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Pixar Finally Offers Animated Shorts on Pixar.com
NicerGuy writes "Today I was bored and decided to check out pixar.com. I hadn't been there in a long time, but was pleasantly surprised to find that they have finally made all(?) of their animated shorts available for download. The films, which are in QuickTime format, include my favorites: Geri's Game and Luxo Jr."
I remeber seeing most of these in the theater before moives. It still reall impresses me that Luxo was made in 1986. Could you imagine how long that must have taken to render? Anyway it's really neat to be able to see these shorts again.
Yeah, Luxo Jr was a classic. It's amazing to see how far hardware has come; Luxo was rendered in realtime by a GeForce 3 card in a Macworld demo. I'd link up the demo but according to this interview it is not being released :(
Seconded. For the Birds is hilarious. The character design on the large bird is wonderful. Pixar's animators once again demonstrate sheer mastery of comic timing. Although John Lasseter is Disney-trained, there are definite Warner Bros. and Tex Avery influences evident in this film, as well as Knick-Knack.
If you have the chance, do yourself a favor and see it.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
I didn't say I didn't like it. It's just that no one would buy it.
A Bugs Life is just Yet Another Disney Film (yawn), which, while enjoyable in a mindless sort of way, is a bit jaded even to my seven year old niece.
Geri's Game, however, is cool. All the Pixar shorts are cool, because they aren't just Yet Another Disney Film. Pixar shorts have originality. While I accept that A Bugs Life isn't targeted at my peer group (well maybe it is targeted at 19 year old Comp Sci students...), it's still a little predictable, even for Disney.
"I think he was truly surprised at how little I cared about how big a market the Mac had" - Linus on Jobs
I'm in the middle of pulling down Knick-Knack (Bobby McFerrin rocks), and the quality of the transfer to QuickTime is definitely not what I would expect from Pixar. It appears that they did a very simple and very quick film-to-video transfer. The registration is poor (the frame jumps vertically), and the brightness of the imagery varies.
But most importantly, I think, is that frames have been dropped. In my opinion, this is nearly fatal to Knick-Knack. Knick-Knack has comic timing down to the frame level, nearly as fine as anything done by Tex Avery. By dropping frames -- believe it or not -- part of the joke is lost. Some jokes are three frames long. In particular, I feel the jackhammer scene and cutting torch scene are almost ruined. It's not simply what he's doing that's funny, but how they show him doing it. Every frame is critical to showing that, and I'm surprised and disappointed that they released even a free version in this condition.
If they do the same thing to For the Birds, it will be ruined, too. They're too wonderful to be seen only in this manner. If you get the opportunity, you owe it to yourself to see them at full frame rate.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Actually A Bug's Life is none other than:
Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.
Seven strangers are recruited to save a village.
Which is also remade as:
The Magnificent Seven,
Three Amigos,
and Galaxy Quest
Amongst others.
It's not that it's "predictable..." It's that we like to be retold/repackaged good stories.