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:

Abducido

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

References Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

User Reviews

Puppetering

You will watch this short in the theatre before the beginning of Ratatouille. And it's very well placed, since it indicates much of the theme that drives Ratatouille. An artist puppeteering an instrument in order to create his art.

This short may be understood as a synonym for the work of an animator. Really really hard to manage, check out the number of buttons in the board of the spaceship. It's hard to learn the job, and while you don't master it, all you do will be a disgrace. But if you get to do it well, you'll do wonders. You'll puppeteer the world below, create and destroy, move and control.

These small appointments (not necessarily short films) are interesting to me because they are explicit indications pointing on how each creator comes out with his own originality and my opinion is, the creations reflect usually every stuff which is very close to the creator, usually his own thoughts and life (It's the second time in a short time i identify these signs, the other was with Miyazaki's Kiki).

The funny thing is when the construction, no matter how simple it is, is honest in its origins, works out very effective, so this short is really really funny.

My evaluation: 4/5

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