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Special Features
"The Pixar Shorts: A Short History"
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Pixar's unprecedented string of hit animated features was built on the short films in this collection. John Lasseter and Ed Catmull used these cartoons the way Walt Disney used the "Silly Symphonies" during the 1930s: as a training ground for artists and a way to explore the potential of a new medium. Although it's only 90 seconds long, "Luxo, Jr." (1986) ranks as the "Steamboat Willie" of computer animation: For the first time, audiences believed CG characters could think and feel. (It was also the first CG film to make audiences laugh.) When the artists began work on Toy Story, they had learned so much from the shorts, they were ready to undertake that landmark creation. In the later shorts, the viewer can see the artists continuing to experiment: with a more realistic human figure in "Geri's Game" and with new ways of suggesting atmospheric effects in "Boundin'." Some of the more recent shorts continue the adventures of the characters from the features. "Jack-Jack Attack" reveals what happened to the hapless baby-sitter while the Incredibles were off fighting Syndrome, while "Mater and the Ghost Light" shows that life goes on for the inhabitants of Radiator Springs. When Sully from Monsters, Inc. tries to adjust his seat in "Mike's New Car," the animators prolong the moment to wring every drop of humor from the situation--just as an earlier generation of animators milked Wile E. Coyote's antics for all they were worth. The long-unseen films for Sesame Street are an unexpected bonus. A delightful collection of entertaining shorts, and a significant chronicle of the growth of computer animation. (Rated G: suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) --Charles Solomon
Product Description
Disney*Pixar invite you to discover these masterpieces of storytelling from the creative minds that brought you Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and many more. With revolutionary animation, unforgettable music and characters you love, these dazzling short films have changed the face of animation and entertainment and are sure to delight people of all ages for years to come. Experience them now – for the first time together in an amazing collection including never-before-seen footage.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
306 of 308 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a perfect DVD for kids and families alike. Pixar's theatrical shorts are some of the best -- if not THE best -- cartoons produced in the past two decades. This DVD has all 12 of them released to date, as well as an early short by John Lasseter from his days at the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project. Here's the list:
1. "THE ADVENTURES OF ANDRE AND WALLY B." (1984, Lucasfilm). After blue humanoid André is awakened in a forest by a pesky bee, he tries to escape. But the bee (named Wally B.) chases after him, and both characters run off screen. Finally, Wally reappears with a bent stinger. Interesting only for its historical value
2. "LUXO JR." (1986). When a large desklamp watches a smaller, younger desklamp play with a ball, he can't quite manage to do it himself.
3. "RED'S DREAM" (1987). Propped up in the corner of a bicycle store, Red the unicycle dreams about a better place.
4. "TIN TOY" (1988). When a wind-up one-man-band toy sees just how destructive a baby can be, he does everything he can to flee -- until the baby gets hurt.
5. "KNICK KNACK" (1989). A snowglobe snowman wants to join a party of other travel souvenirs in a hot party, but his glass dome gets in his way. (This is the well-known version with the less-endowed bathing beauty.)
6. "GERI'S GAME" (1997). A man plays a game of chess against himself, 'becoming' each player by moving to the other side of the chessboard and taking his glasses on and off.
7. "FOR THE BIRDS" (2001). A group of small birds perched together on a telephone wire reject a larger, awkward-looking bird, and pay the price for it.
8. "MIKE'S NEW CAR" (2002). When Mike (from "Monsters Inc.") shows Sulley his new six-wheel drive car, everything that can go wrong does.
9. "BOUNDIN'" (2003). A shearing leaves a dancing sheep humiliated until a jackalope passes by and demonstrates that it's what's inside that counts.
10. "JACK-JACK ATTACK" (2005). Baby Jack-Jack is thought not to possess the superpowers of his siblings or parents (Mr. and Mrs. Parr of "The Incredibles") until an outsider is hired to watch him.
11. "ONE MAN BAND" (2006). Two one-man bands vie to win the attention of a young peasant girl.
12. "MATER AND THE GHOSTLIGHT" (2006). A mysterious blue light haunts the "Cars" town of Radiator Springs and its residents.
13. "LIFTED" (2007). A bumbling young alien student tests the patience of his instructor as he attempts to abduct an innocent farmer.
Bonus features include a terrific documentary featurette on Pixar and some brief segments the company produced for "Sesame Street."
1. "THE ADVENTURES OF ANDRE AND WALLY B." (1984, Lucasfilm). After blue humanoid André is awakened in a forest by a pesky bee, he tries to escape. But the bee (named Wally B.) chases after him, and both characters run off screen. Finally, Wally reappears with a bent stinger. Interesting only for its historical value
2. "LUXO JR." (1986). When a large desklamp watches a smaller, younger desklamp play with a ball, he can't quite manage to do it himself.
3. "RED'S DREAM" (1987). Propped up in the corner of a bicycle store, Red the unicycle dreams about a better place.
4. "TIN TOY" (1988). When a wind-up one-man-band toy sees just how destructive a baby can be, he does everything he can to flee -- until the baby gets hurt.
5. "KNICK KNACK" (1989). A snowglobe snowman wants to join a party of other travel souvenirs in a hot party, but his glass dome gets in his way. (This is the well-known version with the less-endowed bathing beauty.)
6. "GERI'S GAME" (1997). A man plays a game of chess against himself, 'becoming' each player by moving to the other side of the chessboard and taking his glasses on and off.
7. "FOR THE BIRDS" (2001). A group of small birds perched together on a telephone wire reject a larger, awkward-looking bird, and pay the price for it.
8. "MIKE'S NEW CAR" (2002). When Mike (from "Monsters Inc.") shows Sulley his new six-wheel drive car, everything that can go wrong does.
9. "BOUNDIN'" (2003). A shearing leaves a dancing sheep humiliated until a jackalope passes by and demonstrates that it's what's inside that counts.
10. "JACK-JACK ATTACK" (2005). Baby Jack-Jack is thought not to possess the superpowers of his siblings or parents (Mr. and Mrs. Parr of "The Incredibles") until an outsider is hired to watch him.
11. "ONE MAN BAND" (2006). Two one-man bands vie to win the attention of a young peasant girl.
12. "MATER AND THE GHOSTLIGHT" (2006). A mysterious blue light haunts the "Cars" town of Radiator Springs and its residents.
13. "LIFTED" (2007). A bumbling young alien student tests the patience of his instructor as he attempts to abduct an innocent farmer.
Bonus features include a terrific documentary featurette on Pixar and some brief segments the company produced for "Sesame Street."
160 of 171 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Only "The Adventures of Andre and Wally B." and "Red's Dream" are not already included with some other Pixar feature length film DVD. Although the 13 short films run a total of just under an hour and all but two are on other Pixar DVDs, you might want this collection for the extras and the fact that you'll have all 13 shorts on one DVD so you don't have to go digging through your collection to find them. A previous reviewer gave the year of production and a brief synopsis. I give a brief synopsis too, but I also give the length of each short, its rating by a popular film database, and on which previous Pixar DVD, if any, you can find each short.
"The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. (2 minutes) - 5.5/10 - Interesting animation experiment at the dawn of the age of CGI, but not much of a story.
Included on the "Tiny Toy Stories" VHS tape.
Luxo Jr. (2 minutes) - 7.7/10 - The first computer animated short nominated for an Academy Award. Just a couple of lamps playing ball, but somehow Pixar manages to bring "life" to the lamps with the larger lamp acting as parent to the smaller in spite of a lack of any real physical features with which to add expression.
Included with the Toy Story 2 DVD.
Red's Dream (4 minutes) - 6.6/10 - Red is a unicycle that is the only item in the bargain bin at a toy store. He copes with his surroundings by dreaming of better things. Like Luxo, you are made to care about the main character even though he has limited ability to express himself. Shows Pixar experimenting with more complex forms than in previous films.
Included on the "Tiny Toy Stories" VHS tape.
Tin Toy (5 minutes) - 7.1/10 - Kind of an early proof of concept of Toy Story. A curious baby is after a wind-up toy. The baby appears monstrous and frightening to the toy until he realizes what the baby wants. Shows you the world - and the baby - from the toy's point of view so you understand his fright.
Included with Toy Story DVD.
Knick Knack (4 minutes) - 8/10 - A Knick Knack from Alaska - a snowman in a snowglobe - wants to join two Knick Knacks from a warmer climate. Only problem is that he is stuck in his snowglobe and must try to find a way to get out. Shows some ideas that look like they gave birth to "Finding Nemo".
Included on the DVD for "Finding Nemo".
Geri's Game (4 minutes) - 7.6/10 - Won Oscar for best animated short film of 1997. Geri is an elderly man who plays chess with himself and tries to outwit his opponent. It's interesting as he changes sides on each move. Geri's character also appears as the cleaner in 'Toy Story 2'.
Included with "A Bug's Life" DVD.
For the Birds (3 minutes) - 8.1/10 - Won Oscar for best animated short film of 2001. A big jovial bird is rejected by a clique of smaller snobby birds. However, their plan to eject him from his perch backfires when they ignore some of the basic laws of physics.
Included in disc 2 of the Monsters Inc. DVD set.
Mike's New Car (4 minutes) - 7.3/10 - Brings over our favorite characters from Monsters Inc. as Mike tries to show off his new car to Sully. Problem is he hasn't gotten the controls down yet. Not that innovative, but still cute and definitely entertaining.
Included on the Monsters Inc. DVD.
Boundin' (5 minutes) - 7.1/10 - A little preachier than I'm accustomed to from Pixar. A sheep is humiliated after his first shearing, but a jackelope teaches him to think otherwise. Good animation, good music, but the moral tale was just a little too obvious and heavy-handed for Pixar.
Included in the Incredibles DVD set.
Jack-Jack Attack (5 minutes) - 7.7/10 - Uses characters and situations from The Incredibles to show how Jack-Jack first begins exhibiting his extraordinary powers and the babysitter's reactions. Quite funny and quite possibly a deleted scene from the original film.
Included on Disc two of The Incredibles DVD set.
One Man Band (4 minutes) - 7.9/10 - A girl wishing to make a wish in a fountain using a coin finds that her coin is the object of desire for two competing street bands. They do everything under the sun to get her coin - except play exceptional music. Ironically this was a dig at the big studios of the film industry of which Pixar is now a part since their sale to Disney.
Included on the Cars DVD.
Mater and the Ghostlight (7 minutes) - 6.8/10 - The longest of the Pixar films in this set was one of the less amusing. Mater, the tow-truck from Cars, is set up for a practical joke by the other cars. They tell him a story about the GhostLight apparition and then go about making sure that such a ghost appears to him to teach him a lesson about scaring the others.
Included on the Cars DVD.
Lifted (5 minutes) - 8.1/10 - An alien trainee attempts to abduct a sleeping human. Unfortunately, he isn't familiar with the spaceship's equipment yet, and to make matters worse he's getting a job evaluation at the same time. Rather like the X-Files meets Monsters Inc.
Included on the Ratatouille DVD.
"The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. (2 minutes) - 5.5/10 - Interesting animation experiment at the dawn of the age of CGI, but not much of a story.
Included on the "Tiny Toy Stories" VHS tape.
Luxo Jr. (2 minutes) - 7.7/10 - The first computer animated short nominated for an Academy Award. Just a couple of lamps playing ball, but somehow Pixar manages to bring "life" to the lamps with the larger lamp acting as parent to the smaller in spite of a lack of any real physical features with which to add expression.
Included with the Toy Story 2 DVD.
Red's Dream (4 minutes) - 6.6/10 - Red is a unicycle that is the only item in the bargain bin at a toy store. He copes with his surroundings by dreaming of better things. Like Luxo, you are made to care about the main character even though he has limited ability to express himself. Shows Pixar experimenting with more complex forms than in previous films.
Included on the "Tiny Toy Stories" VHS tape.
Tin Toy (5 minutes) - 7.1/10 - Kind of an early proof of concept of Toy Story. A curious baby is after a wind-up toy. The baby appears monstrous and frightening to the toy until he realizes what the baby wants. Shows you the world - and the baby - from the toy's point of view so you understand his fright.
Included with Toy Story DVD.
Knick Knack (4 minutes) - 8/10 - A Knick Knack from Alaska - a snowman in a snowglobe - wants to join two Knick Knacks from a warmer climate. Only problem is that he is stuck in his snowglobe and must try to find a way to get out. Shows some ideas that look like they gave birth to "Finding Nemo".
Included on the DVD for "Finding Nemo".
Geri's Game (4 minutes) - 7.6/10 - Won Oscar for best animated short film of 1997. Geri is an elderly man who plays chess with himself and tries to outwit his opponent. It's interesting as he changes sides on each move. Geri's character also appears as the cleaner in 'Toy Story 2'.
Included with "A Bug's Life" DVD.
For the Birds (3 minutes) - 8.1/10 - Won Oscar for best animated short film of 2001. A big jovial bird is rejected by a clique of smaller snobby birds. However, their plan to eject him from his perch backfires when they ignore some of the basic laws of physics.
Included in disc 2 of the Monsters Inc. DVD set.
Mike's New Car (4 minutes) - 7.3/10 - Brings over our favorite characters from Monsters Inc. as Mike tries to show off his new car to Sully. Problem is he hasn't gotten the controls down yet. Not that innovative, but still cute and definitely entertaining.
Included on the Monsters Inc. DVD.
Boundin' (5 minutes) - 7.1/10 - A little preachier than I'm accustomed to from Pixar. A sheep is humiliated after his first shearing, but a jackelope teaches him to think otherwise. Good animation, good music, but the moral tale was just a little too obvious and heavy-handed for Pixar.
Included in the Incredibles DVD set.
Jack-Jack Attack (5 minutes) - 7.7/10 - Uses characters and situations from The Incredibles to show how Jack-Jack first begins exhibiting his extraordinary powers and the babysitter's reactions. Quite funny and quite possibly a deleted scene from the original film.
Included on Disc two of The Incredibles DVD set.
One Man Band (4 minutes) - 7.9/10 - A girl wishing to make a wish in a fountain using a coin finds that her coin is the object of desire for two competing street bands. They do everything under the sun to get her coin - except play exceptional music. Ironically this was a dig at the big studios of the film industry of which Pixar is now a part since their sale to Disney.
Included on the Cars DVD.
Mater and the Ghostlight (7 minutes) - 6.8/10 - The longest of the Pixar films in this set was one of the less amusing. Mater, the tow-truck from Cars, is set up for a practical joke by the other cars. They tell him a story about the GhostLight apparition and then go about making sure that such a ghost appears to him to teach him a lesson about scaring the others.
Included on the Cars DVD.
Lifted (5 minutes) - 8.1/10 - An alien trainee attempts to abduct a sleeping human. Unfortunately, he isn't familiar with the spaceship's equipment yet, and to make matters worse he's getting a job evaluation at the same time. Rather like the X-Files meets Monsters Inc.
Included on the Ratatouille DVD.
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Each of these short films is brilliant. That said, they aren't exactly new. All have been released as bonus features on Pixar's previous DVD releases, from Toy Story on forward to Cars and the forthcoming Ratatouille. From the first to the most recent, Pixar animators get better and better at the technical demands of creating images in the computer...these videos, especially the last few, are amazingly lifelike.
Most of these are personal projects or experiments by staff animators, and they are labors of love. If you already own the "Pixar collection" up to this point, you have these movies. If you only own a few Pixar movies, this is the way to catch up. Highly recommended for newbies and collection completists.
Most of these are personal projects or experiments by staff animators, and they are labors of love. If you already own the "Pixar collection" up to this point, you have these movies. If you only own a few Pixar movies, this is the way to catch up. Highly recommended for newbies and collection completists.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
THE MOST UNDERRATED PIXAR "MOVIE"
Definitely the most underrated film in the PIXAR library, this collection of short films is laugh-out-loud funny. A great gift for kids!
Published 9 days ago by Daphne Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars
Item just as described
Thanks for sending this so promptly. It is exactly as described and plays perfectly. I look forward to watching it many more times.
Published 9 days ago by A. Hayes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1 DVD
Love Love Love these short films and so glad they put them all on one DVD. Great for kids and adults alike.
Published 13 days ago by Laura Goerzen
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pixar short films
I bought this for a sleepover for 5 year old. Was told that it was "perfect" because the shorts were just enough for young attention spans.. Read more
Published 25 days ago by judith J. Hardy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pixar's Precious
I love Pixat Shorts.You can really see how far we have come with computer animation from the years & on with watching this movie.The art work is wonderful & nastalgic:)
Published 25 days ago by EnVee
4.0 out of 5 stars
Something for everyone.
Had this sitting in our collection for years and it was only when the kids were a little older that we finally watched it. Suffice to say it's played almost daily now.
Published 26 days ago by Paul Cussen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Adorable!
Love this first volume! Has all the "feel good" Pixar classics. Although short in length, I would highly recommend this volume.
Published 1 month ago by jj
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pixar fan
If you are a Pixar fan this is a must. Stories are great and it has some behind the scenes type material as well.
Published 1 month ago by ChuckyB18
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pixar is great!
I'm a fan of all Pixar movies, these little clips are so cute. (Some cuter than some of the movies!) Great for entertaining the young hearted!
Published 1 month ago by marcella mcginnis
5.0 out of 5 stars
love it
this is a really cute movie have really come to like the pixar shorts kind of expensive just for one movie but good
Published 1 month ago by Nicki
