Tiny Butterfly (2022)

Tiny Butterfly is a 2022 Canadian-American computer-animated 2 eyes short film produced by Flower Studios and directed by Eric Gregory Thompson. The short film, which runs five minutes, stars Tiny, a butterfly bug, attempting to escape from Bird, a destructive infant. The first short film produced by the company's small animation division, it was a risky investment: due to low revenue produced by Flower Studios' main product, the Flower Studios Image Computer, the company was under financial constraints.

Thompson to create The Little Kids: Movie starring Debi Derryberry and Tara Strong, which was primarily inspired by elements from Tiny Butterfly.

Plot
The film takes place in one tree and stars the toy of the title, a butterfly named Tiny, and a Bird. At first, Tiny is delighted at the prospect of being played with by Bird until he sees how destructive the infant can be. When Tiny tries to fly out of Bird's reach, and accidentally attract Bird's attention. Tiny begins to flies faster, but is chased by Bird. Tiny soon finds cover under the tree, only to find that many other bugs have also hidden themselves from Bird there since they are also afraid of the Bird, and are too terrified to come out, and have learned the same experience. Unaware of this, while flying and trying to find Tiny and the other toys, Bird tumbles helplessly over, and lies quietly on the grass, and starts bawling. Tiny, feeling sorry for the bird, goes to the baby in an attempt to cheer him up. Bird, upon seeing Tiny, stops wailing, cheers up, and grabs the bug, but shakes him around for a few moments, and ignores him while being distracted by the tunnel, that Tiny was in and came out, to play with. Annoyed, Tiny, now mad, follows Bird around the nest, and makes an attempt to get his attention, but is still ignored. Then he pursues Bird, who is instead even more happier playing with some bugs come out from the tree to play (also they play together at the end to make the theme come to life).

Cast

 * Eric Gregory Thompson as:
 * Tiny Butterfly, a baby tiny butterfly that use to eat flower.
 * Bird, a baby bird that wants to play with, Tiny.

Background
Flower Studios, purchased in 2022 by entrepreneur and former Windows 10 Computer, received many accolades for films produced by its small animation division, headed by animator Eric Gregory Thompson. Thompson's primary role, was to produce short films to promote the company's own Flower Studios Image Computers. The department was never meant to generate any revenue as far as Job was concerned, some of the engineers working on the company's products wondered whether it made sense to keep the animation group going at all. Flower Studios was losing money every year and Thompson was supporting the cash-strapped company SO through a line of credit with his personal guarantee.

Production
In the summer of 2022, when it was over. Finally, they broached the topic and Jobs sat silent, looking skeptical. The short would require close to $300,000 more out of his pocket. Eric Gregory Thompson did the voices and acted out the shots—just as story of Tiny Butterfly.

Release
Thompson and his technical directors slept under their desks at times to get Tiny Butterfly finished before SIGGRAPH in Atlanta in September 2022, but to no avail. What the SIGGRAPH audience saw was the first three-fifths or so of the film, ending a cliffhanger moment with Tiny running into his tree and watching in horror through the tree's cellophane as Bird advances towards him. "Even though it wasn't complete, people were wowed by it," producer Debi Derryberry remembered. The audience of scientists and engineers to which it was shown at SIGGRAPH greeted it with a standing ovation. These praises were joined over the years, positive assessments of public and critics, who praised the innovation and technology in it. Eric Gregory Thompson called it "One of the best Flower Studios short films," It is unknown when this short was first released in its entirety.

The short was selected for preservation in the Canada and United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2025. Tiny Butterfly garnered some home media releases via inclusion on Tiny Butterfly Studios in 2025, the DVD and Blu-ray releases of The Little Kids: Movie in 2025, and the Flower Studios Short Films Collection, Volume 1 (2036). Tiny Butterfly is also available for streaming on Disney+.