2006 American film
Lifted
is a 2006 American animated
science fiction
short film written and directed by
Gary Rydstrom
and produced by
Pixar Animation Studios
. This is the directorial debut of Rydstrom, a
Academy Award
-winning sound designer, editor and mixer, and the first produced by
Katherine Sarafian
, who went on to produce Pixar's
Brave
released in 2012.
Inspired by
Metropolis
(1927), the short debuted on October 12, 2006 at the
42nd Chicago International Film Festival
at
Columbia College
,
[1]
[2]
and was released theatrically with Pixar's
Ratatouille
on June 29, 2007. It was re-released theatrically in the United States on March 21, 2014 in 3D and IMAX formats.
[3]
Plot
[
edit
]
A young
alien
named Stu
[4]
is inside a
spacecraft
taking an
alien abduction
test. He must snatch a sleeping farmer named Ernie
[4]
under the watchful eye of his impassive examiner, a gelatinous blob named Mr. B.
[4]
Working from memory, Stu is expected to use an array of thousands of identical unlabeled
toggle switches
for this purpose; Mr. B's neutral expression gives no hints of which ones to use.
Stu's hesitant flicks of the switches turn out to be wrong, causing Ernie to bump into the walls and ceiling, albeit without waking him up. As Stu grows infuriated, he suffers from impatience by going crazy, while randomly swiping at the array. Ernie bounces randomly around the room like a
pinball
, knocking over the furniture in the process but remaining asleep. Eventually, after checking his notes, Stu does succeed in maneuvering Ernie out the window and up into the ship, but he shuts off the
tractor beam
without closing the cargo hatch. As Ernie plummets toward the ground, Mr. B takes over and catches him, he then pushes Stu far away from him and starts working the switches with incredible speed to put him back in his bed and clean up the mess Stu created.
Dejected over his failure, Stu struggles to hold back tears. With a sigh, the sympathetic Mr. B allows him to launch the spaceship for the trip home. Stu cheerfully grabs the steering yoke and begins to maneuver; a moment later the ship slams to the ground, crushing Ernie's house. When it lifts off, its underside is covered with dirt and debris, and nothing is left of the house except a tall pillar of dirt in the center of a crater, cut out by the open cargo hatch. Atop this, Ernie is still sound asleep in bed.
As the end credits run, the sound of Ernie's alarm clock is heard, followed by his yawn, a
Wilhelm scream
and a crash sound while falling into the crater.
Production
[
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]
Production on the film began in mid-2005 and was completed in the summer of 2006.
[5]
The short was inspired by Gary Rydstrom's own experiences as a sound mixer, and how uncomfortable and difficult it is to operate the large, complex piece of equipment when there are lots of people watching and taking notes.
[6]
There were no large technological advances used in
Lifted
, only the use of a new program called
Jiggle
. This program gives the animators a way to resonate, or jiggle, certain parts of a body. The animator can control how far out to resonate, such as only within a limb, or to stay away from specific parts of the body such as the face.
[5]
Awards
[
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]
Lifted
was nominated for
Best Animated Short Film
on January 23, 2007 for the
79th Academy Awards
.
[7]
It was also included in the
Animation Show of Shows
in 2006.
Home media
[
edit
]
Pixar included the film on the Blu-ray and DVD release of
Ratatouille
and as part of
Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1
in 2007.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Desowitz, Bill (September 25, 2006).
"Gary Rydstrom's First Pixar Short to Debut at Chicago Fest"
. Animation World Network.
Archived
from the original on May 16, 2015
. Retrieved
May 16,
2015
.
- ^
"Pixar: An Afternoon With Gary Rydstrom"
. Chicago Film Festival. Archived from
the original
on February 17, 2007
. Retrieved
May 16,
2015
.
- ^
King, Susan (November 9, 2007).
"
'Ratatouille,' extras a feast for viewers with taste"
.
Chicago Tribune
.
Archived
from the original on March 4, 2016
. Retrieved
May 16,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
c
Jessen, Taylor (February 22, 2007).
"2007's Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts: Three Fords, a Vespa and a Kit Bike"
. Animation World Network.
Archived
from the original on April 8, 2015
. Retrieved
May 16,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
Taylor Jessen. "2007's Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts: Three Fords, a Vespa and a Kit Bike",
Animation World Magazine
, 2-27-2007
Archived
2007-07-13 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"Event Recap: 10 Things We Learned from Gary Rydstrom During WDFM's Happily Ever After Hours"
.
Archived
from the original on 2023-10-06
. Retrieved
2023-09-08
.
- ^
Zoller Seitz, Matt (February 16, 2007).
"Film in Review; The 2006 Academy Award-Nominated Short Films"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on March 5, 2016
. Retrieved
May 16,
2015
.
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