Storks (Partly Cloudy)

The Storks are characters featured in the 2009 Disney/Pixar animated short Partly Cloudy.
==Background==
Most of the storks in Partly Cloudy resemble typical white storks in real life. Each stork has a yellow beak, a pair of yellow legs, a plumage of white feathers, and black feathers located at their wingtips. Most of the time, storks would deliver babies given by clouds, making them their best friends (in reference to the myths of real-life storks delivering babies to parents). Whenever a cloud gives a baby for a stork to deliver to their parents, they are capable of carrying bags not as heavy as their size to deliver to their parents such as having a baby themself in a bag or one light prop a cloud places onto the bag where a baby is placed (like when a female cloud named "Claudia" wraps up a baby boy and a football into the bag for the stork to carry). Storks would only carry babies they prefer if any cloud makes it suitable for them to carry; for example, when a cloud gives a football helmet to a baby boy, the stork would ask the cloud to avoid giving them an unnecessary object, so he decides to just let the cloud get the football and baby ready for him.
Most storks can handle delivering babies considered gentle and docile towards them such as human boys and girls, kittens, puppies, or chicks, making them comfortable and easy for them to deliver. Storks that receive dangerous animals from some types of clouds make it difficult for them to deliver, such as crocodiles, bighorn sheep, porcupines, sharks, or electric eels. Whenever a stork has trouble handling baby animals, they are also capable of asking a nearby cloud for help, like when Peck asked Claudia to give him a football helmet and pad to protect him from further injuries from the baby animals that Gus gives him.
In spite of this, storks are also capable of asking other clouds to give them protection in case they are having a hard time delivering dangerous baby animals to their parents like the case of Gus giving Peck dangerous animals for him to deliver.
===Development===
The idea of creating the stork characters was inspired by Peter Sohn remembering the "Look Out for Mr. Stork" sequence from the opening of the 1941 film Dumbo. However, Sohn forgot about this idea until years later when he was working at Pixar to pitch in an idea of creating a story about storks getting babies from clouds, so he pitched the idea to John Lasseter and the other directors at Pixar. When Sohn pitched in the idea, the creative team became astonished with the concept - albeit without a story at the moment. Sohn later decided that the characters that would appear in Partly Cloudy were storks, clouds, and the babies the storks receive from the clouds.
==Role in the short==
A flock of storks is first seen flying in the sky carrying delivery bags. Some of them deliver a human baby boy to his mother, two kittens to another person's house, two puppies to a dog. The storks then fly to the sky to approach the clouds (each one landing on their own cloud) who give them more babies for them to deliver such as kittens, puppies, human boys and girls. One stork became awed by a cloud giving a puppy a bone, which he finds it comfortable while another stork approaches a female cloud named "Claudia" giving a baby boy a football. Just as she puts a football helmet on the boy, the stork denies, telling her that it's too big for him to carry, just before the cloud packs the football and the baby for the stork to deliver to his parents. Suddenly, as the storks continue their duty in bringing babies to their parents, a lone stork named "Peck" approaches a singular dark cloud named "Gus", who gives him a baby crocodile, where he manages to deliver the crocodile to its parents, despite the crocodile being dangerous for him to carry.
After Gus gives Peck a baby bighorn sheep that keeps headbutting him, he stares at Claudia who is giving a puppy for another stork to deliver, which it licks him just before Peck decides to deliver the bighorn sheep to his parents. Later when Gus shows Peck a baby shark he is about to create, he sees another stork playing "Follow the leader" with a bunch of baby chicks while Claudia happily observes them playing with him. Peck sheepishly decides not to ask Gus and instead gets help from Claudia, which he was seeing earlier. This, however, only made Gus upset, discarding the incomplete shark, as he begins to emit thunderstorms in anger. Feeling lonely that Peck deserted him, Gus begins to cry while raining. Back with Peck, Claudia gives him a football helmet and a football pad to protect him from dangerous babies. He later returns to Gus who is happy to see him back while storks continue flying in the background delivering babies to their respective parents, only for the eel that Gus created to continue electrocuting Peck.
==Trivia==
*A flock of storks from Partly Cloudy can be seen flying in the background Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 2 when the viewer selects "Bonus Features" on the Blu-ray/DVD of said compilation.
==References==
Category:Storks
Category:Pixar characters
Category:Animated characters
Category:Anthropomorphic characters
Category:Males
Category:Adults
Category:Silent characters
Category:Characters who fly