Knick Knacks

The Knick Knacks are the titular characters from the 1989 Pixar animated short of the same name.

Background[]

The knick knacks, as their names imply, are a group of anthropomorphic objects having their own adventures in their world with no actual humans around them, where most of them are seen wearing sunglasses. While most of them spend their lives in a happy manner, the misfit knick knack, Knick, who resides in his snow dome "Nome Sweet Nome Alaska", is very dissatisfied that he has very limited space inside his snow dome. While most of them are seen happy, they suddenly feel worried about and react to Knick's futile attempts to escape his snow dome.

Members[]

The first knick knack seen, Sunny Florida is a flamingo knick knack standing on one leg (like flamingos in real life) in an inflatable swimming pool.

Surf Death Valley is a skeleton knick knack wearing a pair of swim trunks with a red-and-blue flower pattern and holding a surfboard with the word "Mom" on it with a skull and crossbones design.

Sunny Egypt is a pyramid knick knack, hence his name, and as his name implies, his name is a reference to pyramids found in Egypt.

Sunny Israel is a cactus knick knack wearing a pair of sunglasses and a white-and-blue cap.

Sunny Palm Springs is a bouncing palm tree knick knack with a spring attached to him. Hence his name, he is a smiling palm tree.

Sunny Jamaica is a brown palm tree knick knack whose leaves resemble that of dreadlocks in reference to his name with the tree trunk on Sunny Jamaica's appearance being dark brown.

Sunny Miami is a knick knack which depicts a woman sitting on a Jacuzzi. The woman's appearance on the Sunny Miami Jacuzzi wears a pair of sunglasses, blue swimwear, and blonde hair in both the original 1989 version and 2003 edits.

Main article: Knick

Sunny Atlantis is a mermaid knick knack and is the last knick knack seen in the short. She is seen trying to get Knick's attention so he can fall in love with her, only for the Nome Sweet Nome snow dome to fall on Knick containing him again.

Development[]

Six years before Toy Story was made with only eight people at the Pixar Animation Studios doing the project at this time, the Knick Knack short was an extremely collaborative project in which even with only eight employees designing the characters, they were also able to animate even when Pixar had only eight employees at first. The inspiration of creating the characters came from John Lasseter's wife Nancy who had a collection of snow domes where Lasseter received the idea of creating the snowman character stuck in his own snow dome and the short also features a unique story of a cartoon character who is frustrated in trying to get out of an obstacle similar to the manner of Chuck Jones' cartoons, such as Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, which were used as an inspiration of Knick, the snowman trying to get out of the snow dome due to the limited space in it. Gary Rydstrom, who works for Skywalker Sound, designed the sound effects for the short, especially when it comes to Knick. With only eight people at this time at Pixar, the team of people was able to create the short film through cooperation and collaboration with each other, featuring the knick knacks in it.^[1]

Appearances[]

Knick Knack[]

In the short, the knick knacks, Sunny Miami, Surf Death Valley, Sunny Egypt, Sunny Israel, Sunny Palm Springs, Sunny Jamaica, and Sunny Miami are introduced where the knick knacks are seen living happily together with each other, except for a unique knick knack named Knick who is feeling uncomfortable of living inside his own snow dome. Knick tries several ways to escape his own home such as hammering the glass with his carrot used a nail, a jackhammer, a welding plan, and various explosives inside the dome, in which several of his attempts to escape were a failure, unable to get out of his home just as the other knick knacks react to Knick's strange behavior, much to his plans of trying to escape his own home.

However, Knick later notices that his snow dome is about to fall off the ledge thanks to some of his plans, so Knick's dome begins falling off the ledge just as Sunny Florida, Sunny Miami, Sunny Palm Springs, and Sunny Jamaica notice Knick's dome falling off the ledge in which Knick finally sees the emergency exit door as he was able to escape from it happy that he is now free from his snow dome in which Knick lands in a fish bowl much to the other knick knacks' worry. As Knick ends up in it, he suddenly sees the mermaid knick knack Sunny Atlantis. Knick tries to get Sunny Atlantis' attention only for his own dome to fall on him, causing Knick to be unable to get her attention much to his frustration.

Other appearances[]

In Toy Story 2, archived footage of the uncensored version of Knick Knack (consisting of Sunny Miami, Sunny Florida, Surf Death Valley, Sunny Egypt, Sunny Jamaica, and Knick himself) can be briefly seen during the scene where Hamm is changing channels while trying to find Al's Toy Barn in a plan to rescue Woody.

In Finding Nemo, a Sunny Atlantis model can be seen on the sunken ship on the aquarium at Philip Sherman's office. Coincidentally, the edited version of Knick Knack and Finding Nemo were both released in the same year.

In Cars, a group of flamingos resembling the Sunny Florida one are seen near a parker van watching the final race. However, none of them are car-ified.

A Sunny Miami figure can be briefly seen in the opening of Up, where Carl is buying an airline ticket to Paradise Falls.

Trivia[]

Aside from Knick whose label reads "Nome Sweet Nome", Surf Death Valley is the only knick-knack whose name does not have the word "Sunny" labeled on it.
- Sunny Florida is also the only knick-knack whose name is on its body instead of its base.
Several of the knick knacks have references to the objects they are based on:
- Sunny Florida being a flamingo knick knack is a possible reference to the American flamingo, a large species of flamingo related to the greater flamingo, which is found in Florida.
- Surf Death Valley depicted as a skeleton knick knack is named after Death Valley, a desert area in California; however, this is a pun as skeletons are commonly associated with death and Death Valley being a real-life place, which this knick knack is named after. Surfing in Death Valley is physically impossible to do in real life as there are no beaches in Death Valley.
- Sunny Egypt being a pyramid is a reference to the Great Pyramids of Giza, one of the most famous landmarks of Egypt.
- Sunny Israel being depicted as a cactus is a reference to prickly pear cacti being used as food in Israel and other parts of the Middle East. This is also a reference to the Hebrew term "Sabra", which used to describe a Jew that was born in Israel.
- Sunny Palm Springs depicted as a palm tree is named after Palm Springs, a desert resort city in California which houses many places of interests, such as the Agua Caliente Casino and the Living Desert Zoo. However, this is a pun, as Sunny Palm Springs himself is a palm tree attached with a spring on it.
- Sunny Jamaica being depicted as a palm tree is likely a coconut tree, a possible reference to Jamaica having the largest coconut industry.
- Sunny Miami depicting a woman in a Jacuzzi is a reference to Miami Beach, one of the most famous tourist spots in Florida.
- Knick's snow dome reading "Nome Sweet Nome" is a pun on "Home sweet home" and Nome, a city in Alaska.
- Sunny Atlantis' name depicting a mermaid knick knack is a possible reference to Atlantis, a legendary island which sunk to the bottom of the sea in mythology.