The Pixar Ball (also known as the Luxo Ball) is a yellow ball with a blue stripe and red star that first appeared in the Luxo, Jr. short as a prop for Luxo, Jr. Since its debut, it has made numerous cameos in other Pixar films, most notably in the Toy Story films.
In Red's Dream, the design and color scheme of the ball appears on the floor of the circus ring.
In Toy Story, the ball rolls down the hallway of Andy's house as Sarge helps a "wounded" soldier to an indoor plant. A little later, one of Andy's friends bounce that ball up the stairs to Andy's room. Later, when Buzz proves to the toys that he can "fly", he bounces off the ball when he jumps off from Andy's bed.
In Toy Story 2, the ball appears in a TV commercial for Al's Toy Barn. Later, after the toys enter the toy store, one of these ball can be seen on the floor to the left, and a whole container of those balls can be seen to the left of the door when exiting.
A scene from Luxo Jr. featuring the ball was also among the scenes that were flipped through by Hamm to find a commercial for Al's Toy Barn.
An illustration of the ball appears next to John Lasseter's "Directed by" credit in the original (pre-outtakes) end credits of Toy Story 2.
Part of the cargo of a luggage cart Siddeley crashes through in Cars 2. A Russian race car on a postcard in the credits also has a paint job based on the ball.
As stickers on the X-99 rocket toys in the Star Adventurer carnival game booth in Toy Story 4. It also appears in the Second Chance Antiques store when Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep, Ducky and Bunny prepare to enter through the roof.
In "Coach's Kid", at the start of the montage of Laurie's run toward the softball field to train, seen by a swing set, next to the Pizza Planet Truck.
In "Pickle", when Vanessa puts a little ball in her baby Zane's mouth after he keeps biting her hand.
Advertising
As one of the marbles in the 1994Levi's commercial, "Woman Getting What She Wants" (0:10). This shot is also used briefly in Toy Story 2 as Hamm skips through the TV channels.
In the double feature trailer for Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in Disney Digital 3-D.
Toy Story 3 posters and teasers (one teaser showed Bullseye rolling around on the ball and Slinky holding it as the "O" in "Toy").
Shorter Sky BroadbandUK commercials promoting Toy Story That Time Forgot.
A giant version of the ball appeared in several promotional commercials for Toy Story Land. The latest show reveals it being pushed around by an equally large Slinky.
As one of the three collectibles the player must obtain in Monsters, Inc. Run to gain points to earn stars.
As projectiles used by Buzz in Toy Story: Smash It!, which the player must throw to knock down the Aliens as well as score points. The number of unused balls in the results screen upon completing each level depends on how many there are left during the game; used to garner points to earn three stars for each level.
In the video game Disney Infinity as one of the two-starter abilities for Woody, Buzz, and Jessie. It acts exactly like the one in the Toy Story 3 video game.
In the video game Disney Infinity: 3.0 as an obstacle in the Inside Out playset.
On all the Pixar Family Build areas and packs in LEGO The Incredibles. A giant LEGO brick version of it is part of Luxo, Jr.'s (called Junior) Pixar Family Build (which is unlocked after completing the other Pixar Family Builds; completing this one will unlock Junior himself), and the ball can be summoned by Junior as an attack item and during his idle animation.
As a power-up that can be formed by matching five pieces in an L or T-shape and used to remove all surrounding pieces in Toy Story Drop!; also in the background and part of the logo as the "o" in the word "Drop".
The ball looks similar to the ball from Dr. Seuss' 1957 children's book The Cat in the Hat, except the ball is red and white, and the stripe is in the middle with the star, while the Pixar ball's stripe is circled around the star.
The ball seen in Nick Jr.'s Blue's Clues looks exactly the same, except the colors of the star and stripe are swapped.
The ball seen in Nickelodeon's Rugrats (another show by Nick) and its reboot, looks exactly the same, except the ball in those shows is normally green with an orange star and blue stripe. The stripe is sometimes purple.
However, the ball appears with its correct colors in several of the original Rugrats episodes as well as the Rugrats section of the former Universal ride Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast and a 2002 Nickelodeon parody of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
The ball seen in the Playhouse Disney series PB&J Otter looks exactly the same, except with a pink star and green stripe.
The show's director Richard Goleszowski once admitted to paying tribute to Pixar in adding the ball after thinking that a dog wearing an Elizabethan collar looked a bit like a lamp.
The ball has the same color palette as the official logo of the Toy Story franchise, which coincidentally enough, is also Pixar's most successful one since its inception in 1995 with the first film.
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