Red's Dream (1987)

Red's Dream is a 1987 American computer-animated short film produced by Pixar and directed by John Lasseter. The short film, which runs four minutes, stars Red, a unicycle. Propped up in the corner of a bicycle store on a rainy night, Red dreams about a better place. Red's Dream was Pixar's second computer-animated short following Luxo Jr. in 1986, also directed by Lasseter.

Red's Dream is more strongly character-driven than Luxo Jr. The short was designed to demonstrate new technical innovations in imagery. The short was created by employing the company's own Pixar Image Computer, but the computer's memory limitations led the animation group to abandon it for further projects. Space was growing tight at the company, and as a result Lasseter and his team worked out of a hallway during production, where Lasseter sometimes slept for days on end.

The short premiered at the annual SIGGRAPH conference in Anaheim in July 1987 and received general enthusiasm from its attendants. Red's Dream was never attached to any later Pixar feature unlike many other early Pixar shorts. The film was released for home video as part of Tiny Toy Stories in 1996 and Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1 in 2007.

Synopsis

Set in a lonely city on a rainy night, the film takes place in a bicycle shop (named "Eben's Bikes" for Pixar animator Eben Ostby) that is closed for the night. In the corner of the shop sleeps Red, a red unicycle who languishes in the "clearance corner", waiting to be purchased. As the camera zooms on him, the sound of rain falling turns into a drumroll, and we go into the dream-sequence. In his dream, Red is being ridden by a circus clown (which was nicknamed 'Lumpy' due to his appearance) as part of a juggling act.