8. Luxo Jr.
Plays Before: Toy Story 2
Cuteness Level: Russell from Up(aka the cute kid who is too cute to be mad at) The OG Pixar short (and their second release after 1984's The Adventures of Andre and Wally B.), Luxo Jr. is the famous desk lamp that jumps on the "I" in Pixar's logo at the beginning of their movies. Although it was theatrically released with Toy Story 2 in 1999, Luxo Jr. was actually completed in 1986 and can be seen somewhat as a technical exercise. The animation is remarkable for the time as the lamps and the table they are on look hyper-realistic, but as you can see in the picture above there isn't much depth as the background is just black behind their outlet plugs. This is a particularly brief short, clocking in at around two minutes, but you can infer the impact that it has made. The personification of inanimate objects has been a calling card of sorts for Pixar, and given Tin Toy's frightening (and uncanny valley resident) baby it's not hard to see why. Luxo Jr. plays with a ball while the father figure lamp watches on. When Luxo Jr. deflates the ball by jumping on it, the father figure tries to scold him but Jr. simply finds a bigger ball to play with. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrnz2pg3YPg A kind of "kids will be kids" story directed by Pixar head honcho John Lasseter may seem like just an excuse to show off their considerable talents, but Luxo Jr. stands out by being appropriately engaging for its short run time.