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User:Wack'd/Pixar shorts

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The Adventures of André and Wally B.

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The Adventures of André and Wally B. is an animated short made in 1984 by Lucasfilm. Although it is technically not a Pixar short, it was made by John Lasseter, who has worked on nearly all of Pixar's feature films.

The animation on the feature was truly groundbreaking at the time, but is laughed at today[citation needed]. John Lassester was pushing the envelope by asking for an easily manipulatable teardrop shape, as the animation was restricted to geometric shapes.

Plot

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It involves a person called André being woken up in a forest by a peskey bee named Wally B.. When André points a different direction, the bee looks away and André get's his chance to run away.

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Luxo Jr.

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Luxo Jr. is the first film produced in 1986 by Pixar following its establishment as an independent film studio. It is a computer-animated short film (two and a half minutes, including credits), demonstrating the kind of things the newly-established company was capable of producing. It is the source of the small desk lamp (offically named "Luxo Jr.", according to the official site) included in Pixar's corporate logo.

It features two desk lamps (inspired by a LUXO brand task-light, hence the title), one larger (implicitly older, named Luxo) than the other. Luxo Jr. plays with a small rubber ball, as Luxo reacts to its antics. On the technical level, it demonstrates the use of ray tracing to simulate the shifting light and shadow given by the animated lamps, simple surface textures, coordinated articulation of "limbs", and power cords that trail believably behind the moving lamps. On the cinematic level, it demonstrates a simple and entertaining story, including effectively expressive individual characters.

In 1986, Luxo Jr. received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film. It was the first CGI film nominated for an Academy Award.

Notice - when Luxo Jr. hops on top of the rubber ball, he squishes it down so that it's no longer visible beneath him, then shifts its "head" towards the audiance. In the Pixar logo, he does the same to the letter "I" in the word PIXAR.

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Red's Dream

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Red's Dream is the second short film produced by Pixar Animation Studios in 1987. It was directed by now-Executive Producer John Lasseter

Plot

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This short has to deal with a small red unicycle (hence the name, Red) who languishes in a bike shop, unsold. He dreams that he is being used by a circus clown on the tight-rope, and other classic tricks.

Trivia

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The ball that Red balanced on is the same ball that Luxo and Luxo Jr. play with. This was so the animators didn't have to create and render a different ball.

Tin Toy

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Tin Toy is a 1988 Pixar Animation Studios film using computer animation. It was directed by John Lasseter and won the 1989 Academy Award for Animated Short Film.

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The film takes place in one room and stars the toy of the title, a one-foot high mechanical one-man band, and a baby - the first time a realistic human character had been attempted in a computer-animated film.

At first the toy is delighted at the prospect of being played with by the baby, until he sees how destructive the baby can be. Fleeing beneath the couch, he discovers dozens of other toys who are too terrified to come out. But then the baby falls over and starts crying, and the tin toy decides he has to help no matter what. His antics succeed in cheering the baby up, to the point where the baby picks him up and shakes him violently before throwing him away. Once the toy has recovered from this ordeal he is annoyed to see that the baby has forgotten about him and is now playing with the cardboard box he came out of.

In 2003, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

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Knick Knack

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Knick Knack is a Pixar "short". Two versions of this Pixar "short" exist; the original 1989 release version and the somewhat milder one included on the Finding Nemo DVD. The second one features much less busty female characters. Directed, Produced and Written by John Lasseter.

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Geri's Game

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Geri's Game is a 4 minute long 1997 animated short film made by Pixar. It was written and directed by Jan Pinkava. The film won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

The film is set in an empty park during autumn; the title character, Geri (voiced by Bob Peterson), plays a game of chess against himself (taking his glasses on and off as he plays himself).

Pixar produced the film with the goal of exploring improved techniques in the rendering of humans and clothing, including the use of subdivision surfaces.

Geri later appeared in Toy Story 2 as the toy cleaner.

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For the Birds

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For the Birds is an animated short film, created by Pixar Animation Studios in the year 2000. It won the Academy Award for best animated short in the 74th Academy Awards. The movie is a story about a group of small birds sitting on a telephone line when a whimsical larger bird pays a visit.

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Mike's New Car (Based on the characters from Monsters, Inc.)

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Mike's New Car is a 2002 Pixar-animated short based on the two main characters from Monsters Inc.. Mike gets a new six-wheel drive [car], and shows it off to Sulley. When things start to go terribly wrong, the duo deciede to stick to walking to work for the time being.

Boundin'

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Boundin' is a Oscar-nominated short film that is shown at the start of the Disney-Pixar film 'The Incredibles'. It features a sheep whose elegant dancing is very popular with the other animals but who is shorn every year becoming naked and shy and prevented from dancing so elegantly. It is whilst in such a bare state that a jackalope comes across the little lamb and teaches him the merits of "bounding" rather than dancing. The sheep is converted and its popularity is restored.

You cannot talk about Boundin' without mentioning writer-director Bud Luckey. Luckey designed and voices all the characters, composed the music and wrote the story. According to the Director's Commentary for The Incredibles, Brad Bird wanted to introduce the animated short by having Rick Dicker (voiced by Bud Luckey) enter a room, sit down, and pull out his banjo.

Boundin' was released on The Incredibles' 2-disc DVD collection release on the second disc, including commentary from Bud Luckey and the short clip titled 'Who is Bud Luckey?'.

References

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Like many Pixar films, Boundin' contains a number of elements from other films. The following are mentioned in the commentary track on the Incredibles DVD:

  • The Ford Model T that carries the sheep shearers is a model from the forthcoming Cars.
  • The hand of the sheep shearer is that of the dentist (P. Sherman) from Finding Nemo.
  • The fish in the pond are also models used in Finding Nemo.
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Jack-Jack Attack (Based on the characters and situations from The Incredibles)

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Jack-Jack Attack is a 2005 short produced by Pixar based upon their film The Incredibles. Unlike many of their previous shorts, it was not given a theatrical release, but was included on the DVD release of the film. It is in fact a deleted scene of the movie The Incredibles, which has been expanded into a short.

Plot

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The movie is based on the youngest member of the superhero Parr family, the baby Jack-Jack.

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In the beginning, Kari is explaining to Rick Dicker (from the Superhero Relocation Agency) about her experience with Jack-Jack while the rest of the family is out saving Mr. Incredible. The rest of the movie is basically acting out what Kari was telling to Mr. Dicker.

Throughout the course of The Incredibles everyone assumes that Jack-Jack is powerless; that is, not a "super." His mother and father are Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible. His sister, Violet, can generate force fields and become invisible (like the Invisible Woman). His brother, Dash, can run at incredible speeds (like The Flash). But so far, Jack-Jack seems like a normal non-super baby.

This all changes when the babysitter, Kari, starts watching Jack-Jack. The course of the movie overlaps in time with part of the plot of The Incredibles. It covers from about the time when Kari starts watching Jack-Jack to the arrival of Syndrome at the Parr household, when he attempts to kidnap Jack-Jack.

From The Incredibles, we know that Kari started experiencing difficulty with Jack-Jack shortly after hanging up the phone with his mother, Helen Parr. This short explores what exactly transpired between Kari and Jack-Jack while she watched him.

After Kari hangs up the phone with his mother, Jack-Jack starts demonstrating his heretofore latent super abilities. While he exercises his abilities, he runs Kari ragged. He appears to be not so much malicious as playful with his super abilities. Very soon, he becomes much too much for Kari to handle.

In the end, Kari's memories of the entire incident are cleared from her mind, though the viewer does not see how the memory wipe is performed.

The viewers are never directly informed how many or what kind of powers Jack-Jack possesses, but it is evident that he is more powerful than any of the other Parrs. Directly observable to the viewers are Jack-Jack's abilities to:

Two other powers are shown in one of the final scenes of the movie The Incredibles:

Jack-Jack's name and multitude of powers suggest he is/will be literally a Jack-of-all-trades.

Kari's tribulation ends when Syndrome shows up at the Parr home, claiming to be a babysitting expert—a replacement for Kari. She gratefully hands over Jack-Jack to him and leaves. The short ends with the Parr's Superhero Relocation Agent erasing the memory of Kari while she watched Jack-Jack.

Powers

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Jack-Jack's diversity of powers showcased in this short (as well as in The Incredibles feature film) resemble many other comic book characters' powers, presumably as follows:

  • Levitates (could also be considered flying): Superman (DC Comics); Jean Grey: (Marvel Comics X-Men); plus, a large number of other comic characters.
  • Teleports: Nightcrawler (Marvel Comics: X-Men)
  • Passes through walls: Kitty Pryde (Marvel Comics: X-Men); Martian Manhunter (DC Comics)
  • Bursts in to flame without getting burned: Human Torch (Marvel Comics: Fantastic Four)
  • Discharges energy from his eyes: Superman (DC Comics); Cyclops (Marvel Comics: X-Men). Note: It's most likely a Superman reference since an obvious Cyclops reference was already made in the movie with "Gazer Beam".
  • Changes to metal: Colossus (Marvel Comics: X-Men); it's been suggested that this was a reference to Marvel Comics Absorbing Man in The Incredible Hulk, but that character required tactile contact with whatever he wanted to mimic. Since Jack-Jack changed independently, it's closer to Colossus' "natural" ability. With the Absorbing Man's powers, Jack-Jack would only have been able to turn into whatever material Syndrome's gloves were made of.
  • Changes into a monster: This could simply be a "unique" ability, but some likely references could be - Gremlins (movie); Beast Boy of DC Comics; a Monsters, Inc. nod; this could even be a very subtle reference to "The Thing" of The Fantastic Four Marvel Comic book, thus completing all four representations of that group.
  • Super Strength (when he breaks out of his crib): Take your pick of any superhero, but most likely Superman; Note: It could be considered a "mistake" that Jack-Jack didn't simply teleport or phase out of the crib, but he may not have discovered he even had that power yet since this was before he phased out of his diaper. Notice how he struggled to get out at first.
  • He even appears to attempt some telekinesis when staring at his block: Jean Grey (Marvel Comics: X-Men)
  • Another possible power he displays is that of sticking to a surface (when he was on the ceiling and opened his bottle). This is probably attributed to his flying/levitating power, but if he was truly "sticking to" the ceiling, then this is similar to Spider-Man's (Marvel Comics) "wall crawling" ability.

Overall his powers seem to be on a need-to-use basis and also closely resemble genuine "powers" that most babies seem to possess: Disappearing, getting from points A to B in the blink of an eye, hard to catch, differing levels of "heaviness", quick destruction of household items, and of course they can turn into a little monster at a moment's notice.

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One Man Band

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One Man Band is a Pixar short film, to be released with Cars, on the 9 June 2006. It premiered however at the 29th Annecy Animation Festival.

It is a humorous tale of a peasant girl who, with one coin to make a wish at the piazza fountain, encounters two competing street performers who'd prefer the coin find its way their tip jars. As the two one-man bands' rivalry crescendos, the two overly eager musicians vie to win the little girl's attention.


The short is directed by Mark Andrews and produced by Osnat Shurer, head of Pixar's Shorts group.

Mater and the Ghost Light

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Released on the Cars DVD.

Lifted

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Directed by Gray Rydstrom. To be released with Ratatouille in November.

Your Friend the Rat

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To be released with Ratatouille in November.

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