Happy Birthday to Pixar’s Luxo Jr.

It was all started by a Lamp…

Things got a little busy yesterday and I forgot I had this story to tell. The lamp that launched an Animation Studio premiered for the first time twenty-five years ago yesterday. August 17th, 1986 the short film “Luxo, Jr.” was one of the first computer animated films to give personality to objects and to tell a cohesive, emotional story.

“Up until that point, people looked at computer animation as a technical demonstration,” said Ed Catmull, president of Walt Disney Animation Studios/Pixar Animation Studios. “There were a few things done for television commercials, but ‘Luxo’ moved out of the realm of a tour-de-force of technology — even though it was — to people recognizing it was a short film in its own right and enjoying it as such.”

Without “Luxo,” there would be no Woody and Buzz, no Sully and Mike, no Remy, no Wall-E, no Lightning McQueen and no Incredible family. The lamp is still the corporate symbol.

Animation Historian Charles Solomon looks back at the beginning of Pixar in this LA Times article.