This year, the Nevada City Film Festival worked closely with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to present three programs during the festival including “The Short Films of Pixar” on Saturday, September 12 at 6pm at the Miners Foundry. The torch-bearers of digital animation, Pixar began as a subdivision of Lucasfilms Limited before being taken over by Steve Jobs and was later acquired by Disney in 2006. The studio has earned numerous awards for their films and other work, including 26 Academy Awards, five Golden Globes and three Grammys. These short films have all the emotion of Toy Story or Wall-E, but in just a few minutes. Pixar has not only used the short film medium to craft superb storytelling, they use it for technological experimentation. Many of their shorts were originally companion pieces to their feature films and only seen in the theaters, now audiences can watch them up on the big screen one more time. This program is for both children and adults. Below are the short films that will be featured in the program. Click here to purchase your tickets.
Luxo Jr: In this 1986 Pixar Short two desk lamps, Luxo Jr. and Luxo Sr., begin to play with a small rubber ball. Luxo Jr. then tries to continuously bounce on the ball, deflating it. At the end of the short Luxo Jr. is then seen playing with a much bigger beach ball.
Geri’s Game: This Pixar Short shown with the 1998 film “A Bug’s Life” is about a man named Geri, who begins to play a game of chess with himself. He does this by switching which side of the table he is on with each turn and either putting on a pair of glasses or taking them off. It then starts to show that there are 2 opponents at the table and not just one. After one of them wins it shows Geri handig his dentures as a prize to the winner. The short ends with the camera panning out and showing that he is all alone.
For the Birds: For the Birds was shown in 2000 before the movie Monster’s Inc.. This short begins with a small bird landing on a telephone pole and making itself comfortable. It is then followed by a few more birds and a large awkward looking bird. The smaller birds then begin to make fun of the larger, awkward bird. The telephone wire begins to sag almost to the ground and the small birds start to peck at its feet. When they realize that once the bigger bird falls they are going to be slingshotted it’s too late and after flung into the air come down with no feathers.
Lifted: In this 2006 Pixar Short shown with Ratatouille, a young alien and his superviser are trying abduct a kid named Ernie who lives on a farm. After a lot of trouble the older alien takes over for the younger one because he was screwing up so badly. After they get the child the older alien allows the younger one to take them home, he then ends up running their UFO into the child’s house. The short ends with the kid waking up where his house used to be but is now not there, thanks to the UFO.
Presto: This Pixar Short shown in 2008 along-side WALL-E is about a rabbit, Alec Azam and a magician, Presto DiGiotagione. Alec starts off the show irritated and hungry because he was not given his carrot. As the show begins Alec refuses to cooperate with the rabbit out of the hat trick which is linked to to a magical wizard hat backstage leading to Alec’s cage, Presto becomes upset and so does Alec. These two start to fight in front of the entire audience and it becomes a huge hit.
Partly Cloudy: Partly Cloudy is a Pixar short shown with the 2009 movie, UP. In this short the clouds have the responsibility of making all the babies, children and animals alike. A lonely grey cloud has the misfortune of creating the animals that are not-so-nice. His stork, Peck, has the worst of it and has been bitten head butted and poked so when he see that his cloud has created a baby shark he flies off, making his cloud very sad and starting to create a thunderstorm. Peck returns with shoulder pads and a helmet cheering up his cloud, who then gives him an electric eel.
Day and Night: This Pixar Short was shown with Toy Story 3 and is about two anthropomorphic characters, Day and Night, These two become jealous of each other and start to fight but at the end of the short slowly start to like each other as Night turns into Day and Day turns into Night.
La Luna: The 2011 Pixar short, shown with the movie Brave, is about a child, Bambino, and his father and grandfather. Bambino wants to wear his cap a certain way but his father refuses to let him. As bambinos father sets up a ladder for all three of them to climb up to the moon to sweep fallen stars off the moon. As a huge fallen star lands on the moon, far to big for any of them to sweep, Bambino switches his hat backwards (the way he wishes to wear it) and goes over to the huge fallen star and taps it with a hammer breaking it into many smaller stars. as the sweep all of the stars off and return to their boat it reveals a beautiful crescent phase moon thanks to their efforts.
Hawaiian Vacation: A 2011 Pixar Short shown before Cars 2 is about the characters from Toy Story 3 as they plan to go on vacation to Hawaii. This short closely follows Ken and Barbie and as much to their surprise when they get there it is not Hawaii but some place very cold and snowy. The two end up kissing, like they saw in the brochure in the snow at sunset and then falling into the snow and having to have the other toys rescue them from the snow.
The Blue Umbrella: In this 2013 Pixar short shown along-side Monsters University is about objects coming to life in a city. The short follows a Blue umbrella who spots a very beautiful red umbrella but the blue umbrella is quickly blown away from a gust of wind and after being pretty beaten up is then retrieved by its owner and the owner of the red umbrella. The short ends with the two umbrella owners talking in a cafe with the red and blue umbrellas together after all.
LAVA: This 2014 Pixar Short shown before the movie Inside Out is about a lonely volcano, Uku, that sings his song for a thousand years as he watches the animals of his island with their mates. When he finally becomes extinct another island pops up, Lele, but her back is turned to Uke and is sad because she cannot find him. After Uku hears the cries of Lele his fire re-ignites and he comes back up to the surface so he and Lele can form one island and be together forever.