Oscarless Cartoons Part 7

Oscarless Cartoons Part 7: Red's Dream (1987)

 

In 1986, Pixar Animation Studios was formed by Steve Jobs, John Lasseter, and Ed Catmull. Their first short film was Luxo Junior, which was about a lamp playing with a ball.

When it was first shown at SIGGRAPH in 1986, people loved it. It even got the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film. Luxo Jr was the first computer-animated anything to get an Oscar nomination. The next question for Pixar is 'What are they going to do next?'

Today, we will talk about Pixar's second short film, Red's Dream, which would also be submitted to SIGGRAPH. This underrated short film is about a unicycle named Red. Red lives in the discount section at Eben's Bikes (named after Pixar veteran Eben Ostby), and one night, he had a dream he was in a circus. Riding on top of him is a clown named Lumpy.

In the dream, Red proved to be just as talented as Lumpy. However, Red soon woke up and realized he was still in the store, so he slowly wheeled his way back to the discount section.

Red's Dream is notable for having a sad ending, unusual nowadays for a Pixar project, both short film and feature film. In fact, when it was first shown to a test audience, they pleaded John Lasseter to give it a happy ending. However, Lasseter resented, and Red's Dream was a success, but it didn't get the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Subject like Luxo Junior. Red's Dream is very popular in Europe, Lasseter once stated.
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Cartoon. Tune in next week when I talk about another Pixar short film, Knick Knack!