Pixar Production Logo

See also: Old Pixar Logo

The Pixar production logo is a sequence that appears at the beginning and end of most Pixar productions movies, and features a playful desk lamp. The 1986 short film Luxo Jr. is the source of the small hopping desk lamp included in Pixar's logo.

In To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios, a book of Pixar's history up through January 2007, film critic Leonard Maltin said that he "like[s] the fact that Luxo still has significance to the people at Pixar", and remarked that it was something like Disney's Mickey Mouse.

Sequence

Luxo Jr., without his cord, serves as the mascot for Pixar Animation Studios, appearing in its production logo before and after each film. He hops in from the right, stops next to the "I" in PIXAR (in a spaced-out Charlemagne Bold face (the "X" and the "R" appear to overlap the floor)), and jumps on it until he has completely squashed it down, as he did to the rubber ball in the short. He then looks around and angles his "head" toward the camera as the words "Animation Studios" appear bottom right of the logo. Sometimes, instead of fading out, the light slowly dims until it's completely dark. This leaves just the light from Luxo, which then switches off with a click one second later.

Variations

• For Cars, the message "Celebrating 20 Years" appeared as the background faded out, with Luxo Jr.'s head used as the zero. Pixar was founded in 1986; Cars, released in 2006, marked their 20th anniversary.
• For Cars 2, the logo animates until the end, where the letters fade out and then the rest of the logo. "CELEBRATING" fades in, with "25" in blue lettering behind it and "YEARS" below it. "CELEBRATING" fades out, then "25 YEARS" fades out. The design of the text is similar to the 20th Century Fox "Celebrating 75 Years" logo and marked their 25th anniversary. but on Blu-Ray and DVD prints, it uses the normal logo instead.
• For Incredibles 2 the logo has a totally different color scheme, in the style of the Incredibles logo. The background is red and Luxo Jr. is black

  

• In a teaser trailer for WALL•E, Luxo Jr.'s bulb burns out after he has squashed the I down. WALL•E rolls in from the right, changes the bulb to an energy-efficient fluorescent bulb, and pats Luxo Jr. on the head to calm him down before going back the way he came. However, he knocks the R in PIXAR as he goes, so he stops and positions his body to take its place, after which Luxo Jr. looks at the camera and peeks and it continues. This is also shown after the end credits of the film, also concluding with a "BnL" jingle and logo.
• A new variant of the sequence, optimized for 3-D projection, was first played with the 3D version of Up. The same animation as the regular logo plays as normal. However, the camera pans to the right from the P in the PIXAR letters, therefore Luxo Jr. is seen approaching center when he's first seen, and he stops on the right side of the "I" instead of the left side before bouncing on it. Between the films Up and Lightyear, as the words 'Animation Studios' appear, it zooms in instead of just fading in.
• In the beginning of Lifted, Luxo Jr.'s head fades into the moon.
• In the teaser trailer for Cars 2, as the light goes down Luxo Jr.'s light suddenly becomes a laser.
• On other occasions, everything in the sequence, including the bouncing, the fade out, and the light click off, is timed to match any music playing at the time of the beginning or ending credits. Examples:
  • The beginning of For the Birds
  • The ending of the score or the song If I Didn't Have You (Monsters, Inc.)
  • The ending of Robert Goulet's version of You've Got a Friend in Me (Toy Story 2)
• Starting in 2018, the logo was re-animated and re-rendered with Pixar's current software. Changes include some color correction, Luxo Jr. being remodeled (with a new base) and it having an LED bulb.
• On Toy Story 4, the logo transforms into a dark and rainy version. Also at the end of the film, Duke Caboom drives in and uses his motorcycle to squish the I. When he goes into his pose he gives the Winter Combat Carl a high-five he wanted in the film.
• Ten new versions of the logo are made for Pixar Popcorn, with Luxo Jr. doing something in relation to popcorn.

Trivia

• The animation of the Pixar Logo was done by Pete Docter.