Luxo Jr. (character)
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Luxo Jr. is a semi-
anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
toy A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pet ...
desk lamp A light fixture (US English), light fitting (UK English), or luminaire is an electrical device containing an electric lamp that provides illumination. All light fixtures have a fixture body and one or more lamps. The lamps may be in sockets for ...
character used as the primary
mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...
of
Pixar Animation Studios Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...
. He is the
protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
of the short film of the same name and appears on the
production logo A production logo, vanity card, vanity plate, or vanity logo is a logo used by movie studios and television production company, production companies to brand what they produce and to determine the production company and the distributor of a tel ...
of every Pixar film, hopping into view and jumping on the capital letter "I" in "PIXAR" to flatten it.
John Lasseter John Alan Lasseter (; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, ...
created the character, modeling it after his own
Luxo Luxo ASA is a Norwegian manufacturer of lamps. Based in Oslo, it has sales throughout Europe and North America, with production plants in Norway, Sweden and Keila, Estonia. The company was founded in 1934 and was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchan ...
brand lamp. In 2009, the manufacturer of Luxo lamps sued
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
, the parent company of Pixar, for selling Luxo Jr.-branded merchandise.


Creation

John Lasseter used a Luxo lamp on his drawing table as a graphic rendering model. He experimented with the model, using it for motion studies. He demonstrated the animated Luxo model at an animation festival in
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, RĂ©gion de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. Lasseter did not plan on creating a story for the lamp, but the Belgian animator
Raoul Servais Raoul Servais (born 1 May 1928) is a Belgian filmmaker, animator, and comics artist. He was born in Ostend, Belgium, and is a fundamental figure of the Belgian animation scene, as well as the founder of the animation faculty of the Royal Academy ...
urged him to write a plot. Servais said that "No matter how short it is, it should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Don't forget the story." Servais persuaded Lasseter that the length of the animation would not impede the story, telling him "You can tell a story in ten seconds." The inspiration for the Luxo Jr. character came from Lasseter's interactions with Spencer, the young son of Tom Porter, who is a Pixar team member. Lasseter wondered if the body proportions of a child could be applied to a lamp. He said that "Spencer was about one and a half, and seeing him hold his arms up over his head made me laugh because he couldn't really touch the top of his head yet. After he left, I started thinking, what would a baby lamp look like?" He changed the proportions of the lamp model to make it more infant-like, giving a large head and a small body. Lasseter did not modify the size of the light bulb. He imagined that the store-bought bulb was separate from the lamp's "body" and did not age.


Films


''Luxo Jr.''

Lasseter followed advice from Servais and conceived the plot for a short film starring Luxo Jr. as the protagonist. The short film would have two characters, Luxo Jr. and a bigger lamp named Luxo Sr. Luxo Jr. plays with a small ball, but jumping on the ball causes it to deflate. Saddened by the loss of the toy, Luxo Jr. hops off-screen. Luxo Jr. finds a beach ball and reappears chasing after it, while the parent lamp shakes its head. ''Luxo Jr.'' demonstrated advances in the technology of self-shadowing. Lasseter said that "The animation of a lamp whose head is a light-source, moving around and self-shadowing the world around him, was a perfect matching of technology and subject matter." ''Luxo Jr.'' made its debut at the 1986 SIGGRAPH show in Dallas, Texas. The film received critical acclaim for its
photorealistic Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can be ...
style and emotional impact.


''Sesame Street'' shorts

Luxo Jr. can also be seen in four educational short films, which were created by Pixar especially for ''
Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...
'' in 1991: '' Light & Heavy'', '' Surprise'', ''Up and Down'' and ''Front and Back''. * ''Light & Heavy'': Luxo Jr. demonstrates both light and heavy by using a
beach ball ''Beach Ball'' is a 1965 American beach party movie starring Edd Byrnes and partly financed by Roger Corman.Ed. J. Philip di Franco, ''The Movie World of Roger Corman'', Chelsea House Publishers, 1979, p. 145 It features appearances by The Supre ...
to demonstrate light and later a
bowling ball A bowling ball is a hard spherical ball used to knock down bowling pins in the sport of bowling. Balls used in ten-pin bowling and American nine-pin bowling traditionally have holes for two fingers and the thumb. Balls used in five-pin bowling, c ...
to demonstrate heavy. * ''Surprise'': Luxo Sr. examines a box in which Luxo Jr. pops out, demonstrating surprise. * ''Up and Down'': Luxo Jr. demonstrates up and down by jumping on and off of a cardboard box until he falls through. * ''Front and Back'': Luxo, Jr. demonstrates front and back by showing his front and back until he gets exhausted and falls over.


''Toy Story'' series

In the ''Toy Story'' franchise, a red Luxo lamp can be seen on Andy's desk and in ''
Toy Story 3 ''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the ''Toy Story'' series and the sequel to ''Toy Story 2'' (1999). It was d ...
'' as a pink Luxo Jr. lamp.


Animatronic

A
animatronic Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
figure modeled after Luxo Jr. stood near the
Toy Story Midway Mania Toy Story Midway Mania! (also known as ''Toy Story Mania!'') is an interactive 4-D theme park attraction, located at three Disney theme parks: Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort, Disney California Adventure at the Dis ...
attraction at the
Disney's Hollywood Studios Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by Ma ...
theme park. The animatronic often danced to music on a ledge near the entrance. In 2010 Disney removed the animatronic without offering an official explanation, but the Luxo ASA lawsuit may have been a factor. At
Disney California Adventure Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Park ...
, there is an animatronic of Luxo Jr. on top of the
Pixar Pier Pixar Pier is a themed land at Disney California Adventure, based on that of Victorian boardwalks that were once found along the coast of California. Despite its name and the presence of a nearby man-made lake, Pixar Pier is not actually a pier ...
marquee.


Lawsuit

Luxo Luxo ASA is a Norwegian manufacturer of lamps. Based in Oslo, it has sales throughout Europe and North America, with production plants in Norway, Sweden and Keila, Estonia. The company was founded in 1934 and was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchan ...
ASA, the Norwegian company that manufactures Luxo lamps, sued Pixar and its parent company Disney in 2009 by claiming that Disney violated its trademarks by selling promotional lamps branded as the Luxo Jr. character. Disney had planned on bundling the Luxo Jr. lamp with the collector's edition of the ''Up''
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
release. Luxo ASA claimed that the Luxo Jr. merchandise would "cause devastating damage to Luxo and dilute the goodwill which Luxo has built up." Disney settled with Luxo ASA and agreed not to sell Luxo Jr. lamps while Luxo ASA did not object to "artistic renditions" of the lamp and allowed Pixar to keep using Luxo Jr. as a character.


References

{{Disney animated characters Pixar characters Fictional computers Corporate mascots 1980s toys Male characters in animation Male characters in advertising Child characters in animation Child characters in advertising Mascots introduced in 1986 Film studio mascots