to find love.

When I took my niece to go see "Inside Out" As the previews run their course we thought along with everyone in the theater thought the movie was about the start.But low behold we were greeted with this short little movie called "Lava". My niece and I look at each other surprised and thrown off by this little feature that came on but actually it was a nice surprise to have a short little animation feature before the movie started kind of like a double feature which I think all Disney movies should have more of with their movies in the animation and family side of course. The movie tells a love story about a Volcano called Uku (Voiced by Kuana Torres Kahele) who sings every day for a thousand years to a female volcano named Lele (Voiced by Napua Greig). I'm trying to keep it spoiler free because the only way to fully understand the story is by watching it on screen with "Inside Out" but the movie itself is really a nice little surprise and unexpected because when you think you're about to watch the movie you paid to see you get a special bonus. The animation in this short is really amazing and superb as Pixar once again show case their animated talents and they really did a wonderful job as everything from the design of the volcano to the ocean is very well done and shows just amazing animation can be done if you do it right. The Song they sing in the movie to tell the story is quite surprising how they created such a interesting song for the short Overall Lava is a nice surprise and really smart of Disney/Pixar part to have play with "Inside Out" like a few say it's reason enough to go watch "Inside out".I give Lava an 9 out of 10