Luxo Jr. (1986)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

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 | Anthropomorphism | Computer Animation | Pixar Animated Film

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:

First computer-animated short nominated for an Academy Award.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Toy Story 2 (1999)

Definitely one of Pixar's greatest short animated films.

Because I am so loathe to put one over the other, I just want to say that Geri's Game, For The Birds, and Luxo Jr. are the three greatest short animated films that have come from Pixar so far. What you have here is an extremely well made film that creates live characters without the use of dialogue or facial expressions or even bodies, and all this tremendously realistic animation was done in the 80s, before computers themselves had had much of an impact on the movies, especially as compared to today!

Luxo Jr. is an absolutely ingenius creation of animation, Pixar managed to come straight out and begin their career with a flawless animation film. There is, however, also the notable exception of any humans in the film, which should be mentioned here because that is the thing that Pixar's films have had the greatest difficulty with. The baby in Tin Toy was absolutely monstrous and hideous, and even in the full length Toy Story, the human faces were never made to look quite right. The emphasis, however, was placed on the toys in the film, which was one of the many reasons that it was such a great film.

In Luxo Jr., Pixar seems to be making a simple statement about what they can do with computer animation, and they have been tremendously successful. This film is absolutely flawless as far as characterization, simplicity, amusement, and, probably most of all, the amazingly realistic sound effects that served to help bring the hopping lamps to life. This is some of the simplest stuff that can be brought to the screen and still have meaning (simple, that is, as far as content, not creation), but Pixar has managed to make this three minute film a truly memorable cinematic experience.