Red’s Dream

Red's Dream, directed by Jon Lasseter, was produced by Pixar studios in 1987. It was one of their first shorts. The short is about a unicycle that is on sale. He daydreams that he is part of the juggling act. During his daydream, a clown rides him while juggling quite clumsily. When the clown messes up, the unicycle catches the ball and continues the act. The audience cheers loudly for the unicycle. The short ends by returning to the bicycle shop. The unicycle is still on sale. It wheels himself over to the corner of the store and props itself against the wall with a sigh.

This short was innovative in that it was one of the first films to utilize CGI. The graphics were amazing for the film's time period. The opening shots of street outside the bicycle shop and the rain pouring down were very well done, and set the mood for the film quite effectively. Pixar was specifically trying to accomplish realistic lighting and textures for this short. One can see how far Pixar progressed with this short, but still how much further they would progress in the future. The film is also notable because it demonstrates how effectively Pixar creates characters out of inanimate objects. Even though the unicycle does not have any facial expressions or human body parts, he feels human. It also moves exactly as one would expect an alive unicycle to move. The viewer sympathizes with the unicycle because Pixar develops the character so effectively.