Red's Dream

Dir: John Lasseter

1987

***

Pixar's second computer-animated short film after Luxo Jr, Red's Dream didn't quite have the same charm. It was once again released at the annual SIGGRAPH conference, this time to demonstrate new technical innovations in imagery. The animation was created using Pixar's own Image Computer but the system's memory limitations led the animation group to abandon it for further projects. Red's Dream is more of a character-driven study than Luxo Jr. but it didn't quite work as well. I'm not sure the character was right and it is an example of Pixar learning from its mistakes. Unlike the rest of the early Pixar shorts, Red's Dream wasn't an added extra on any of the group’s later feature DVDs and only made it to their compilation of shorts box set. It's still amazing for 1987 but the Pixar magic isn't quite there. The company was under a huge amount of pressure and John Lasseter was known to work, eat and sleep in the corridors of their offices. Red's Dream can be filed under trial and error, unlike most companies Pixar made all their mistakes early on in their development but still proved they could do amazing things. It's not that entertaining in itself but it is a fascinating example of where the company was at the time, if that is of any interest to anyone. I think the bar was raised pretty high by Luxo Jr, indeed, pretty much every Pixar short since is measured by it.