Luxo, Jr. (character)

Luxo, Jr. is Pixar's mascot and the star of the 1986 short film Luxo, Jr. He is a small, light gray desk lamp (although he has sometimes looked more of a white than light gray lamp) who loves to play with bouncy balls. After having the same light bulb for over 20 years, WALL-E had to replace it for him when it went out, which can be seen in the trailer for WALL-E, replacing the standard bulb with a compact florescent. Luxo, Jr. has been seen in every Pixar feature film and short film since Toy Story, during the film's introduction and at the end of the credits as the I of the Pixar logo.

Luxo, Jr.'s most recent (albeit temporary) upgrade was that of a laser for the teaser, regular trailers, and ending of Cars 2.

Cameo appearances

 * A picture from Luxo, Jr. can be seen on the wall in Tin Toy.
 * Luxo, Jr. appears as a constellation in outer space in the opening scene for Toy Story 2 right before Buzz Lightyear appears.
 * A Luxo, Jr. lamp can be seen in the bike shop in Red's Dream.
 * A red version of Luxo, Jr. is seen on Andy's desk in Toy Story, Toy Story Treats, Toy Story 2, and Toy Story 3.
 * A red version of Luxo, Jr. is seen in Bonnie's room in Hawaiian Vacation.
 * The Luxo, Jr. can be seen twice on the credits of Cars 2: the first over looking the Pixar Studios building on a map, and the second in an advertisement for "Air Luxo".
 * Luxo, Jr. appears in four segments: "Light and Heavy", "Up and Down", "Front and Back", and "Surprise", which aired on Sesame Street.
 * Luxo, Jr. also appears in the Disney Infinity games as a non-playable toy box decoration.

Logo
Luxo, Jr. appears in the logo of Pixar Animation Studios, where he comes in and squished the "I" in "Pixar".

There are some variations of the logo: Anniversary Variants:
 * Originally, in the trailers and TV Spots (Including the 1996 home video) of Toy Story, the words are white in the black background.
 * The color were later inverted on Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Monsters, Inc. for GBC, and Operation: Camouflage for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
 * On Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story, it slowly fades in before the lamp animation starts. After the lamp turns, it slowly fades out.
 * On the short film Geri's Game and Disney's Activity Center: A Bug's Life for the PC, it is open matted.
 * The latter, however, ends slightly differently the background suddenly turns off leaving it a blue glow around it which slowly dims and the lamp's brightness dims slightly before turning off.
 * Beginning in 1998 at the beginning of films from A Bug's Life onward (Not counting Monsters, Inc. and Cars; including the beginning of the 2000 DtV feature Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, the short films Boundin and One Man's Band, and the non-theatrical prints of Cars 2), it animates as normal, but it ends similar to the D'sAS:TS version. The difference from that version is the fadings is faster.
 * The BLoSC:TAB version has it vertically off-centered.
 * A still version with Luxo Jr. exists on Toy Story 3 for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
 * Mainly on trailers and TV spots, at the beginning of Monsters, Inc., at the beginning of shorts starting from Partly Cloudly, at the end of TV specials, and on the second trailer for Coco titled "Dante's Treat", the tail end of the animation plays.
 * On June 28th, 2008, starting with WALL-E, in was given a HD look with the same animation intact.
 * At the end of the theatrical release of Wall-E, it plays as normal, but it cuts in at the beginning, but after the lamp turns, it freezes for the few seconds before "ANIMATION STUDIOS" fades in.
 * Beginning with UP, after the lamp turns "ANIMATION STUDIOS" then fades in.
 * At the beginning of the 2009 2D re-release of Toy Story, it plasters the existing WDP logo variation, but still fades to the opening shot.
 * On Kinect Rush: A Disney/Pixar Adventure, the animation starts from the point where the lamp is already in place.
 * On one TV spot for Finding Dory, "ANIMATION STUDIOS" is absent.
 * At both the beginning (Opening variant) and the end (Normal version) of Cars 3, it cuts in like the WALL•E theatrical version (and it's custom variant).
 * On the teaser trailer for Incredibles 2 on Samuel L. Jackson's official Facebook page, it is oddly cropped up in the middle to unfit into the vertical ratio cutting out the "P" & "R" in "PIXAR" and the half of "ANIMATION STUDIOS".
 * In opening logos of Incredibles 2, the logo is reanimated to be in the style of the movie's closing credits, with a completely different color scheme.
 * In 2006, Pixar celebrated 20 years. At the beginning of Cars (Excluding the 3D version), the logo plays as normal. When the background darkens, the words: "Celebrating 20 years"


 * In 2011, Pixar celebrated 25 years. At the beginning of theatrical prints of Cars 2, the logo plays as normal, but after the lamp turns, the letters of "PIXAR" (Excluding the already squished "I") and "ANIMATION STUDIOS" fades out leaving the background and lamp behind. Then it fades to black, as "CELEBRATING" (With the "C" formed from Luxo Jr.'s light) fades in, zooming forward.

Trivia

 * The inspiration for the design and size of Luxo, Jr. came from Spencer Porter, son of Tom Porter. Tom had brought his son to work one day and John Lasseter was inspired by how much larger Spencer's head was compared to the rest of his body, plus the size of his eyes compared to the rest of his head.