User:LancedSoul/sandbox/Pixar short movies

'NOTE: These sandbox about short films are not ready to create, until when I created Lightyear in June 2022, it is ready, starting with Geri's Game''. Also, do NOT import the page without my permission!'''

=Red's Dream (Completed; set to be created in July 2024) =

Red's Dream is a 1987 American computer-animated short film produced by Pixar and directed by John Lasseter. The short film, which runs four minutes, stars Red, a unicycle. Propped up in the corner of a bicycle store on a rainy night, Red dreams of a fantasy where it becomes the star of a circus. Red's Dream was Pixar's second computer-animated short following Luxo Jr. in 1986, also directed by Lasseter.

The short premiered at the annual SIGGRAPH conference in Anaheim on July 10, 1987, and received general enthusiasm from its attendants.

Plot
Red, an unwanted unicycle, left to rot in the corner of a bike-shop sale, imagines a life of circus stardom dream during the raining nighttime.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The idea of the unicycle dreams of a fantasy where it becomes the star of a circus is original concept.
 * 2) Good computer-animation, especially the time it was for Pixar and 1980s standards, even if its rather dated for recent days.
 * 3) The ending of "Red's Dream." There's a reason John Lasseter called it "Pixar's Blue Period." The moment with the unicycle just sitting in the shop waiting for someone to buy him really sells it.
 * 4) Similar to Pixar short films, the short movie features no dialogue nor voice acting, except the one when the crowd at the circus used the cheers and applause sound effects.
 * 5) Amazing score by David Slusser as it sounds really like jazz, yet it sounds like up-tempo circus when Red is dreaming about the circus of clowns.
 * 6) The fact that Red tried to assist the clown with his juggling act, which eventually led to the hilarious consequence of the clown not realising he was sitting on Red and falling to the ground.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The animation, while good, can look rather dated nowadays.
 * 2) The background in the dream sequence is dark and the clown is just as creepy-looking as the baby in Tin-Toy but at least Red and the juggling balls are brightly coloured.

Videos
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Trivia

 * Red's Dream was never attached to any later Pixar feature, unlike many other early Pixar shorts.

Plot
An elderly man named Geri plays a game of chess in the park against himself. He starts off playing as white, but then hoists himself up, and lumbers over to play as the black opponent. He quickly dominates the game as the black side, although he is his own opponent.

Why Geri Wins the Game

 * 1) It was the first Pixar theatrical short films that became part of a Pixar tradition of pairing shorts with feature films that started on the overall high note.
 * 2) The short film is scored to some lovely French accordion music by Gus Viseur.
 * 3) Very awesome animation. While some other Pixar shorts have dated animation nowadays, the animation in this short aged well.
 * 4) The idea of an elderly man plays a game of chess in the empty park against himself is very amazing and original for Pixar standards.
 * 5) Bob Peterson does a fantastic job as Geri, where his voice sounds like elder man instead of the adult man, despite that there are no dialogue, as Pixar short films have no dialogue.
 * 6) The way that Geri with glasses beams at Geri without glasses after winning the chess game is very funny.
 * 7) *How he won deserves mention: after being left with only his king, and being one move away from losing, he fakes a heart attack and, when Normal Geri looks down to check on him, he flips the board around. And, shockingly, Normal Geri doesn't notice.
 * 8) **There's also the fact that Normal Geri was confused that this happened, even going so far as to check his own heart/pulse. That's right, Geri got so wrapped up in his game that he thought he actually had a heart attack.
 * 9) *And what is the point of getting so into the game? A set of false teeth, and he won the chess game.
 * 10) Awesome short film plot, as Geri tries to win the board game of chess in order to defeat the opponent himself and get the false teeth back.

Trivia

 * Geri later made a cameo appearance in Toy Story 2 as "The Cleaner", here voiced by Jonathan Harris instead of Bob Peterson. His character model is also different.
 * Geri was loosely based on Jan Pinkava's grandfather, himself a keen chess player.

Plot
On a clear, bright morning, a tiny bird lands on a telephone wire to rest. After a while, another bird joins it, and before long, a noisy flock of irritable feathered creatures perch on the thin, long wire. Then, a friendly but graceless bird decides to join the crowd, only to find himself taunted by the territorial, ill-tempered birds. But pretty soon, they will all learn the hard way that sharing is everything.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The idea of the story about the big bird tried join them and share their roosting spot a group of small snooty birds is original for the short film.
 * 2) Awesome soundtrack by Riders In The Sky. "Big Wire Hop" by Riders In The Sky (of Woody's Roundup fame in Toy Story 2), which serves as the short's score.
 * 3) The plot is excellent, even for the Pixar short film, as a tiny bird lands on a telephone wire to rest and a noisy flock of irritable feathered creatures perch on the thin, long wire, only to find friendly but graceless bird taunted by the territorial, ill-tempered birds.
 * 4) Big Bird is very likable and reliable character. He tries to become friends and hang out of small group bird birds on the telephone wire.
 * 5) Excellent animation that still holds up nowadays, even for 2000s and Pixar standards, like Geri's Game.
 * 6) The ending is satisfying where a group of small snooty birds (including Bully, Chipper, Snob and Neurotic) get comeuppance when the Big Bird flung the small birds away into the sky for wire, who are now featherless and naked.

Videos
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Trivia

 * The title of the short For the Birds is referencing to the idiom of the same name. Meaning the birds being worthless, undesirable, crazy and ridiculous.
 * The small birds on the power line make a cameo appearance in the movie Cars during the Life is a Highway scene. Unlike many of the other "animals" in the films, the birds aren't car-ified.
 * At the end of the short, the words "the end" appear to be written on what appears to be bird feces splattered onto a black background. Ironically, bird excrement is actually white, not brown.
 * The background is actually just painted.
 * The last film to come from Pixar's Point Richmond studio before the company moved.
 * According to Pixar's website, the first four birds actually have names and individual characteristics. From left to right they are: Chipper, Bully, Snob and Neurotic. Look closely and you'll see them act out their personalities.
 * This short originally started off as an idea for a student film by Ralph Eggleston but was never made because it would have taken forever to draw all of the birds.
 * The Big Bird resembles either a shoebill or a hammerkop, while Bully and his flock appear to be some sort of waxbill (even having the same squeaks).
 * This is Pixar's first attempt at animating both feathers and moving backgrounds.
 * The birds from this short have been reused as brief cameos in Inside Out.

Plot
Not too long ago, there was a sheep who proudly danced in his lush wool until he had his first sheering which left him humiliated. However, in his despair, a jackalope passes by and shows the forlornly shorn sheep he can still dance even his present state to maintain his own sense of self worth during difficult times.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) This is the first Pixar short film to feature dialogue for characters, like the narrator and voice permission, especially since many Pixar short movies to feature no dialogue for characters.
 * 2) Amazing directing, written, voice acting, and score by Bud Luckey, the first and the only time to directed and composed.
 * 3) A delightful message for younger viewers to adhere to, with a variety of musically tuned animals to enhance the accessible entertainment.
 * 4) Very smooth animation, especially the time it was from Pixar and 2000s standards, with a nice attention to detail for the environment, such as tumbleweeds blowing in the distance.

Bad Quality

 * 1) The part where the animals laughed at the sheep after losing the fur is a bit mean-spirited. But thankfully they redeemed themselves.
 * 2) The musical narration, whilst doing its best impersonation of Johnny Cash, was unfortunately forgettable and lost the buoyancy of its message.

Plot
It's nighttime; crickets chirp outside an isolated farmhouse. A bright light from a spacecraft shines through a bedroom window and lifts a sleeping man. However, the light and the small alien controlling it from the ship are unable to pull the man through the window: first it's the glass that impedes them. The alien frets; its supervisor - large, laconic, and green - watches. As the human keeps sleeping, the alien's tries every lever. Just as it looks as if the alien abduction will succeed, something goes wrong. The supervisor steps in.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The idea of the short movie about the small alien unable to lift the sleeping farmer man is interesting.

Bad Quality

 * 1) Downer Ending: Ernie has fallen into the crater.

Trivia

 * When in the spaceship, as Stu is abducting Ernie and fails, the fail sound which the hologram uses was the macOS "Hero" alert sound.
 * According to a commentary by Gary Rydstrom, the timing it takes Ernie to fall when the beam was turned off was the same timing it takes Wile E Coyote to fall in a Road-Runner & Wile E Coyote cartoon.

Plot
The talented magician Presto DiGiotagione, famous for his indecipherable tricks, and his furry assistant, the rabbit Alec Azam, is an unforgettable duo in the show business. However, one night, when the stage's front curtain opens without feeding Alec his juicy and tasty carrot, let's just say that the show won't exactly run like clockwork.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The short film pays homage to classic cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes, as well as the work of Tex Avery.

Plot
Babies both human and beast are created up in the stratosphere, by the clouds themselves. One cloud specializes in "dangerous" babies, creating a challenge for his loyal stork that has to deliver them.

Trivia

 * This is the second Pixar short film to feature 5 minutes, after Presto.
 * Peter Sohn would later directed The Good Dinosaur and Elemental as the feature films.

Plot
Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at the beginning but soon discover each other's unique qualities.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Easily one of Pixar's best-looking shorts, especially since it's basically three films in one: a 2D film of two characters acting in a black void and two computer animated films existing inside the 2D characters, one of daytime scenes and one of nighttime scenes, like unmoving plaid. Simply put, there's literally no way to dictate what it looks like. You have to see it to understand it.
 * 2) The idea of the short story of the two main characters for daytime and nighttime for each one-in-half is very creative and original, even for Pixar standards.
 * 3) Awesome ending. After listening to Dr. Wayne Dyer's speech on how the unknown can be mysterious and beautiful, Day and Night smile at each other and hug. They then realize that they match perfectly (showing sunrise and sunset) before turning into the other — Day becomes Night and Night becomes Day. They celebrate, naturally, by dancing together and sharing the joys of both night and day.
 * 4) The scene just before, where they accidentally find a radio station talking about unfair prejudice towards something that is new and different, and the two realizing that's exactly what they were doing before is stunning.

Plot
A fable of a young boy who is coming of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very first time his Papa and Grandpa are taking him to work. In an old wooden boat, thats called "la luna", they row far out to sea, and with no land in sight, they stop and wait. A big surprise awaits the little boy as he discovers his family's most unusual line of work. Should he follow the example of his Papa, or his Grandpa? Will he be able to find his own way in the midst of their conflicting opinions and timeworn traditions?

Trivia

 * Enrico Casarosa would later directed Luca as the feature film.

Plot
It is just another evening commute until the rain starts to fall, and the city comes alive such as street signs, lights, awnings, mailboxes, buildings, houses, drains, drain pipes, rain gutters, doors, and windows. And in the midst, two umbrellas — one blue, one red — fall eternally in love.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) To start with, the animation. Wow, it is super ultra photorealistic shading, lighting, and compositing to the point where it looks so real that you would swear it is a blend of live action and animation. But it is not, and that’s part of its beauty.

Trivia

 * Unseld indicated the inspiration for the first character seen in the short, was found not far from where he lives, at an intersection on Bush St., in San Francisco.
 * A picture of a yellow six-wheeled sports car, seen in Monsters University in the basement of the Oozma Kappa fraternity house, is featured on a billboard. Oddly enough, this short was released in front of Monsters University.
 * The intersecting streets where the action takes place are called Park Ave. and Hollis, the names of the streets at the intersection of which Pixar Animation Studios is located.

Plot
In the Pacific Ocean, amid the beauty of tropical islands and the allure of ocean volcanoes, a million-year love story plays out as a lonely volcano hopes to find a mate by singing to the water.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It is the Pixar's first short film to feature lyrics from the musical song.

Trivia

 * The names of Uku and Lele are an obvious pun on "ukulele". Kuana Torres Kahale noted "Uku" means "head lice" in Hawaiian Pidgin, and joked he hopes no one starts calling him "Uku" after the short is released, as "it would be kind of shame."

Plot
Sanjay, a young boy, is watching his favourite cartoon show, the Super Team, while his father is preparing for the daily meditation. Undoubtedly, this is the day's most important activity, nevertheless, the boy has no interest in joining his father. But does Sanjay know that, sometimes, cunning and skilled adversaries can be hiding in the most unusual of places?

Plot
A little sandpiper—specifically, a sanderling—is nestled in its mother's nest on a beach. The mother sandpiper urges the little chick out of the nest and teaches it to forage for clams, an experience that turns bad when the inexperienced chick is pummeled by a wave. The chick quakes with fear at going out on the beach again, until some helpful crabs show it a trick.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Piper features photorealistic backgrounds and setpieces as in The Good Dinosaur with beautiful photorealistic animals, unlike the computer-animated dinosaurs.
 * 2) Combined with the calm and relaxing atmosphere and setting plus the adorable main character, it's next to impossible to watch this short without feeling all warm and fuzzy inside by the end.
 * 3) The idea of the story involves a hungry baby sandpiper learning to overcome her fear of water is original and creative.
 * 4) Super awesome short film plot, as Piper must survive the water on a beach for her fear when some helpful crabs show it a trick.
 * 5) Amazing and wonderful soundtrack provided by musician singer-songwriter Adrian Belew.
 * 6) The animation quality in this short is breathtaking: sea foam, delicate little feathers, curling wave-crests, and sand flats are so detailed and beautifully-animated that it's hard to tell it is animation.

Reception
Piper received universal acclaimed, who found it adorable and beautiful and is considered the best short film.

Trivia

 * Alan Barillaro used new, cutting edge technology to create Piper over three years. In order to give the sandpipers and other birds visible in the background a realistic look, Barillaro and the short animation team visited beaches in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as the Monterey Bay Aquarium to study their appearance and behavior. The sandpipers' feathers in particular were rendered in minute detail.

Plot
Lou is a red hoodie-covered creature with eyes of baseballs and buttons grinning mischievously from inside a school’s Lost & Found bin. Reminiscent of Sid from the Toy Story series, J.J. is a bully who takes his classmates’ stuff and destroys their beloved toys. Lou decides to teach this bully a lesson with some carefully crafted hijinks.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It gives us J.J.'s Freudian Excuse: a bully had stolen his favorite plush toy when he was younger. One can only wonder how much time has passed since that toy was taken. Luckily, it turns out Lou was holding onto that toy until he found its owner.