Pixar Review 2: Luxo Jr.

Next up is the most well known Pixar short that introduces us to a certain desk lamp that appears on every Pixar production nowadays. Yes. I'm talking about 1986's Luxo Jr. (TV-G). This is the first short to be produced under the current Pixar name. This short involves Luxo Sr. and Luxo Jr. passing a yellow ball with a blue stripe and a red star, usually seen as a cameo in other Pixar films, and has appeared outside of Pixar; Tommy Pickles from Rugrats has a ball with that pattern, but in different colors.

But I digress. Luxo Jr. starts bouncing on the ball, and it pops. The little lamp feels dim (ba-dum-tss!) , until he finds a bigger beach ball and plays with that! The big lamp shakes his head in shock.

This short has some extremely impressive animation for 1986, that still holds up even to this day. I like the use of the dark room and the wooden desk, as well as the lamp cord realistically looping up and down as Luxo Jr. hops. It's some great attention to detail and great use of the characters as lighting. I also love the jazzy piano tune in the background.

Overall, I'd give it a 10/10.