An Illuminated Personality

The Pixar Studios district at Disney's Hollywood Studios opened last summer with the debut of Toy Story Midway Mania. The entire area is full of many exquisite details (such as the multi-colored brick pattern duplicated from Pixar's campus in Emeryville, California) and fun surprises (like the Green Army Men playing Scrabble). Although the main focus is on characters from the Toy Story films, a certain little lamp can also be found here. His name is Luxo Jr., and he has become the unofficial mascot of Pixar Animation Studios, appearing at the start of every Pixar film.

Luxo Jr. was the title character of Pixar's first computer animated short film (image below ©Pixar). The film grew out of John Lasseter's desire to learn how to model an object on the computer. He chose as his subject the Luxo brand lamp on his desk. Further inspired by a coworker's young son, John wondered what a child lamp would look and act like. Luxo Jr. was born. "Luxo Jr." had its public debut at SIGGRAPH in 1986 and was met with rapturous applause. Never before had such personality and life been seen from a computer-generated image. It was the beginning of a journey that would culminate in Toy Story, the first full-length computer animated feature, and lead to a successful run of wonderful stories and characters.

Now, Luxo Jr. has been given new life in the form of an incredible new Audio-Animatronics figure on Pixar Place at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Throughout the day, just outside the facade for the Luxo Jr. Lighting Department, the little lamp hops out to have a little fun. Music starts playing in the area, and Luxo Jr. can't help but dance along. The music changes, and he responds accordingly. At night, Luxo Jr. discovers a connection with the trees around him, each shimmering with hundreds of twinkling lights. As Luxo Jr. calls to them, the lights in the trees react, dancing and changing color with him.

Luxo Jr. appears intermittently (approx. every 15-20 minutes), weather permitting. Of the two vignettes, "dancing" runs during the day. "Dancing" and "conducting" alternate with one another after dark. Additional vignettes may be added in the future, so stay tuned!

UPDATE: The Luxo Jr. figure was retired in Spring 2010 after proving to be too difficult to operate reliably in this environment. Hopefully, we'll see him return at some point.