El sueño de Red

A unicycle dreams.

The relfective water and rain really shows us something that was not yet commonplace. Like other of the early Pixar shorts, this has some impressive animation that pushed the boundaries, and is otherwise not all that interesting. It's slow, repetitive and not especially funny. The cartoon physics gag especially is weak - Looney Tunes had done substantially better decades earlier.

Basically the titular Red imagines that a Pennywise level creepy clown would use him as part of his juggling act. Three and a half minutes. It's on Disney+, at no extra charge after the subscription fee.

I recommend this only to completists. 6/10.

I gotta admit that if you watch this film today and don't understand the context for it, then you will most likely not be particularly impressed. It's such a very simple animated short and one that seems amazingly ordinary--something you could easily make today given the right rendering software and a home computer. However, think back to 1987. People rarely had home computers and those who did had systems with 8086 or 8088 processors--not much more power than a modern calculator (less in some cases). There were often no hard drives--those that did exist were minuscule. Macintosh computers were relatively new and very simple and Windows was still a vague idea, as IBM compatible computers used primitive versions of DOS as the operating systems. And, most importantly, most games were either text only or had very, very rudimentary graphics. In this context, RED'S DREAM is absolutely amazing and breathtaking. The Pixar folks were not yet a big company but just a few individuals doing work on huge computers and they had to design all the software themselves!! And, in spite of all this, the graphics were lovely and the story of a lonely unicycle quite watchable--even though it was really more an experimental film than anything else. Put in this light, my score of 8 seems amazingly low, but I must admit that in an age when we expect so much more, this isn't the most exciting CG animation I've seen. Still, it's a great film.

One of the Pixar shorts from the eighties, this one is directed and written by 'Mr. Pixar' (and director of the upcoming 'Cars' (of which the first teaser sucked heavily, but nevermind)) John Lasseter. It tells the story of the dream of a lonely unicycle, who desperately wants to be in the circus entertaining the people. The constant rain and sad jazzy music help to make this a moody one.

Nice short animation picture, but hard to judge on it's own. But knowing how shorts like this and Knick Knack would eventually turn into brilliant pictures like Toy Story and Finding Nemo (haven't watched The Incredibles yet), this sure was a good sign of even better things to come.

6/10.

Just like Red, waiting abandoned in the corner- This is an undeniable star just waiting to shine. The film is very short and kind of silly, but it's one that takes multiple viewings to get a true appreciation of it. Watch for the expression of total disgust from "Red" as the clown goes on oblivious to what's happening to him. The timing is perfect and hilarious. Good job Pixar!

The folks at Pixar do a wonderful job here. While this isn't their best short, it is definitely a fine one and the hero here is a surprising one: a little red bike, an inanimate Walter Mitty! I got caught up in this short. Pixar really should re-release their collection of their short films. The short work they do is all at least interesting and most of it is magnificent! Well worth hunting up and most highly recommended.