When I was a young, cartoon-obsessed kid, I read in fanzines and science magazines about the first few Pixar shorts. This was in the days before the internet — or even decent cable systems — and I could hardly wrap my imagination around what was being described: animation done by computers, accurately replicating the textures and shapes of the real world, ushering in a bold new era in the history of the moving image. When I was finally able to see them for myself in the early 1990s, I stumbled out of the theater, mind suitably blown, convinced that I had just seen something completely new.
Those early cartoons — 'Tin Toy', 'Luxo Jr.', 'Knick Knack' and others — now seem shockingly primitive. Surfaces look artificial, motion looks stiff, and the attempt to design a human-like figure — the baby in 'Tin Toy' — comes off as grotesque. Yet Pixar always had more to offer than mere technical innovation; what sets them apart (then and now — even the simplest film here craps all over, say, Shrek 3) is a deep understanding of and appreciation for a century of kinetic, physically dynamic cinema. In a bonus documentary, John Lassiter names 'Steamboat Willie' as an inspiration, but there're echoes of Looney Tunes, Buster Keaton and Busby Berkeley here as well, to name only a few. Someone's doing their homework, and it becomes even more evident on the disc's later, more recent cartoons, which have a power to astound matched only by Pixar's features. You may feel silly paying full price for less than an hour's worth of cartoons, but this is an important collection that contains the past and future of cinema in equal amounts. — Dan Erdman
DVD EXTRAS: A nifty documentary details the sometimes painful creation of the early films and contains some fascinating information about Pixar's early business plans. Each short is accompanied by informative and enlightening audio commentaries.