Luxo Jr. (1986)

Director:

John Lasseter

Writer:

John Lasseter (writer)

Genre:

Animation | Short | Family

Plot:

A larger lamp watches while a smaller, younger lamp plays exuberantly with a ball but doesn't pick up the knack of correct handling.

Plot Keywords:

Lamp | Ball | Computer Animation | Pixar Animated Film | Anthropomorphism

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins

Runtime:

2 min

Country:

USA

Language:

None

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

South Korea:All | Australia:G | Argentina:Unrated | Spain:T | USA:G | UK:U

Company:

Pixar Animation Studios

Trivia:

The ball in this short has cameo appearances in several Pixar features. In Toy Story (1995), it chases Buzz Lightyear in an Indiana Jones homage. In Up (2009), it is in the apartment where the girl plays as Carl's house floats past her window. In Monsters, Inc. (2001) it is in Boo's room.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Pixar Shorts: A Short History (2007) (V)

Transcends computer animation.

At the time of Luxo Jr., there was a lot of experimentation going on using computer animation- most of the resulting shorts seemed to be concerned with showing off the new zooming/tracking/etc technologies. (Who, interested in early computer animation, hasn't seen a plethora of shorts that involve zooming around a bunch of dolphins?)

Unlike other contemporary shorts, Pixar shorts attempted to tell a story rather than concentrate on life-like movements of animals (like the aforementioned dolphins or ostriches.) Because of the limitations of computer animation, Pixar chose to animate typically inanimate things; toys and figurines. With the aforementioned limitations, this provided Pixar with the background needed. Toys/other inanimate objects infused with life, attempting to interact with a living world.

Luxo, Jr. concerns a big (mother?) lamp learning to deal with a baby lamp, who is itself unaware of its limitations in this world. The short itself doesn't even last 60 seconds, but it creates understanding within the viewing audience for the large lamp, and an understanding that the small lamp is a child. This is an amazing feat for any cartoon, let alone one that was considered an experimental technology at the time of its release.

Pixar has release shorts since then, as well as full-length movies ("Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life"); it is still an amazing thing, though, to study Luxo, Jr., and the results thereof.