Knick Knack

Knick Knack is Pixar's fifth short film. It was released in 1989 at SIGGRAPH. Then on May 30, 2003 with Finding Nemo in theaters. It was even released on October 20, 2006 with The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D. It was the last pre-Toy Story short and the first one to be originally shot in 3D.

Plot

In the short, a snowman named Knick in a snow globe wants to get to a pretty woman on an ashtray knick knack that says "Sunny Miami" on it. He tries various methods to escape. First, he tries to bust the dome with the igloo knick knack in the globe. Being flat plastic, it just floats to the bottom. Next, he tries using his carrot nose as a spike with a hammer on the dome wall. This just gets his nose out of joint in that it ends up bent. Next, he tries to jackhammer through the globe floor. This just results in all of his facial features being vibrated off. Finally, he sets up a large stack of explosives and hides behind the upturned igloo. This results in everything, him, the igloo and snow, getting swirled around the globe. During all of these, the pretty woman looks more and more bored while the other knick knacks look on. After the swirling stops, he notices his snow globe is partly over the edge of the shelf. He looks down at the edge and this tips him over the edge, literally. He tries running in the globe in panic but this just rotates the globe. Soon, he notices a hatch in the floor of the globe, which is now above him. This gets him free from that watery prison. He falls off the screen and you hear a plop sound. You then see he has fallen into a fish aquarium. He is still in water, staring crossly at the camera. He looks to his left and sees a pretty mermaid sitting on a rock with the words "Sunny Atlantis" on it. He gets a lusty look on his face and begins walking towards her. At this point, the snow globe falls into the water, putting him inside through the hatch, which then closes. He, entranced by the mermaid, doesn't notice until he bumps into the dome wall, at which point he looks around and, realizing where he is, again looks crossly at the camera.

Knick Knacks

Trivia

When the short was re-released with Finding Nemo, the two female characters' breasts were reduced in size. Also, the mermaid on the "Sunny Atlantis" knick knack is wearing a clam bra in place of starfish pasties. John Lasseter defended the changes by saying, "It wasn’t big bad Disney coming in and insisting we do this … it was our own choice. It was just crossing the line for me personally as a father. So I made the decision to reduce [these characters'] breast size."^[1]

In Cars, Knick (the Snowman) is seen in the snowglobe in Lizzie's Curios Shop. However, he is not car-ified.
In Finding Nemo, the Sunny Atlantis Mermaid appears as the figurehead of the grime-covered ship in the fish tank.
The Sunny Miami Girl is seen in Up on a flyer when Carl is ordering tickets.
As a reference to this short, a group of flamingos is seen near a parker van watching the final race in Cars. However, they are not car-ified.