Knick Knack

Dir: John Lasseter

1989

****

Knick Knack is a lovely little Pixar short, very much a tribute to animators such as Chuck Jones and Tex Avery of Looney Toons fame, who were an inspiration to director John Lasseter. It's the story of a Snowman trapped in a Snow-globe on a shelf of travel souvenirs. When he sees a Miami souvenir (or Knick Knack) of a girl in a blue bikini, the Snowman does everything he can to exit his globe so he can go and join her, with various comedic consequences. The short film premiered once again at the 1989 SIGGRAPH convention in Boston and was presented in 3D but its success reached a lot further than that. The film won the Oscar for best short animation and was the first computer-animated film to ever do so. Disney, for whom Lasseter once worked for and was sacked by (for stepping on his superior's toes) realized they needed him back and set about acquiring the then struggling hardware company. Steve Jobs, the owner of Pixar at the time, knew this was the future and so invested far more time and money into the animation department. The rest is history, although I'm not sure anyone really knew quite how huge the importance of Knick Knack really was at the time. The animation is dated now but the idea is still sound. At the time it was heralded as a masterpiece and the animation at the time was more amazing than anyone had ever seen. Personally I don't think it is as good as Juxo Jr. but between them, both films set the foundations of future computer-animation forever.