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If your kids (or you) love the Pixar movies as much as mine do, then you probably already own the DVDs that some of the shorts in the Pixar Short Films Collection come on. But trust me when I say that for Pixar fans, this DVD needs to be in your collection! You get to see the evolution of Pixar’s work with animation, starting with a short John Lasseter made when he was with the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics project, all the way up to a short that appears on the Ratatouille DVD. And what becomes most apparent as the films progress is that what was important to Lasseter wasn’t just the animation, it was the story.

The disc contains these Pixar short films, in chronological order, and each also has a commentary track:

1. The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. (1984)-An android named Andre wakes up in the forest and meets a bee. He takes off running, with the bee in pursuit, and then runs out of the frame, and then we see Wally fly back with his stinger bent. This one is really short.
2. Luxo Jr. (1986)-In the commentary, Lasseter explains that Steve Jobs (Apple) bought the computer animation department from Disney, and formed Pixar. Luxo Jr. was the first project, and for a subject, Lasseter used the lamp on his drawing table, called a Luxo lamp. The lamp is now like the mascot of Pixar. In this short, the lamp plays with a ball and with another lamp. This short is on the “Toy Story 2″ DVD.
3. Red’s Dream (1987)-A red unicycle dreams of being ridden by a circus clown, and juggles balls with his pedals. He then wakes up and sadly goes back to his corner of the bike shop, the clearance corner. You really get the feeling that the unicycle is sad.
4. Tin Toy (1988)-Inspired by a home video shot by Lasseter’s sister of her son sitting on a blanket playing with toys, Lasseter imagined that for the toys, the baby would seem like a huge monster. The baby is kind of creepy, to be honest. But the toys are really well done, and the surfaces of the stacking rings and of the tin soldier with a bunch of musical instruments on his back positively glow. It’s funny how when the baby falls over and gets upset, the toy goes back to comfort him, only to find that the baby is more interested in playing with the box the toy came in and the bag than with the toy, and it ends with the toy chasing the baby. It won the Academy Award for best Short in 1989. This short is on the “Toy Story” DVD.
5. Knick Knack (1989)-My favorite Pixar short, this one is about a snowman who lives inside a snow globe, wishing he could play with the other souvenir toys, especially the pretty doll perched on the edge of the toy pool from “Sunny Miami”. He works very hard at freeing himself from the snow globe, including coming up with a hammer, a jackhammer, a blowtorch, and dynamite (LOVE the swirling snow!), until he falls off the shelf his snowglobe is on and he sees the exit door at the bottom. Unfortunately for the snowman, he ends up trapped again in an even more frustrating situation. It’s on the “Finding Nemo” DVD.
6 Geri’s Game (1997)-The commentary is narrated by writer/director Jan Pinkava , and it was a way for Pixar to figure out how to animate human characters. Geri is an old man setting up a chess game in the park, but he has to play both sides of the board. He pretends to be two different people by moving back and forth, taking off and then putting on his glasses. It’s really clever how, at times, it does seem like there are two people playing chess and not one. Geri is based on Pinkava’s Grandfather. The short is included with the “A Bug’s Life” DVD.
7. For The Birds (2001)-The commentary is narrated by director Ralph Eggleston, and he explains that it began as a student film. We see a cute blue bird with a huge orange bill sitting on a telephone wire, and he is soon joined by a flock of more birds, including a large skinny bird that the others make fun of. The big bird flies over and sits down in the middle of them, bending the telephone wire in half. He is happy, but the rest of the birds are not, and they begin pecking at his claws to get him to drop off the wire. However, they have forgotten the laws of physics, which cause an ending they didn’t see coming. It makes me and my boys laugh out loud every time we watch it, and it won the Oscar for best Animated Short Film in 2001. It’s on the “Monsters, Inc.” DVD.
8. Mike’s New Car (2002)-Aww, this commentary is done by two of the Pixar animator’s children, which is a cute idea. “Mike” is Mike from Monsters, Inc., and in this short, he is showing off his new car to Sully. He tries to show off the car’s features with increasingly more hilarious results, until the car explodes. Also on the “Monsters, Inc.” DVD.
9. Boundin’ (2003)-Commentary by writer/director/vocalist Bud Luckey, based on his experiences growing up in Montana. A sheep dances with prairie dogs, a snake, frogs and an owl, and then receives his first shearing. He is embarrassed and sad because the prairie dogs are making fun of him, until he meets a Jackalope who is just bouncing along. The Jackalope explains to him that it doesn’t matter what color you are, and that he should remember that he still has a body and he can still bounce up and down (hence the title “Boundin”). Some of the reviews have called it “preachy”, but I see nothing wrong with reminding kids that it’s okay to be happy with who you are. This short is on “The Incredibles” DVD.

Now, at this point, I have to admit that I spent an embarrassingly long amount of time trying to figure out if my DVD was broken, because no matter what I did, I couldn’t get an audio commentary track to play along with “Jack-Jack Attack”. I stopped the DVD and restarted it, I turned the DVD player off and back on, I took the DVD out of the player and put it back in, I went into the Setup menu and manually selected the commentary setting. But no matter what I did, there was no commentary playing. You know why not? Because that particular short doesn’t have a commentary. But now you see the lengths I will go to in order to provide you with the most comprehensive DVD review possible. (grin)

10. Jack-Jack Attack (2005)-One of our favorites, this short is more like a piece of “The Incredibles” that was left out of the movie. We see babysitter Kari being interrogated about why exactly she left baby Jack-Jack with super villain Syndrome. Kari explains that it was because he was exploding, which is a perfectly logical explanation. I always crack up at the part where she is sitting wearily on a stool, holding a fire extinguisher, waiting to put Jack-Jack out when he bursts into flames. I would love to see a whole movie just about Kari and Jack-Jack! This short is also (obviously) included on “The Incredibles” DVD.
11. One Man Band (2006)-Commentary narrated by the director and the creator of the music. This short involves a peasant girl with a coin she wants to throw in a fountain, only two nearby street musicians would rather have her give the coin to one of them. These are the kinds of musicians that carry multiple instruments on their backs, and they each get more and more outlandish with their playing and their movements as they try to entice the girl to give them her coin. When their intimidation causes her to drop the coin and it rolls into the sewer grate, she demands a violin in exchange, and then turns the tables on them. This short can be found on the “Cars” DVD.
12. Mater and the Ghostlight (2006) This commentary is narrated by John Lasseter and Dan Scanlon, who co-directed “Ghostlight”. It’s based on a true story that supposedly happens in Kansas, involving a ghostly light that haunts Route 66. In this story, “Cars” costar Mater the tow truck has a prank played on him by the other cars. He’s been jumping out and scaring the other cars, and after the Sheriff Car tells the other cars a ghost story, they set up a practical joke that will have him be scared by a ghostly light. At the end, it turns out there really is something to be scared of! This short appears, of course, on the “Cars” DVD.
13. Lifted (2007)-Narrated by director Gary Rydstrom, who also had done sound design for Pixar shorts. It’s the story of Ernie, a farmer living in the middle of nowhere, who is pulled out of his bed by an alien spaceship in the middle of the night. Problem is, the alien is a beginner, and he isn’t exactly doing a good job at getting Ernie out of his bedroom window. It’s on the “Ratatouille” DVD.

I think what makes the Pixar Short Films Collection so great can be summed up by a quote from Gary Rydstrom during his “Lifted” commentary. As soon as I heard him say it, I paused the DVD so I could write it down:

“Really great animation makes you forget you’re watching animation, and swear you’re seeing living, breathing characters interact.”

Amen to that, Mr. Rydstrom. And Bravo to Pixar for all of the fine work they have done and are surely doing now. Movies like “Toy Story”, “A Bug’s Life”, “Monsters, Inc.”, “The Incredibles”, “Cars”, and “Ratatouille”, are the kinds of movies that are so good, you forget they are animated. And even if some of these short films are available as special features on the full-length DVDs, this collection is worth buying on it’s own. In addition to the interesting commentaries, you also get as Bonus Features, “The Pixar Shorts: A Short History”, which tells the story of how Pixar came to be, how they invented the computers and software they needed to create their animation, with footage going back to the 70s. I found it fascinating. Plus, there are four very short clips from Sesame Street-I didn’t realize that the Luxo Jr. lamps had starred in Sesame Street lessons about the differences between light and heavy, up and down. It’s very cool.

This has been my longest review (and I think my longest POST) ever, so you can see just how much I loved this DVD, and Pixar, too. I hope my review inspires you to pick up the Pixar Short Films Collection on DVD, and share these great Short Films with your family. Thanks for reading!