Pixar Shorts:
Red's Dream

Red's Dream is the only one of the Pixar shorts not to be released with a feature film. Created in 1987 under John Lasseter's direction, Red's Dream had two technical objectives: to capture the spokes of all the bicycle tires in the bike shop and to experiment with the lighting for night shots in the rain, no less.

This is the only short film rendered on the Pixar Image Computer - and the last. Red's Dream is also the first attempt at an organic, original character. This character is named Lumpy the clown.

Of all the Pixar shorts, this one is considered rather dark for the animation studio's image. It doesn't have much of a happy ending, but the film was more of an exercise in developing character. However, we see the first signs of Pixar's tradition of involving previous imagery and objects of previous films: the laminate image on the floor where Lumpy is performing with the unicycle is the star ball from Luxo Jr.

The Plot of Red's Dream

It is a dark and rainy night in the city. The streets are empty. A neon sign shines for a shop called Eben's Bikes, although it is closed for the night. Inside the shop, past all the shiny new bicycles, is a unicycle named Red, who is propped up all alone in a clearance corner.

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Red the unicycle has a dream when he was in the circus, with Lumpy the clown riding him and juggling under the spotlight. Lumpy drops his balls occasionally and Red slides out from under the clown, unbeknownst to him. Red bounces the dropped balls back to Lumpy with his pedal and soon he plays with a ball by himself as Lumpy circles around without the unicycle, pedaling in mid-air.

Soon enough Lumpy figures out what's going on and stops and faces Red, looking at the audience in bewilderment, then falls down, hair flying cartoon-style. Red takes over juggling all three balls with expertise, receiving great applause. Red bows to his adoring audience.

Red suddenly finds himself back in the bicycle shop, bowing just like in his dream and he wakes up, realizing where he is. Sad and dejected, he petals himself back to his corner, where he remains. The closing shot is the Eben's Bike Store neon sign in the dark, rainy night.

Such a sad, sad story! It's a sign of things to come with Pixar movies tugging at your heart strings, wouldn't you agree?