Doing The Impossible: Ranking Pixar's Short Films
Everybody has their little Pixar list. The one that ranks the nine (now ten) films in order from their favorite to least favorite. There might be some gray areas, where they'll claim "Ratatouille and Monster's Inc. are tied," but it at least will give some semblance of favoritism. Typically, Cars and A Bug's Life will be towards the bottom, while a Toy Story is always one of the top, but basically you'll find a wide variety of discrepancy in these rankings. Such is the beauty of Pixar, I suppose.
So originally I was going to put out what I considered to be the rankings of the Pixar full length feature films. But then I thought that was a little boring. Or at least, unoriginal. Everybody has seen and thought about the Pixar films for themselves, they have their own ranking in mind. But I wanted to do some sort of Pixar related list, in honor of the release of Up. And then it dawned on me: the Pixar short film. When I was younger I enjoyed these, but thought they just distracted and delayed the viewing of the movie. I think it was Finding Nemo where I really started to appreciate them. So I decided to collect all the films onto this very page, and rank them as I see fit.
But this wasn't an easy task. I haven't seen a lot of them in a while (some of them never, or at least since I was 8), and while I knew which would be my favorite, the others are incredibly difficult to pick from. Like the films themselves, there's not a bad one in the bunch.
Note: The way Pixar usually does this, at least recently, is they will have a short film released in the theater that has nothing to do with the movie, and subsequently release with the DVD a short film starring some of the film's main characters (a la Mater and the Ghostlight for Cars). I'm not including the latter. The only movie that gets iffy is Toy Story because it had a different short film attached to it in theaters and on video, but since neither includes characters from the movie, I included both.
Another note: It's interesting, but most, if not all, of Pixar's early short films all had to do with inanimate objects doing very animated things.
Here goes.
11. Geri's Game
Released with A Bug's Life. It's hard to put this last, especially considering it won the Academy Award for Best Short Film. It's about an old man, who must have severe schizophrenia, playing a game of chess against himself. Except one side of him is much better at the game. The character (characters?) is great, and it's cute and funny, but compared to a lot of the other's it's pretty simple, story and animation wise.
10. Tin Toy
Another Academy Award winner. This was released with Toy Story when it came on video, and was an obvious inspiration for the movie. A small tin toy soldier tries to run from a drooling, reckless, and horrifying looking baby who isn't careful with toys. It's one of their earliest films, made in 1988, and it shows, particularly on that baby. I haven't seen anything more horrifying since It's Alive. And look at that gigantic diaper! But it's very impressive for the time, and gets points for originality.
9. Luxo Jr.
That lamp you see stomp the 'i' in Pixar before all their movies? This is where it came from. Released with Toy Story 2 but made in 1986, this fantastic film depicts what must be an adult and child luxo lamp interacting and playing with Pixar's trademark star crested ball. It also perfectly demonstrates Pixar's ability to humanize anything, including lamps. We see, without words or facial expression, the jovial youth in the small, hopping lamp and the irritability and impatience in the elder. I also love the detail they've put into it. For instance, when that small lamp hops, they could have easily kept the chord relatively motionless except for near the lamp's base. But instead, they have that little ripple-wave go the entire length and off the screen. Nice touch, Pixar. Well played.
8. Partly Cloudy
Unfortunately this one isn't out yet, since it's attached to Up. I'll briefly describe it, so you can get some sort of image. It shows thousands of storks carrying adorable little young creatures, whether they be babies or kittens or puppies, and delivering them to their respective parents. The storks then fly up into the clouds, which we come to see are beings that mold animals out of their fluff and zap them to life. Most clouds make these adorable little creatures, but one seems to only make the ones with razor sharp teeth. The poor stork that's stuck delivering his creations has to put up with a lot more injuries and a lot less cuddly-wuddlies than any of his peers. I won't spoil it, but it's a creative story with some really neat elements. For instance, when a cloud cries it doesn't come from his eyes. It just pours from him, like rain. Well not like rain, it is rain. Rain is clouds crying. Got it?
7. Red's Dream
Ah, who hasn't heard the story of the poor unicycle who only wanted to be in show business? Oh that's right, nobody, because Pixar had the imagination to create it. Released with Toy Story in its theatrical run, it shows a poor, red tricycle that's stuck in the corner of a bike shop, still not selling despite it's half-off bargain price. The tricycle (Red, I assume), dreams of a life in the center ring and wowing the audiences. The biggest downer of the Pixar short films is poignant and touching, and makes me care about a flipping tricycle. Stop toying with my emotions, Pixar!
6. One Man Band
Released with the movie Cars, this short film shows two musicians, with ridiculously complex instruments, competing for the solitary coin of a young child. As their greed and competition intensifies the child becomes frightened and, in desperation to stop the noise, plugs her ears and loses her coin. At which point she orders a violin from the musicians, plays a solo, and gets a bagful of coins in ten seconds. Clever, charming, cute, comical. The four C's of Pixar.
5. For the Birds
Released with Monster's Inc. and the last of the Academy Award winning short films, this shows a group of identical chattering birds hanging out on a wire when a goofy lookin' bird wishes to join. I feel sorry for the dodo bird (who seems to be at a lower mental capacity), but at the same time he's making that wire sag! I'd be frustrated if I were one of those little birds too. But they were being pretty bitchy, so I guess they get theirs in the end.
4. Knick Knack
Made in 89, but attached to Finding Nemo, this hysterical short film depicts a sno-globe snowman's struggle to get out of his bubble and into the arms of the gorgeous, plastic, bikini clad figurine. Where he kept a hammer, a bull dozer, a blow torch and stacks of TNT is beyond me, since that igloo is just a cut out... But it's damn funny, and the animation is spectacular. The water movement, the little floating snow flakes, there's so much detail they put into this, and this came only a year after Tin Toy. Also, it has the most heart-breakingly hilarious ending of any of these little shorts.
3. Boundin'
Released with The Incredibles, this is perhaps the most unique of the Pixar shorts, at least stylistically. It certainly has the most words (that is, more than one) than any of the others. With it's absurdly catching country ballad, great animation, good story with a good message, Boundin' is great in its absurdity, and the wise old Jackalope with his pink eyes has words useful for everybody. It was written, directed, narrated, and with a musical score by Bud Luckey.
2. Lifted
We all remember our driver's test. That was pretty stressful, right? Compare that to this poor alien adolescent, who is taking the difficult and dread abduction test, and fails quite miserably. Released with Ratatouille, this once again shows Pixar's ability to imagine the original and then make it great. This hilarious sketch plays out like a 4 minute version of a Far Side comic. The hopeless kid and the stoic grader just make it all the better. But that poor bastard who was being abducted woke up with some bad bruises I'll bet.
1. Presto
Released with Wall-E, this is without a doubt my favorite Pixar short. I actually think it was my favorite part of the entire feature. The epitome of creativity and putting a witty spin on a magician's hat, it hilariously blends slapstick humor with bizarre spatial anomalies in a movie more creative than anything else out there. I wouldn't mind seeing this expanded to a full film, it has so many possibilities. I'd never think the common 'Rabbit wants a carrot' gag could be played out with such inventiveness.
And for those wonding:
9. Cars
8. A Bug's Life
7. Wall-E
6. Monster's Inc.
5. Ratatouille
4. The Incredibles
3. Toy Story
2. Toy Story 2
1. Finding Nemo
And I haven't been able to place Up yet. It's too soon.
