Knick Knack

Knick Knack is a 1989 American computer-animated short film produced by Pixar that was written and directed by John Lasseter. The short is about a snow globe snowman who wants to join the other travel souvenirs in a summer-themed party. However, the glass dome that surrounds him prevents him from doing so, thus leading to his many attempts to break out of his snow globe. Knick Knack is Pixar's fourth short and the final short produced during the company's tenure as a hardware company. The short stands out from Lasseter's other early short films at Pixar in its reliance on pure comedy to drive the story. It was inspired by Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, and the work of animators Chuck Jones and Tex Avery. Lasseter and his wife, Nancy, collected snow globes and also enjoyed souvenirs from distant places and those elements made their way into the short as well. Singer Bobby McFerrin improvised the a cappella vocal jazz soundtrack to the film while watching a rough cut which was eventually left unchanged in its final edition. Knick Knack premiered at the 1989 SIGGRAPH convention in Boston and was presented in 3D. The short has enjoyed positive reviews since its debut and has been screened as a part of numerous film festivals. The short has now been associated with Finding Nemo, with a remade version of the short being shown before it in that film's original theatrical runs. On a bookshelf filled with vacation-themed souvenirs, a lonely and grumpy playboy knick-knack named Knick the Snowman (who is Frosty the Snowman's cousin, according to the audio commentary), who resides in a Nome, Alaska snow globe, wants to reach a female "Sunny Miami" knick-knack that shows an attractive blonde and tanned pool-lounger, wearing a blue bikini and sunglasses. Knick tries several unsuccessful methods to break out of the globe, which includes ramming the glass with the snow globe's igloo backdrop, using his carrot nose and a hammer on the glass, using a jackhammer (which causes his facial features to fall off), trying to cut the glass using a blowtorch and an igniter, and detonating TNT explosives.