From Oscar-nominated short film to animated icon: The origins of the Pixar lamp
Almost 30 years on from the release of its first feature-length production, it would be an understatement to say that Pixar is the most recognisable brand in all of animated entertainment.
While Walt Disney Animation, DreamWorks, and Illumination, to name but three, have made concerted attempts to dislodge the company from its pedestal, the outfit that initially began life in 1979 as an offshoot of Lucasfilm’s computer division is in a category all of its own.
To underline Pixar’s domination of the animated space, the studio has produced 27 movies and 20 shorts during its lifetime, which has seen it earn upwards of $15billion at the box office, produce some of the greatest animated movies ever made, win 23 Academy Awards including 11 of the 23 ‘Best Animated Feature’ trophies handed out so far, secure six ‘Best Picture’ nominations, and generally be regarded as a byword for computer-generated excellence.
Every time a Pixar project begins, audiences are greeted with the familiar sight of a lamp hopping into the frame and pummelling the letter ‘i’ in the company’s name into submission. That little guy is Luxo Jr, and he’s one of the most important inanimate objects in modern cinema history, which is why the studio has paid tribute to where it came from every time it unveiled something new.
Written, produced, and directed by John Lasseter, Luxo Jr was nominated for an Oscar in the ‘Best Animated Short Film’ category at the Oscars but didn’t win, although it would be fair to suggest the two-minute trailblazer’s place in history has been secured without being awarded a shiny gold statue for its troubles.
A big lamp – Luxo Sr. – watches while his smaller contemporary plays with a ball but gets a little carried away and watches it deflate instead. The Pixar ball has become something of a mascot in itself that’s appeared in a number of subsequent movies, but the lasting legacy of Luxo is that of the iconic Pixar intro that airs prior to every feature or short bearing the studio’s name.
Despite only running for less than 120 seconds, Luxo Jr took four and a half months to complete from start to finish, with Lasseter applying the principles espoused by Disney’s legendary ‘Nine Old Men’ of animators to give the two characters genuine feelings, emotions, heart, and warmth, even though they’re desk lamps at the end of the day.
The filmmaker had intended for the short to be an experimental character study that tells an emotionally resonant and identifiable story using inanimate objects and no semblance of an actual plot, and while that’s exactly what it was in the end, Luxo Jr opened a lot of people’s eyes to the potential of fully-digital animated features.
Two years later in 1988, Lasseter’s Tin Toy became the first computer-animated project to win an Oscar after it triumphed in the ‘Best Animated Short Film’ category and served as the inspiration that led to the development and creation of Toy Story. As they say, the rest is history, but Luxo Jr‘s impact has never been forgotten by Pixar, which continues paying tribute to the ground-breaker in everything it does.
