Short But Sweet

Pixar is awesome, it's indisputable. Now they're a powerhouse animation company, cranking out huge, polished, feature films nearly every year. However, Pixar wasn't always the giant it is today. In fact, it started out relatively simple, with short animation films. Pixar has dozens of short films, mostly played before one of their films start. But Pixar hasn't always had large productions, they had to start small. Though their first projects were much smaller in scale than what they have been able to achieve today, the shorts are impressive nonetheless.

In class we watched the short "Luxo Jr.", which was completed by Pixar in 1986. The film is simple; a story of mother and child or father and child, but represented by desk lamps. This seems to be where Pixar got that little bouncy lamp that they use in their logo. Maybe not the most impressive by today's standards, but revolutionary when it was released.

We also watched "Tin Toy", or as I like think of it, the short with the world's most terrifying baby ever. The little tin toy was animated nicely, and really resembled the actions of a toy. However, the baby in that film looks like an evil, plastic Benjamin Button.

Another short we watched was "Kick Knack", the one about the snowman who wants so badly to escape from his snow globe, but keeps failing when he attempts to get out. It's such a fun short, and you really do feel sorry for the little guy. This was one of the earliest snow particle animations too, which is pretty cool. I love how they test out their new technologies in the short films they make.

By 1998, Pixar had released their first feature film, "Toy Story", and it was time for their next feature, "Bugs Life". Accompanying "Bugs Life" in theaters was their 1997 short, "Geri's Game". I believe this was the first Pixar short I ever watched, and "Bugs Life" was likely the first movie I ever saw in theaters. Since watching Geri play chess with himself for the first time back when I was two years old, I think "Geri's Game" still remains as my favorite Pixar short.

We also watched some of the more recent short films like "For the Birds", which experimented with feathers and fur before they went on to make "Monsters, Inc."; and the teaser for "The Incredibles" which was to get people anticipating that next film.

Pixar has done an outstanding job creating fun and meaningful stories through their animations. They've come a long way since their earliest shorts, but it's great to watch the older works too, because you can still see the quality of their productions in the earlier years.