Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1 DVD Review

Walt Disney Pictures still proudly stamps its name on Pixar as often as possible, and for justifiable reasons. If it weren’t for the creative computer animation team in Northern California Disney would certainly have lost the title it has held in the animation world for so very long. Pixar seemed from the beginning to understand what everyone had forgotten in animation. Perhaps it was the forced restrictions of three dimensional computer animation that really did it, but Pixar learned to simplify. The short films begin with very simple ideas, and even as the animation had progressed to allow far more freedom, they stuck with the same theme for each of the shorts. They each oozing with human life and expression, regardless of whether the film is focuses on a lamp, bird, or a human.

Watching these films together is fascinating, both in the way that the animation progresses over time and with experience, but also because of the amazing versatility and creativity in the chosen subjects. From the signature expressive lamps in Luxo Jr. to the amazingly melancholy Red’s Dream in which a lonely unicycle dreams he is used by a clown to perform one rainy evening in a bike shop, Pixar never ceases to see things from a unique angle. In Tin Toy we witness an innocent baby’s play patterns from the views of one of the unfortunate toys and a snowman in a snow-globe desperate to escape and these are all leading up to Toy Story. The later shorts are just as creative, but still don’t overcomplicate the stories too much.

The set includes the first thirteen shorts from Pixar, including the ones in the beginning created with the help of George Lucas’s computer technology. The films start as early as 1984 and with the very last one being the short Lifted, most recently created. There is a certainty with the way this is titled Volume One of the Pixar Short Collection, assuring us that there will be more, and frankly I am overjoyed by the thought of another thirteen.

The collection can also be watched with commentary from the filmmakers, and the result is basically a brief history of the Pixar studios as well as a detailed description of how the rudimentary animation was creatively used to be groundbreaking in animation. There is also a commentary track on one of the shorts by the kids of the filmmakers. It is cute, but ultimately useless in comparison to the extremely informative commentaries on the others. Other bonus features include an actual history of the Pixar short films, which is even more detailed and passionate than the commentaries. There are also a few clips from Sesame Street which featured Luxo Jr.