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. In the closing credits of Pixar Animation Studios films, instead of fading out, the light slowly dims until it is 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 in the closing credits 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. This version also appeared in Pixar: 20 Years of Animation and Counting.
• For Cars 2, in the closing credits 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.
• In the teaser trailer for Cars 2, as the light goes down Luxo Jr.'s light suddenly becomes a laser.
• 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. This variant is similar to the closing credits of Pixar movies, when the bulb shuts off.

  

• 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. At the end of original theatrical prints and on the FYC Awards Screener DVD of WALL-E, the sound when Luxo tilts his head to the camera was entirely muted.
• 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 beginning of Toy Story 4, Luxo Jr. fades into a streetlight in the rain. Also at the end of the film, Duke Caboom drives in and uses his motorcycle to squish the letter "I". When he goes into his pose, he gives the Winter Combat Carl a high-five he wanted in the film.
• A short version exists; it only shows the finished product and the only animation is Luxo Jr. facing the camera. It usually appears in front of shorts and trailers, as well as at the beginning of Monsters, Inc. and Mike's New Car. For international releases of Onward, this version is extended to show the lamp's bulb shutting off, which is based on the closing version.
• 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)
  • The beginning of Jack-Jack Attack
  • The ending of Incredibles 2
  • The ending of Cars on the Road
  • The beginning of Coco; the sound Luxo Jr. makes when he turns to the camera is replaced by a bell tolling, continuing into the film's intro.
  • The beginning of Turning Red; a guzheng plays after Luxo Jr. squishes the letter "I", drowning out the last sound effects.
  • In some movies, the opening theme of the movie plays over the Disney and/or Pixar logos instead. Movies that played the music over both logos were Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Incredibles 2, Ratatouille, Inside Out, Inside Out 2, Lightyear, and Onward.
• 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.
• Ten new versions of the logo are made for Pixar Popcorn, with Luxo Jr. doing something in relation to popcorn.
• In the teaser trailer for Elio, the logo fades to black when Luxo Jr. faces the camera. In the official trailer, it's the same as the teaser trailer variant, except "ANIMATION STUDIOS" is already formed. In the 2nd trailer, the logo doesn't fade to black, and this time, when Luxo Jr. faces the camera, his bulb turns green and begins to glitch, causing the logo to animate in reverse (although Luxo Jr. doesn't bounce off the "I"), and then the logo glitches into the trailer. In the 3rd trailer, it's the same as the 2nd trailer, except "ANIMATION STUDIOS" is already formed.
• In the teaser trailer for Hoppers, the logo plays normally (albeit with "ANIMATION STUDIOS" already formed), but when Luxo Jr. is nearly done squishing the "I", the logo plays in reverse. After that, it plays normally.

Trivia

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