Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1 DVD review
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 11.08.2007
This is where the magic of one of the greatest animation studios of all time started first . . . selling computers.
The Movie
Pixar is currently a division of Disney and is an animation studio synonymous with greatness, prestige, and an impeccable record of success. Pixar started a revolution for computer animated features in 1995 with Toy Story. And for better or worse, CG animation is one of the standards for animated features today. However, how did Pixar get their start? Pixar originated as the computer division of Lucasfilm in the 70’s and 80’s. They were responsible for the creation of the Genesis Wave CG effect in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 25 years ago.
This DVD, labeled volume 1, collects every short film Pixar has made thus far. This includes all of their shorts from the 80’s, along with the shorts shown as supplements to their feature releases as well as the ones made on DVD.
Through all these shorts you can see how the computer animation improves and develops over the course of 20+ years. And while the early shorts might not seem so impressive in comparison to what we see today, for their time they were amazing achievements.
You can watch the thirteen shorts all together or one at a time depending on your preference. Almost every short (except for Jack-Jack Attack) can be viewed with audio commentary by the filmmakers and animators, though one commentary is by the animators’ kids.
The Adventures of André & Wally B. (1984)
This is the first short animated film, before Pixar was bought by Steve Jobs. The earliest shorts Pixar made like this one were presented at computer conventions rather than for commercial purposes. This short is about a bee chasing a creature. It’s a simple little cartoon, but it’s notable for its use of computer animation in using characters. For the most part before this, computer animation was usually used for television logos or other purposes.
Luxo Jr. (1986)
This is the first official Pixar short film. This was the parent lamp and the kid lamp playing with the ball. And it was ultimately the lamp that became the permanent fixture of the Pixar studios logo in the opening credits of all their films. As I recall this short film was shown before Toy Story 2. The animation looks extremely well done and ahead of it’s time here.
Red’s Dream (1987)
This is a sad little short where a used unicycle is being sold for 50% off and dreams of being in a circus act with a clown. This short should be noted for its excellent set and production design as well as CG animated rain effects. I thought the clown design was a little ugly, but it was a cute little short film, with a bit of a depressing ending which is part of why it’s good.
Tin Toy (1988)
This is the short film that nabbed Pixar their first ever Academy Award which they would start racking up much more of later with their feature films. In case you didn’t know, most of the shorts so far have involved in-animate objects coming to life. That continues here, with toys being alive, and tin soldier toy is being chased by a baby. This is where the Pixar animators originally got the idea for Toy Story. It’s a fun short, but the baby design is very odd-looking, but granted it’s impressive for 80’s computer animated work, and it’s something they fixed out all the kinks with much later.
Knick Knack (1989)
As I recall, this short was shown before Finding Nemo in 2003. This continues the on-going theme of inanimate objects coming to life and having a story around them, as a snowman in a snow-globe tries to hang out with a tropical girl knick-knack but can’t escape his globe prison. Very humorous, and it looks a lot different than the other shorts, but it’s still a lot of fun.
Geri’s Game (1998)
You’ll note this is the first short made by Pixar in quite a while. They had been going through a transitional phase where they stopped being basically a company that makes and sells computer hardware and software to being the Pixar Animation Studio, with the ultimate goal of making CG animated feature films. After making the huge hit that was Toy Story, they debuted their second CG animated feature, A Bug’s Life, and this was the short shown before it. The story follows an elderly man playing himself at a game of chess. The editing is quite fun since it sets up that he is playing himself, and then speeds it up as though Geri is two different people. Geri would show up once again in Toy Story 2, as the toy repairman that fixes up Woody.
For The Birds (2001)
This was the short shown before Monsters’ Inc.. A group of birds sitting on a power line are annoyed by a dorky, bigger bird and pick on him, before getting their just desserts. You can start to see the difference and how nicely the animation quality has come along for Pixar over the years as they can now do different layers and effects with things like the birds’ feathers they couldn’t do before.
Mike’s New Car (2002)
So far this is the closest we’ve ever gotten to a sequel of the excellent Pixar movie, Monster’s Inc.. This features the same crew as well as cast from the movie (John Goodman and Billy Crystal retun as Sully and Mike respectively). Mike shows off his new deluxe, luxury car to Sully as they try unsuccessfully to go for a drive that involves lots of physical comedy on the part of Mike. You realize that Mike and Sully are like the animated equivalents of Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy here. Poor Mike gets tortured and has to take all the pratfalls.
Boundin’ (2004)
This was the short shown before The Incredibles about the lamb who gets depressed after getting his wool coat sheered, and then learns how to bound from a friendly jackelope. I really loved this short at the time and its country/western feel and song, as well as the theme of having to rebound from the lower points of life. The short was written and directed by Bud Luckey who also does all the vocals for this short. In addition, he also played Agent Rick Dicker in The Incredibles. So I wanted to note how Pixar does a lot of remarkable in-house casting, and that the animators besides being great animators are also exceptional voice actors.
Jack-Jack Attack (2005)
This short was made exclusively for The Incredibles DVD release. In this short we get to find out what was happening with Jack-Jack and Mari the babysitter while she was leaving all the distressed phone messages we heard near the end of the movie. We also get a better look at Jack-Jack’s omni-potent powers. The framing device for the story is Agent Dicker interrogating Mari about the incident, as well as the mind-wiping device, something that was referenced but never seen in the actual movie.
Mater And The Ghostlight (2006)
This was made for the Cars DVD release. It’s a little humorous, ghost story that Mater (Larry The Cable Guy) hears that came from a real-life ghost story told in regards to Route 66. All the cast from the movie returns here, and once again the animation and attention to detail and how far Pixar has come along is astounding, not to take away from their previous work which is astounding in itself for it’s time. But the animation continues to advance and impress so I can only imagine how much better it will continue to develop in the future.
Lifted
This is the final Pixar short film, most recently shown before Ratatouille earlier this year. I think Cars and Ratatouille are the least apart Pixar has ever managed to do with their feature films. Lifted is a personal favorite, because there’s virtually no dialogue but the characters are still hilarious and excellently done, as a young alien tries to pass a test with his instructor by trying to get a sleeping civilian out of his rural home and into their space ship.
Technical Specs.
The shorts are presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 stereo. Also included are alternate language tracks in French and Spanish. The video quality on all the shorts is excellent, no artifacts or scratches are noticeable, even on the older shorts. I’m not sure if any of them were touched up for this release. But considering all these were digital creations simply being transferred to another digital source, it wasn’t a problem of the picture or quality deteriorating over time on film.
The Extras
The Pixar Shorts: A Short History is a 23 minute featurette that documents the creation of Pixar and their first animated shorts. People such as John Lassetter, William Reeves, and Eben Otsby, who were at the forefront and were basically the pioneers of CG animation, talk about the challenges they faced and how they got the earliest shorts done. They document debuting their shorts at the computer convention, SIGGRAPH, and talked about their ultimate goal of getting into the feature animation business. There were some rough periods, since at one point, Pixar was a company trying to sell computers as well as software created to make the animation, but the shorts made no money for the company. They then became an official animation studio, and did commercial work for a while with the goal of doing a half-hour TV special and then doing an animated feature. It was then through a deal with Disney, that Toy Story was made and the revolution of CG animated features began.
Every short on this DVD has audio commentaries by the directors/writers/animators, except for Jack-Jack Attack and Mike’s New Car. Mike’s New Car does have audio commentary, but it’s by the filmmakers’ kids which is kind of cute and funny. A lot of the shorts’ directors worked on other areas under Pixar. The shorts were a way for them to get their opportunity to tell their own stories and a chance to direct their own work.
The lamps from Luxo Jr. return in educational shorts made for the Sesame Street series. There are several of these that aren’t very long but are included on this DVD. Basically the lamps teach kids up and down as well as light and heavy.
Easter Egg: Luxo Jr. Rough version
If you are on the shorts menu screen and keep pressing down on the third column, in the blank film space it will highlight a lamp icon. Select this and it will show you a rough, pre-rendered version of the Luxo Jr. short film. This has graph, wire-frame versions of the short and also the music. Just shows how the process worked back then. This is basically the rough cut of this delightful little short.
The 411: This DVD is called volume 1 because even though for a while Pixar stopped making shorts and their main focus is feature animation, they are never going to forget where they came from and what brought them to the dance which was their short film work. The volume 1 is a message that the Pixar short films will continue for many years to come I imagine. I also can’t think of any company that has the spotless track record and level of success that Pixar has managed for over a decade. While this DVD doesn’t have hours and hours of material on it, it’s a great retrospective of where Pixar has been, where they are now, and where they are going in the future.
