Chromosaurus Rex!

Back in the day, and particularly in the 80's, computer animation was actually awesome, because you didn't see it every day. It was a totally new style. And until Toy Story came out in the mid 90s, a lot of that wonderment still captured us whenever we got even momentary glimpses of the wonders these new-fangled computer programs could do.

They used to play computer animation demo shorts in repeat on the big screen televisions at Sears to show off the specs of the TV, and if there were living room setups available, my brother and I would plunk down on the couches and watch this stuff in amazement as our parents did boring adult things like "buy a new washer." The best computer animated short of the whole bunch could only be this one called "Chromosaurus" though. Seriously badass. They had T-Rexes running around, and they were ROBOTS. It couldn't be any more perfect.

Chromosaurus! Listen to that rockin' soundtrack! 

Along with this one there were a plethora of other computer animated shorts they'd show on those big screen TVs of yore. Two I definitely remember were "Locomotive" and "Stella and Stanley: Breaking the Ice." This was like Pixar before there was a Pixar as we know it. The humor and eye-popping realism of  "Locomotive" had us smiling, and the strange fantasy environment of the love story in "Stanley and Stella" was just totally mystifying, and still is. Watch it.