I haven’t done any recent posts on my Ring Road project that was based on the influence of Top Gear. We now have a different idea because of time, convenience etc… We are now doing a nightmare scene with a white masked person following a girl, which is me! We filmed most of it and edited most of it and now have to add the final scene, sound and credits. I have been working on my workbook quite a bit, it’s all in for monday! Next i will have to do the essay that goes with the 72 hour project which is in for the following friday…. Lots of work to be doing at the moment.

While we were on a break from editing we watched a few Pixar shorts on the DVD of them that Mick Le Mare has. I requested to watch ‘For The Birds’ because i love it we also watched Jack Jack Attack  and Lifted which amused us all for a while. All of the Pixar shorts seem to give off a ‘happy vibe’ that entertain and amuse the audience. They always make me smile and are very creative. I watched more on youtube when i got home!

xxx

Photo by Carl Safina

Getting hooked and drowned on fishing gear has been the greatest causes of death for adult albatrosses for several decades. The main problem is lines dozens of miles long with thousands of baited hooks, called long-lines. For a decade, conservation groups including Blue Ocean Institute and Birdlife International’s Global Seabird Program and others have worked with fishing boat owners and with governments, partly through an international treaty called the Agreement of the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.

photo by Carl Safina

Positive results have been dramatic. For instance, from 2007-2008, measures taken by predominantly Japanese fishing boats reduced albatross mortality by 85% off of South African waters. This is a huge success and an important step toward seabird conservation for a country with an enormous longline fleet. Other areas with great reductions in albatross fishing deaths in recent years include waters around Hawaii, Alaska, the Falkland Islands, Australia, New Zealand and some other places.

I have always been a fan of Pixar’s. There movies I feel are very innovative and they give a lot of priority to emotions, friendship and relations. Animation is of best quality anyway. Apart from regular animated movies they have released some short movies too. Take a look at the following short, cute and hilarious movie “For the birds”.

Masterpiece of Pixar animation ^^

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Acrylic on Canvas.

Tuan Huynh

8-10 p.m.

OneVillage a Community Church
5700 Nall
Roeland Park, KS
913.400.2060

Hours after Final Friday: By appointment.
Runs through: Nov. 17

Gallery site: http://www.onevillagekc.com

Some art shows are all about shaking up a viewer’s notions of beauty. This one just might challenge your positions on punishment, rehabilitation and redemption.

No sugarcoating: Tuan Huynh, today’s featured artist, is serving prison time for felony murder. Not has served … is serving. He won’t be eligible for parole until June 21, 2011.

Huynh will, however, be at tonight’s opening, which he shares with painter Spencer Musser. OneVillage’s pastor, Andy Houltberg, has secured a supervised release for Huynh for a portion of the evening.

Houltberg is on staff with InnerChange Freedom Initiative, which will hold an informational event from 6-7:30 p.m. (That’s why the opening reception itself, which will also include music by A New Family and For the Birds, won’t start until 8).

IFI aims to provide inmates with educational and life skills while they are imprisoned and with transitional support after their releases. Huynh is one of the organization’s success stories.

Few might have predicted that in 1996, when he entered a no-contest plea to felony murder. Huynh was barely 18 but deeply involved in gang activity when he fired into a crowd outside a Hutchinson restaurant, killing Charles J. Smith. He has spent every birthday since then behind bars — and until 2004, racking up a list of violations ranging from misuse of state property to trafficking in contraband.

Since then: nothing. A clean record.

Why? Come tonight and ask him yourself.

This isn’t a mere sideshow, though; it’s an art opening, and Huyn is an artist whose work needs no backstory to prop it up. His acrylic paintings are marked not only by fine brushwork but by layers of emotion.

Huynh’s portraits, most of family members, are both beautifully detailed and infused with obvious affection and a sense of linging. His renditions of big cats are bold and colorful … but the predators’ eyes are almost mournful. And his icons, both religious and secular — as with the twin portrait of Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, pictured above, also show the cost of serving and freeing others. Jesus is a “man of sorrows”, as Huynh depicts him, and so are Dr. King and the Great Emancipator.

Huynh will have to leave tonight’s event early to return to the Lansing Correctional Facility. But he will not always be waiting for freedom. The world  has changed much since he first went inside. So has he.

At tonight’s opening, he might find people leery of his past. That can’t be helped. But it’s to be hoped that he also will find people who will think of him not as “Tuan Huynh, prisoner” or “Tuan Huynh, killer”, but as “Tuan Huynh, artist and fellow human being”.

Those moments will be freeing … and not only for Huynh.

How did Doc Truli’s beloved 15-year-old long hair green-eyed grey Persian cat, Mitzi, end up under the trailer out in the cold, meowing her head off for 2 days?

As a senior veterinary student, Doc Truli lived in a former cow milker’s trailer on a large dairy farm.  Facing East, with the Western sunset illuminating the red with white trim outbuildings, the green grass road edgings trimmed perfectly short with white fences lining the mile-long driveway, the farm glowed like a movie set.  The trailer sported brand new double hung windows, a new circuit box, all new wiring, beautiful little custom-made John Deere green fabric curtains and a koi pond in the front yard!

Well, I’ll tell you.  I’m a fairly decent pet-proofer.  I should be, I’m a professional.  But your pets will find nooks and crannies you cannot imagine.  Guess how Mitzi did it?

It took me a few hours to figure it out.  She opened the bathroom cabinet door under the sink, which shut behind her automatically.  Then, 3 feet to the right, under the dark sink counter, was a 1 foot by 1 foot hole in the wall (don’t ask me why!  I have no idea how it got there.)  Grey tufts of long fur stuck out from the hole’s jagged edges all the way around.  Mitzi must have shoved her portly self through the hole, which led to the outside crawl space under the trailer.  Your truly was away for the night, so when I pulled up the next day and opened my car door, “Meeeooooow.”  And, as a bonus, two hungry farm dogs with eyes glued to the underside of the trailer.  Luckily, my girl did not become a play toy for Murphy Brown, the fat Chocolate Lab, or, Binx, the black German Shepherd fox-killer.

Get Down to Your Pet’s Eye Level!

Temple Grandin, a world-renowned animal behavior expert, teaches veterinarians and animal handlers to move through the animal’s environment exactly at the animals’ eye level.  She discovered that pigs will stop moving, for example, to load onto a truck, if they cannot see around a corner, or if a shiny wet spot on the floor reflects funny, or if they see an inexplicable shadow in front of them.  If pig chutes are curved, with no corners, covered, with no shadows, and dry, with no reflective glassy water slicks, they move right along, nice, relaxed, and calm.  You can imagine, staying calm promotes health.  Panicking, and backing up on 100F heat on a hot, dry summer day, when you are supposed to be moving to a new barn, kills hogs in minutes from heat stroke.  Seeing the world from an animal’s point of view saves lives.

Crawl around rooms and especially the kitchen and bathrooms at your pet’s eye level.  I kid you not.  If you are unable to crawl, even with gardening knee protectors, get your kids to do it.  If you are young, you probably cannot afford a pet emergency visit because Barney found the roach trap you missed.  Use those knees and look around!

Previous tenants in your place probably left pictures, dryer sheets, ant traps, you-name-it! behind when they moved.  Doc Truli found a picture of a previous owner and his sister at a party, with cat chew holes lacing the edge!  Obviously, Porthos (VirtuVet gravitar)  found the picture before the Doc!

Remember, cats are three-dimensional beings.  Look up, to the ceiling even.  Or beyond.  Mitzi once spent a week in the insulation above a ceiling because she was shy in her new home.  Cats will find holes and crannies you ignore.  Try to see the unseeable when cat-proofing.  Actually, how about this: try to think as if you were designing a movie set for the Neil Gaiman sci-fi novel Neverwhere.  That’s where your cat looks for fun!

Electrical Cord Proofing

A special note about electronics and electrical cords and plugs: eliminate, cover, or group the electrical stuff in an off-limits section of your place.  Televisions fall on curious pets, they get stuck in the cords, pets electrocute themselves on the cords, you-name-it.  Don’t be stubborn.  Bundle the cords in a cord-tube from the hardware store, or hire an electrician to properly put casings on them, or a contractor to run them behind the walls.  If your budget is tight, group your computers, televisions, etc, in a room off-limits to the curious pet.  If Porthos ventures into Doc Truli’s home office, he sets off a Star Trek Enterprise bridge red-alert warning, “Woop!  Woop!  Cat-Alert!”

Bird-Proofing Challenges

Another special note about birds.  Wow!  If you love living with bird(s), you have a handful of pet-proofing to do.  Landlords be warned!  After a fish tank water disaster, a pet bird chewing all the trim inside your property destroys your property value unimaginably silently and efficiently!   Yet Doc Truli’s first landlord at veterinary school said, “You have to leave an extra cat deposit, and a dog deposit, but I don’t care about the bird.”  Ha!  My Cockatiel, Othello (“Birdie” for short) ate her 150-year-old window trim in three days flat!  Good Birdie!

I make authentic bird houses for real birds…..in my woodshop in Three Rivers, California.
This blog will grow, word by word, just as a bird’s nest grows, twig by twig.

Doc Truli’s definition of spoiling your pet: “Your pet is spoiled if you are doing something for your pet that you do not want to be doing.” Therefore, technically speaking, none of these pets are spoiled.

1.  After his Sunday afternoon bath, 6-year old golden brown Pekingese named Pirulli sits in a children’s shopping car-cart and is pushed around his back yard for an hour while he dries. “Because he likes it!” says his retired dad.

This same gentleman is the author of my favorite line a client has ever told me.

“Your dog lost 2 pounds!”

“Don’t worry, doc. He’ll find it again!”

2.  7-year old orange-eyed black Persian named Fuzzy sits on the coffee table inside a hand made pottery dish, tilts his chin up, and eats pieces of meat from his mom’s fingers, one by one. (This is actually not spoiling. His face is so flat, he cannot pick up food from a dish.)

3. Gorgeous, 10-year-old full coat, black and tan Yorkie named Paris is having trouble losing weight. I wonder why? Could it be the frois gras , chopped walnuts, and filet mignon she eats straight from her mother’s mouth? (Doc Truli would never have guessed such an abundance of high fat snacks if Paris’ dad hadn’t snitched on her and her mom!)

4.  9-year-old Tomcat wanders into animal hospital.  He’s adopted, named Timone, and ensconced, usually, on the office printer, or sometimes, the computer monitor.  If there is a warm lap available, he will shed black and white short fur all over the lap and purr in appreciation (no suit color is immune.)  The spoiling?  Boston Market chicken every day at lunch!  Sometimes his veterinary benefactor forgets to eat lunch and has to make a special trip to made sure Timone gets his treat.

5)  Albino catfish named Jerry eats his three meals a day from his dad’s hand.  Not so spoiled?  Wait!  Then Jerry swims up for his full body massage after each meal!

6.  Nascar, the Scarlett Macaw, adjusted to his dad’s new wife.  New wife and husband built 6 car bay, 1 master bedroom, 1 Macaw bedroom house.  Wasted Macaw Bedroom.  Nascar sleeps on lime green pillow between his parents’ heads every night!

7.  4 pound domestic short-hair white barn cat named Minou takes her seat at the table every night, complete with her own plate.  Choice morsels of meat are placed in front of her.  Minou licks her white whiskers and looks beseechingly at her mom.  Mom places Minou’s plate on the floor.  Minou jumps down, licks plate clean, and goes off to the living room for an after-dinner bath.  She never touches the table in 15 years!

8.  8-week-old black Scottish Terrier pup named McGregor needs to travel from birthplace on US West Coast to new home on US East Coast.  Enter courier, and 2 first class transcontinental airplane tickets.  McGregor’s dad chuckles, “It cost more to get him home than he cost in the first place!”

Scottie McGregor Nervous at Doc Truli's

9. Black Labrador Retriever pup sees Doc Truli for first veterinary visit.  She already has a private trainer, pool, puppy custom playground, 7 sets of matching collars and shirts, organic shampoos and house call groomer, and organic, whole foods delivered to the door!  Spoiled?  Doc Truli says, “If you can, and you want to, it’s not spoiling.”

10.  2-year-old human wearing brown corduroy pants, a yellow shirt with brown trim sits on a back porch step in England holding open cat food can Scruffy Jones, a brown tabby Maine Coon cat waits in rapt attention facing child. Child reaches into can, pulls out handful of cat food and feeds cat, “One for Kitty.” Reaches in can again, “One for Baby.” Father films episode on Super-8 hand-held movie camera. At age 20, child realizes father opened cat food, gave to child, and let child and cat eat whole can of food whilst filming.  Child enters veterinary college, becomes Doc Truli.

Feel free to top these true stories!

Orlando, the Quaker Parakeet suffered a broken left leg, which wouldn’t have been half as bad if he hadn’t previously broken his right leg and it never healed quite right. He needed his legs to stand and to hold his food to eat.

Several years prior, Orlando was attacked by a dog and his right leg took the brunt of it. Two of his toes still moved, but they were stiff and couldn’t tighten around a perch. He was used to standing on his good left leg.

He lay on a towel on my lap, his belly facing me, his head resting on my left thigh, his left leg jutting out at an obviously broken angle. He must’ve been very frightened.

I had a tongue depressor split in half lengthwise, tiny strips of soft stretch guaze rolled into little doll-size rolls, and pre-cut strips of self attracting wrap. I asked Orlando to lie still.

“Lay back little buddy, let me see that leg.”

Orlando laid on his back, but when I touched his leg, he bent his neck forward and nibbled at half bandage/ half doctor finger.

I just barely touched my finger to his beak and guided him to lay back, “Just relax, little dude.”

And he did! I applied two bandages to his leg. The first soft cast resembled a bulky, technically correct splint. It looked like it would slip off. I took a look at that handiwork and removed it.

Then I devised a practical lightweight birdie bandage. He relaxed in my lap and let me finish the whole “cast” without interfering at all. He was amazing!

Orlando’s parents helped him stay upright and eat and sure enough, his leg healed against the odds!

P.S. Doc Truli advises everyone to check local laws regarding keeping a Quaker Parakeet. For example, they are considered endangered in New Jersey and you may not own one legally.

The title of this one is “for the birds.” And what kid hasn’t given them a chase when the opportunity has presented itself? Seems like pretty simple fun and while annoying to the birds, hardly dangerous as you will never catch them.

As the end of summer draws near, we had a nice three day weekend (Labor Day) to Bar-B-Q and get outside, that is, where it was nice to be outside. I am fortunate enough to live in an area the weather was nice and typically it is rather HOT this time of year, it was pleasantly in the 80’s and crystal clear.

Feeling neglected in my garage was my 1965 Mustang convertible. Being busy was my only excuse for not having gotten it out earlier, but this was now the time. It was time to get out and “chase the birds.” While I guess that could have a variety of meanings, it is as simple as enjoying the simplicity of what entertained us as kids. The sky was beautiful as I could see by looking straight up where the roof would have been. The trees and landscape were alive and crisp, the weeds of course were dead and dry, and yet a pleasant tone of carmeled brown, with a plethora of god’s creatures skittering around.

The road led to a river which looked very inviting but I hadn’t thought to “pack a suit.” It wasn’t quite remote enough to strip down and take the plunge in the buff, but it was a thought. Of course, had I done so I probably would have scared the fish right out of the water!

On the return trip the sun was easing it’s way down toward its nightly bath in the Pacific Ocean (way over there) and the shadows long, the colored light soft; it was beautiful. Once back in town there were various activities at various public spots and it was fun to see people out and about. So what? Sew buttons. The point of the story is in a past life I likely would have spent the day at a pub somewhere (nothing wrong with that) or putting ‘em down somewhere with friends (nothing wrong with that) or even on my own (now there’s a question), and I’m sure I could have told you I had fun…but this time I decided to have a different kind of fun. I sliced off a piece of that reality “stuff” I was talking about and enjoyed it. What about you?

Frank and I had really gotten in to feeding the birds here in our backyard.  I started with a simple, cheap feeder that held thistle seed and fed the finches, mostly goldfinches who came to eat the seeds from a couple of my plants.

My brother and his wife sent us a wonderful hummingbird feeder.  The feeder is a work of art and even if no bird ever fed from it, I would keep it hanging in the yard, but we have a very active, though small population who live in the trees in our yard and feed frequently from both our flowers and our feeder.

This summer, Frank and I invested in some serious bird feeders and really enjoyed watching the variety of birds who came to eat at them.  Then the English sparrows arrived in force, muscling in and pushing the other birds out.  They even intimidated a couple of woodpeckers.

I looked on line for a remedy.  I don’t mind feeding the sparrows, but we love the diversity we had before and have become weary of the constant chatter and wealth of bird poop on our deck, etc. so we have reduced the number of feeders and the kind of food we put out.

We still feed the hummingbirds and the finches and have hung a sunflower seed sack out where our largest feeder was hanging.  We are enjoying the variety of birds who come and the reduced number of larger birds seems to encourage more hummingbirds.  When the snow falls I expect we will see what we will do next.

Text and photo by Lynden Lund
Blue Korhaan R234

Feeding next to the N6 on the way from Smithfield to Rouxville, or in other grassland areas and cultivated lands, or sometimes even proudly perched on the top of an anthill, you can easily identify these beautiful birds. They are medium to large sized with rich brown upperparts, entirely grey-blue underparts, and black head with large white facial patch.

Slow down, or stop near to them, and they will be gone in an instant. Flying quite a distance, or slinking away with head held low to the ground, they blend so cleverly into the surroundings that even the trained eye may miss them.

Their deep mellow 3-syllable croak kuk-ka-ROW, (sounding very much like “knock-me-down” or “vat-my-kierie”) repeated up to 15 times, usually in duet, always stops me in my tracks. Then I scan around avidly searching for the source of another beautiful melody of nature. Blue Korhaans spend most of the day searching for their favourite food consisting of insects, small lizards, seeds and other plant material.

This near-threatened bird is endemic to our area, and is included in the twice-a-year national count of the Korhaans, Secretary Birds, and other large birds, undertaken in this area by myself and other participating birders.

Do you regularly have interesting birds on your property that I can photograph and include in this column? Please contact me on cell 083 263 0613.

Self confessed “compulsive sketcher, tea drinker, nomad” Samantha Zaza with an interesting series called Coup.

The series is a selection of color pencil drawings of pigeons “with Napoleonic complexes.”

Maybe we will see a Jeff Staple x Samantha Zaza collaboration in the future?

via

Seguro que todos hemos visto alguno de los éxitos de la compañía de animación Pixar, o al menos conocemos de su existencia. La empresa nació en el año 1979 como una división de la conocidísima Lucasfilm (fundada por George Lucas), desde entonces ha pasado por las manos de Steve Jobs (época en la que se creó la exitosa Toy story) o de Disney.

Historias a parte, si hay algo que nunca me pierdo son sus cortometrajes que preceden a cada largometraje. Bajo la dirección de John A. Lasseter ,siempre divertidos y capaces de contar historias de lo más variadas en el lenguage más universal, únicamente la imagen (a excepción de alguno de los últimos títulos). Además son un excelente instrumento en el que estudiar la evolución del proceso digital.

Las Aventuras de André y Wally B., del año 1984, no es propiamente un corto de Pixar sino de Lucasfilm, tras él fue cuando se creó Pixar:

En 1986 apareció Luxo Jr. cuyo personaje principal se convirtió en icono de la marca:

1987,Red’s dream:

1988, Tin toy:

1989, Knick Knack:

1997, Geri’s game:

2000, For the birds:

2002, El coche nuevo de Mike:

2003, Boundin’:

2005, Jack Jack attack:

2005, One man band:

2006, Mater and the ghostlight:

2006, Lifted:

2007, Your friend the rat:

2008, Presto:

2008, Burn-E:

Y proximamente… Partly Cloudy

For about a decade I studied Common and Roseate Terns nesting on Long Island, and followed them as they were foraging at sea. I was studying their relationships with the fish they ate, including where and how they found fish in the ocean. During that time we also studied their breeding success, survival, and growth in their breeding colonies. To do so we individually marked thousands of birds with numbered leg bands. We banded many chicks, and also banded adults at their nests.

The mail recently brought a letter from the official U.S. Bird Banding Laboratory. It informed me that in July, researchers on Great Gull Island off the North Fork of Long Island encountered a nesting Common Tern that I had first banded as an adult in 1984. Because they don’t breed until age 2, this bird is at least 27 years old. I was so surprised I had to look at the letter several times to make sure I was reading the dates right. I also called the folks on Great Gull to double-check. It was all correct.

The previous oldest known Common Tern was 25. But, also last month, researchers on Great Gull Island encountered a 28 year old Common Tern. That’s the new record. Both of these finds are extraordinary. I suppose I would have loved to say “I” held the record. But the achievement is entirely the birds’, and they deserve celebrating to have lived so long against the odds and through good and bad years of food and weather, and so many migrations to South America and back.

It’s good to know that among all the gloom and doom we hear, seabirds are still setting survival records.

Ich liebe sie wirklich die Kurzfilme von Pixar.

Gerade gefunden:

Mein Liebling seit jeher:

hGen

Text and photo by Lynden Lund

The Cape Sparrow

Probably one of the most frequently seen and unmistakable birds in our garden is the Cape Sparrow [803].

The black head, with distinct white markings curving from the eye around to the neck, look like big ears. You can identify the female by its plain chestnut back and grey head with faint shadow markings of the pied head pattern of the male.

This confident bird is a common sight and has attached itself to human settlements. You will find them in your garden, or around farmyards, particularly where there is an abundance of food.

They are fun to watch if you throw a handful of wild birdseed out for them.

Igår 3D, idag High Definition och båda i sällskap med Emmii. Riktigt trevligt att hon kom och kikade på Transformers med mig. Nu är vi redo att ge oss på 2:an när smålänningen kommer upp till norrland. Eller hur!?

Fick bjussa på en Latte också så snart har man lärt henne att dricka kaffe och bli vuxen. Tittade dessutom igenom Pixar Short Films. En samling kortfilmer som Pixar gjort under väldigt lång tid vilket verkligen märktes. Fanns en hel del tråkiga klipp men även några höjdare. Bland annat For the Birds som finns att beskåda på klippet nedan.

I övrigt har nya tv:n hårdtestats under dagen. Skulle tro att den varit på i över tolv timmar nu och jag tycker den presterar riktigt bra. Över förväntan då jag var rädd att det skulle vara problem med ljudsynken men det märkes ingenting alls av detta.

Tycker dessutom att man ganska fort vänjer sig vid storleken. Är ändå ett ganska stort steg från 32″ till 46″ och trots att jag sitter ganska nära den känns det bra. Vanliga tv-sändningar ser väl kanske lite dassiga ut men de gör de alltid. Inget jag bryr med speciellt hårt över. Högupplöst material sväljer den utan problem och det ser riktigt bra ut. Ska väl göra lite justeringar vad gäller bilden men i det stora är jag riktigt nöjd. Blir dock att titta på den lite mer innan jag bestämmer om jag ska behålla den lr inte. Plasten på ramen får sitta kvar en stund till mao.

Mer arbete blir det däremot att programmera om multifjärren. Satt ikväll med 3-4 fjärrkontroller och det känns inte bra. Måste se till å fixa detta snarast.

Ska försöka få upp lite bilder på den också, men i kvällens mörker funkar det inte att ta bild på den. Kanske blir imorgon.

Nu är det dags för sängen. Imorgon måste jag till Ottonträsk å snickra. Blev inget av det idag av någon underlig anledning. Hoppas det blir bra arbetsväder.

Dealing with Feathered Orphans

by Carmel Rickard

Do you know what to do if you find a baby bird that has fallen out of its nest?

It happens relatively often, and when it does most people are at a loss as to what they should do. The story I have been told is that people should not approach fledglings and that if they touch a baby bird, then the parents will reject their young one completely.

Well, I’ve good news; that’s not true.

Africa Geographic, a fabulous publishing house that brings out many bird and wild-life related publications, has a really wonderful book that everyone will find useful. It’s called “Great Garden Birds” and it has useful advice for anyone who wants to make their gardens more hospitable for birds.

What particularly struck me was the section called, “Garden orphans”. The writers say that you should be very sure that the baby bird is actually in difficulty before you intervene: some birds, like the Burchell’s Coucal and the Spotted Eagle Owl, leave the nest early and move around the garden with their parents following at a distance. “They may appear helpless with their inadequate feathering and their lack of fear of any danger, but this is the way they grow up …. Even young birds that leave the nest prematurely – blown out by a gust of wind or fleeing after a sudden scare – are often located by the parent birds and fed until they are able to take care of themselves.”

The advice is that if you find a fledgling out of the nest, you should first observe it from a distance. If the parent is around and interacts with the fledgling on the ground, then don’t interfere. “If the chick is obviously too young to be left or is in danger of being killed by a cat or dog, place it in a shallow container (a shallow wicker basket is ideal) and attach the container to the tree where the adults have been seen.”

It seldom happens that adult birds will “reject” a baby that has been handled by humans under the above conditions.

The most celebrated animated film studio in the world doesn’t really need any more recognition, but I’m gonna do it anyway.

10. Luxo Jr. (1986)

Director: John Lasseter

It is in the tradition of the medium to revel in the ability to make ordinary household objects do things people do.  Luxo Jr. is what it looks like – an early experiment in computer generated animation, one that hints at big things to come.  In case you were wondering, its also the source of Pixar’s over-zealous little lamp in their logo.

09. Red’s Dream (1989)

Director: John Lasseter

Red’s Dream is billed by Pixar as their first film to feature an “organic” character (the crudely rendered Lumpy the Clown).  But for me, what really stands out about this one is the idea of toys not simply being alive but also having consciousness, and that consciousness leading to a fear of obsolescence – an idea that would later come to inspire Tin Toy, and, of course, the Toy Story series.  Unlike those films, though, Red’s Dream leaves us with an uncharacteristically somber, even hopeless feeling.  This was a short that quietly made big leaps in terms of thematic exploration.

08. Lifted (2006)

Director: Gary Rydstrom

When we consider alien visitors, it is not uncommon to illustrate them as highly intelligent beings that seem to exclusively abduct incompetent Americans.  Lifted kind of turns the tables on that whole idea.  Interesting note:  Director and famed sound designer Gary Rydstrom apparently created the hapless alien’s control console with purposeful resemblance to a sound mixing board.  I suspect the likeness brought the idea of confused and aimless tinkering under the terrifying watchful eye of a supervisor closer to home.

07. Partly Cloudy (2009)

Director: Peter Sohn

Here we have a sweet tale about sticking with your friends, even if that betrays your better judgment.   The task of animating this was allegedly a difficult one – how does one bring life to big ball of moisture floating in the sky?  The final effect is, of course, stunning.  We’ve come to expect no less.

06. One Man Band (2005)

Director: Andrew Jimenez, Mark Andrews

I could give the standard Marxist reading for One Man Band (its a comment on the destructive nature of capitalism, whereby man is pitted against man simply for temporal monetary gain).  Yes, I could get into that, but I’ll spare you.  The movie is perhaps more notable for its painstaking detail in uniting sight and sound.  The music, in fact, is so integral to the narrative the two aspects were simultaneously developed.  The final product: a joy to the senses.

05. Tin Toy (1989)

Director: John Lasseter

Released a year after Red’s Dream, Tin Toy continued to build upon the idea of life as a toy.  This time around, its partnered with the indavertently cruel fickleness of a child owner.  As far as technical progress, Pixar continued to explore lifelike motion and expression in the short’s infant lead.  It is also said that Tinny the marching toy was originally intended to be a central character in Toy Story.  With a few alterations, that character became the forgettable Buzz Lightyear.

04. For the Birds (2000)

Director: Ralph Eggleston

One of the simplest of Pixar’s shorts, but beneficial from being so.  For the Birds is a satisfying and comical story about the odd-man-out getting his well deserved last laugh.

03. Presto (2008)

Director: Doug Sweetland

Presto, with its high energy and fluid execution, is a great example of the monumental leaps Pixar has made in the past 20+ years.  Here we have a return to a much more classic cartoon slapstick logic, where the gags are so amusing and fast paced we hardly get a moment to breath in its 5 minute duration.  Easily Pixar’s funniest.

02. Knick Knack (1989)

Director: John Lasseter

Pixar has a wonderful way of heightening our expectations just to throw us curve-balls.  They do it in terms of basic concepts and themes, but more importantly, they do it within the narrative.  Knick Knack is a good example of this in a short film.  After going through all the trouble of making his escape the Snowman finds he is once again trapped, albeit in a slightly different setting.  In under five minutes, we sympathize for the little guy, because his plight only occurs following the grandest attempts to better his situation.  Animation providing a metaphor for the everyday?  Pish posh!

01. Geri’s Game (1997)

Director: Jan Pinkava

Could it have been any other film, really?  Its groundbreaking in terms of realism and the perfect kind of simple concept for the medium of short film.  Pixar is exceptional in its refusal of the wide misconception that animation is only for the young.  In Geri we find an energetic old man who finds the world is at its richest when he retreats into his own imagination and battles the most worthy opponent of all.