Lifted (2006)

A teenage alien tries to abduct a sleeping human, but with so many switches to do so, it's nearly impossible.

Director:

Gary Rydstrom

Writers:

Gary Rydstrom, Jeff Pidgeon (story)

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Storyline

It's night; crickets chirp outside an isolated farmhouse. A bright light from a spacecraft shines through a bedroom window and lifts a sleeping man. However, the light and the small alien controlling it from the ship are unable to pull the man through the window: first it's the glass that impedes them. The alien frets; its supervisor - large, laconic, and green - watches. As the human keeps sleeping, the alien's tries every lever. Just as it looks as if the alien abduction will succeed, something goes wrong. The supervisor steps in.

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Plot Keywords:

intrusion | alien spacecraft | crying | unidentified flying object | light | 

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Taglines:

Failure is an option.

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Genres:

Animation | Short | Comedy | Family | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

None

Release Date:

29 June 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lifted

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pixar Animation Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

5 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The transparent, bubbly interior of the aliens was inspired by the appearance of hair styling gel.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the opening Pixar credit, the shining face of Luxo Jr. dissolves into a full moon in the night sky of the establishing shot.

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Connections

Featured in MsMojo: Top 10 Best Pixar Shorts (2018)

User Reviews

I won't put it down

This animated short is on the 2-Disc Special Edition of Ratatouille, and I understand that it was also played in theaters right before aforementioned feature was. With a running time of five minutes and not a single spoken word, this communicates entirely through the visuals, and the quality is definitely top-notch. The story-telling is quite good, and this doesn't go for the cheap audience-pleaser of just doing fancy stuff with the ever-expanding technology, and instead uses it. This has a cool enough, minimalistic plot that you can instantly get into, and a conflict that takes a mere second to wrap your head around, including for young children, in spite of the exact situation being one that I'm willing to bet no one in the audience has found themselves in. All of the sound is excellent, as is the use of it. I didn't personally find this terribly funny, but I can imagine that many will. The material tends to be physical, with slapstick and sight gags. Cartoon violence, and a brief image that might remind people of plumbers is the extent of the offensive material. I recommend this to fans of CGI movies. 7/10