Red's Dream (1987)

Director:

John Lasseter

Writer:

John Lasseter

Genre:

Animation | Short | Family

Plot:

With a sale tag hanging from his seat, propped up in the corner of a bicycle store on a rainy night, Red the unicycle dreams about a better place.

Plot Keywords:

Unicycle | Juggling | Anthropomorphism | Clown | CGI Animation

Directed by
John Lasseter

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
John Lasseter

Original Music by
David Slusser

Sound Department
Gary Rydstrom	....	sound

Visual Effects by
Don Conway	....	laser scanning
Eben Ostby	....	modeling and animation software
William Reeves	....	modeling and animation software

Animation Department
John Lasseter	....	animator

Editorial Department
Craig Good	....	post-production coordinator

Music Department
Forrest Patten	....	musical research

Other crew
Anthony A. Apodaca	....	chapreyes
Bill Carson	....	computer supporter
Susan Anderson Catmull	....	production coordinator
Robert L. Cook	....	reyes/miracle tilt
David Fong	....	computer supporter
Ralph Guggenheim	....	production coordinator
Charlie Gunn	....	chapreyes
Eben Ostby	....	technical director
William Reeves	....	technical director
H.B. Siegel	....	technical director

Production Companies

• Pixar Animation Studios

Distributors

• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (2007) (Finland) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (2007) (worldwide) (DVD)
• Walt Disney Home Entertainment (2007) (worldwide) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Kaleidosound  music research
• Sprocket Systems  sound recording

Also Known As:

Runtime:

4 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-7

Company:

Pixar Animation Studios

Trivia:

When you first see inside the shop, opposite to the bikes there is from Bill Reeves and Alain Fournier's 1986 animation test, "Flags and Waves".

Movie Connections:

Featured in Toy Story 2 (1999)

Look at the context before you decide what you think of this one.

I gotta admit that if you watch this film today and don't understand the context for it, then you will most likely not be particularly impressed. It's such a very simple animated short and one that seems amazingly ordinary--something you could easily make today given the right rendering software and a home computer. However, think back to 1987. People rarely had home computers and those who did had systems with 8086 or 8088 processors--not much more power than a modern calculator (less in some cases). There were often no hard drives--those that did exist were minuscule. Macintosh computers were relatively new and very simple and Windows was still a vague idea, as IBM compatible computers used primitive versions of DOS as the operating systems. And, most importantly, most games were either text only or had very, very rudimentary graphics. In this context, RED'S DREAM is absolutely amazing and breathtaking. The Pixar folks were not yet a big company but just a few individuals doing work on huge computers and they had to design all the software themselves!! And, in spite of all this, the graphics were lovely and the story of a lonely unicycle quite watchable--even though it was really more an experimental film than anything else. Put in this light, my score of 8 seems amazingly low, but I must admit that in an age when we expect so much more, this isn't the most exciting CG animation I've seen. Still, it's a great film.