Lava

Lava will be a short film attached to the theatrical release of Inside Out. It is directed by James Ford Murphy and produced by Andrea Warren. It is described as a "musical love story taking place over millions of years that is inspired by the isolated beauty of tropical islands and the explosive allure of ocean volcanoes". The story follows the love story of two volcanoes, Uku and Lele. It features a song, "Lava", which is written by Murphy and performed by Kuana Torres Kahele and Napua Greig, who voice the two volcanoes.

Lava will be premiered in August 2014, at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival.

Production
James Ford Murphy had the inspiration for the short from Hawaii and its culture, where he had his honeymoon 20 years ago. Following this stay, he learned to play ukulele, and eventually composed the song at the basis of and featured in the short.

Murphy was interested in making a character that would also be a location. He said "I thought it would be so cool to fall in love with a place who’s also a character. I wanted to make Uku appealing and likable but also look like he’s been carved out of lava flows."

On the technical side, the short was an exploration of large scale shots, which tend to be difficult for computers to process.

Trivia

 * The names of Uku and Lele are an obvious pun on "ukulele".