Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1 (2007)

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."

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.

Buy Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1 (2007) Now

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.

Read Best Reviews of Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1 (2007) Here

The real value in this collection isn't so much the collection itself, which sadly is too small, or too short, and is over before you know it (which may make you sad if you buy this disc with the wrong expectations). The value is really in the history of all of these animations and of Pixar itself.

Each individual short is entertaining in some way, though they are short films and aren't intended to last more than a few minutes each. Many times the credits roll on seemingly longer than the shorts they accompany. But... if you recognize the history of computing and computer animation that is involved here, you realize just how much work went into these shorts and how truly amazing they are given the technology available when most of these shorts were created.

Perhaps the most 'priceless' (to borrow from the credit card commercials) portion of this collection is the included documentary: The Pixar Shorts: A Short History. It looks at the players involved, the hardware involved, and the work that went into creating these classic works. How Pixar Animation Studios came to be, and why they were creating these shorts.

Taken in context with the shorts themselves, you realize just how far we've advanced when it comes to computer animation and animated film. Technology that shows up in video games, movies, virtual reality for training purposes and more.

Pixar was on the forefront of the tech and this collection does a good job of introducing viewers to all of that great history. Worth a full price purchase? Probably not so much. On sale or discounted through an Amazon marketplace purchase? certainly worth consideration.

Want Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1 (2007) Discount?

Version: U.S.A / Region A, B, C

Title: Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1

MPEG-4 AVC BD-50

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Running time: 0:55:26

Movie size: 15,04 GB

Disc size: 31,89 GB

Total bit rate: 36.18 Mps

Video bit rate: 25.30 Mbps

LPCM 5.1 24-Bit/48kHz/6.9Mbps English

DD AC3 5.1-EX 640Kbps English / Spanish / French

Subtitles: English SDH / Spanish / French

Number of chapters: 16

Special Features

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#Audio Commentaries

#The Pixar Shorts: A Short History (HD, 23 minutes)

#Sesame Street Clips (SD, 6 minutes)

13 shorts included

# The Adventures of Andre and Wally B (1984)

# Luxo Jr. (1986)

# Red's Dream (1987)

# Tin Toy (1988)

# Knick Knack Remastered (1989)

# Geri's Game (1997)

# For the Birds (2000)

# Mike's New Car (2002)

# Boundin' (2003)

# Jack-Jack Attack (2005)

# Mater and the Ghostlight (2006)

# One Man Band (2005)

# Lifted (2006)

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