Lifted (2006) User Reviews

Another unique and funny short.

[emasterslake · 8/10 · 6 July 2007]

Like always Pixar has created another one of a kind short for all of us to enjoy.

Lifted is set in the quiet/peaceful country side. When a flying saucer appears to abduct a sleeping individual with a tracker beam. unfortunately the tracker beam is operated by an alien trainee who isn't doing too well on his first job. And keeps messing up on the job while the professional alien grades him on his performances.

I won't give away any of the good or funny parts. But it is one of the funniest Pixar shorts yet. The use of no dialog, interesting characters and special effects is all made possible by Pixar. Along with the ever popular films, their shorts are very highly acclaim. And each one makes a further break through in animation or experiment a story that hasn't been made into CGI yet.

You're able to see Lifted along with Ratatouie.

All Hail the Wilhelm!

[jwf22 · 8/10 · 2 July 2007]

This is another fun little short in the tradition of fun little shorts from Pixar. Soundman extraordinaire Gary Rydstrom directs for the first time (according to IMDb), and the result is solid.

Not surprisingly, the sound for this short is fantastic, opening with some isolated nighttime noises of a country farmhouse. I've spent a fair amount of time on the real life equivalent of this digital set and this part sounded realistic to me.

By the way, I wrote this whole mini-review just so I could finish with this: Aieeeeeeeeee!

See Gary, the audience really IS listening.

Close Encounters of the Inept Kind

[ackstasis · 7/10 · 15 September 2007]

I've always thought it fantastic that Pixar precedes their excellent feature-length films with an equally-excellent animated short, since it serves beautifully to settle the audience down and ready them for the coming feature. With 'Ratatouille' currently in cinemas, the short film this time around was 'Lifted,' a brief but amusing tale of an attempted alien abduction that doesn't quite go to plan. It was directed by Gary Rydstrom, a first-time director but incredible seven-time Oscar winner, thanks to his excellent work in the sound department on such films as 'Jurassic Park' and 'Titanic.' Like Pixar's finest short films, the simple plot is propelled forward without the need for any dialogue, relying mostly on effectively-chosen sound effects. Accordingly, Rydstrom was an ideal candidate to direct.

In a quiet country farmhouse, a human sleeps peacefully, blissfully unaware that an immense UFO has stationed itself outside his house. Inside the spaceship, a young alien, named Stu, is trying desperately to remember which unlabeled toggle switches to press, presented with a vast selection across a large control panel. Stu's instructor, Mr. B., watches over him menacingly, his expression offering not a hint to the correct procedure and answering every mistake by scribbling briefly onto his notepad. Meanwhile, as Stu fumbles tentatively with the controls, the unfortunate human finds himself lifted from his bed by the spacecraft's tractor-beam and tossed violently against the wall and ceiling, never waking from his slumber.

I thought it was rather ambitious that the filmmakers decided to show the beings inside the UFO, since it is rare that we actually get to see a cinematic alien fiddling with buttons and levers behind a control desk. Not only this, but the two extraterrestrials – in just five minutes – become relatively well-developed characters: we immediately sympathise with poor hapless Stu, and Mr. B. discovers a streak of compassion that we hadn't originally expected of him. The comedic timing is just about perfect, and we hold our breath as Stu moves to press another button, before laughing at the unexpected consequence of this upon the unlucky human – his movements largely represented by a holographic blip above the control panel. The sound effects are cleverly-chosen, and the addition of the Wilhelm scream at the very end was a nice touch.

Clever and funny

[bob the moo · 4 May 2008]

A remote farm-house (probably in the Midwest) is suddenly bathed in a bright, clean light and the sleeping farmer is picked up from his bed and carried towards the window, where an alien craft awaits. Unfortunately for him, the abduction is being undertaken by a trainee, who really needs more hours in the simulator before tried to do it on a live subject.

This short film was screened before the feature Ratatouille and worked well in getting the audience in the laughing mood. Like the equally good "For the Birds" this short film delivers constant laughs in a short time before bowing out with a strong finish. The former short focused on a big tall bird, this film focuses on a trainee alien but the approach is the same – have one weakness or failing be the subject of the short. Here the trainee cannot get the man out the window with the controls and the repeated failures are simple but also very funny. This continues to the end, which is a nice big laugh at the end. The animation is typical Pixar, very clean, professional and impressive with plenty of cultural references in the alien abduction itself for film fans.

Overall then a very clever and funny short film that works very well because it knows just what it needs to do and does it in a ruthlessly efficient manner.

Very cute and funny

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 9 February 2008]

LIFTED was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short for 2007 but it lost to THE DANISH POET. While THE DANISH POET was more original in style and scope, this Pixar short is simply funnier and more entertaining--even though the style isn't all that innovative these days (after all, there are TONS of CG shorts these days).

LIFTED was released both in theaters and on DVD with RATATOUILLE--a remarkable film in its own right. Here is the interesting part. It wasn't until the second time that I realized the character playing the sleeping guy was the same guy from RATATOUILLE. I think most people won't notice this right away either because seeing the short before the main feature, you aren't familiar with the character.

As far as the film goes, it represents the very state of the art in computer generated animation--you can't get any better. However, the cartoon isn't just CG but the story is cute and very funny. I really thing that the great success of Pixar actually hurt the chances of this film winning, as the studio already has won several awards and they are the "big boy" in the field--often, it seems, the Academy and film festivals are looking for more independent films in this category.

Funny Movie

[blackhayatego · 8/10 · 26 July 2022]

This movie was made in 2006. It's a short comedy movie.

One night, the swing is shaking. A house is illuminated by the light from the sky. There is a UFO. A boy sleeping in the house floats in the air and hits his head against the window. He hits his head many times. The boy is controlled by a little alien from the UFO who tries to carry the boy out, but he fails many times. There is another big alien who watches his operation and records something. He presses a lot of buttons while looking at the big alien's complexion, but it doesn't work. He finds the correct button, but drops the boy from the ship finally. Then, the big alien operates to put everything back. They go home with the little alien's driving... It was an interesting movie. The little alien's face shows his situation. I like the big alien letting the little alien operate the spaceship at the end. I think it's good to watch the last scene which is especially interesting. I couldn't predict it.

Oscar-nominated Lifted goes great with companion feature

[tavm · 10/10 · 30 June 2007]

Unless others are doing this at the same time, it looks like I'll be the first to comment on the Oscar-nominated short Lifted which is now playing right before Ratatouille since both films are produced by, you guessed it, Pixar. In this one, a young man is being abducted by a spaceship as indicated by the light that's on him. It doesn't go smoothly, however, since the light has the still sleeping man constantly hit a wall. Turns out the one doing the abduction is a trainee who has trouble remembering simple directions as indicated by the glum-faced guide watching over him inside the spaceship. All I'll tell you after that is how many things go constantly wrong in some of the most laugh-inducing scenes I've seen in the theatre all year so far. Definitely worth viewing with the feature it's attached to so what are you waiting for? Just go!

Just like "For the Birds": terrific and in the grand style of the best Looney Tunes

[karn · 10/10 · 7 January 2009]

I keep waiting for Pixar to run out of good ideas, and they never do. My favorite of their shorts, "Lifted" and "For the Birds", are very much in the tradition of the old Warner Brothers. The emphasis is on characterization, sight gags, facial expressions and sound effects rather than dialog, and much of the humor comes from playing with our expectations. You simply don't expect a huge "Close Encounters" alien ship to be piloted by an inept trainee on a check ride who can't even fit his captive through the window. You don't expect a highly advanced alien flight instructor to take notes with an ordinary clipboard and ball point pen. You don't expect that a would-be abductee would stay asleep through all that only to wake up when his alarm goes off.

The WB greats also discovered that the biggest laughs often come from the smallest details. When the Coyote realized that he was about to get pounded (again) by a huge falling boulder, his eyes shrank to pinpoints. I always found that funnier than the actual boulder-pounding. In "Lifted", watch the mailbox near the farmhouse when the spaceship (unexpectedly, of course) crashes. A moment later, the flag on the mailbox falls. I missed it even in the Blu-Ray version, but once the director pointed it out in the commentary, it became the funniest part of the gag for me.

I won't put it down

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 7/10 · 7 November 2009]

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

very funny animated Pixar short

[disdressed12 · 9/10 · 25 May 2008]

i just viewed this short a few minutes ago,and i thought it was great.the animation was excellent,but i really loved the story.i won't give anything away here,but if you're a fan of Pixar,you should really enjoy this little gem.even if you're not,i still think you'll enjoy it.it's very clever and manages to tell a great story in just 5 minutes.i laughed out loud more than once,in fact more often than i have in some full length comedies.if this is something that interests you,it's available as a Pixar collection of shorts which are probably available in most stores,or online.anyway,i loved Lifted and highly recommend it.

Funny

[nadeshikomail · 7/10 · 11 July 2018]

The first impression of this movie was I already had feeling that it would become a funny movie. And I was not wrong. The film about two aliens working together in order to lift a human up to their UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) is brilliant. First of all, I like how they portrayed aliens as green slime like creatures. Not to mention they are irresistibly cute as well. The small alien is my favorite. He probably has no talent to be what aliens are supposed to be, but he would never stop trying. The human who is going to be lifted is so unrealistic in my opinion, but that is what makes this film more interesting in the first place. This film is only five minutes, and I recommend you to watch it.

The exam of UFO

[le-94371 · 9/10 · 17 July 2017]

There is a man sleeping on his bed. He is almost being kidnapped by a UFO. A little alien tries to get out of this house, because the little alien seems to take the exam of operating UFO, but it fails over and over again...There is no dialogue in this movie, but it is unbelievably easy to see what happens. Yet, it is difficult to guess what will happen next so that I am sure it amuses everyone. In fact, I am impressed a lot. The content of this movie is funny, interesting, and unique. Backgound music helps to get audience's attention. You can enjoy every moment and you may laugh at this movie. There is also another alien who seems to be an instructor. This alien is sub character and I suppose everyone likes this alien as well as the small alien which is a main character.I can say the end of the story is funny, but not a main point. It is just part of the story. I would like you to see the process of the story.

Lifted

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 27 February 2008]

If you have Ratatouille on DVD, then you would have this short animated film in the special features. From the geniuses at Pixar, this another amusing short. Basically a human is peacefully sleeping, and all of the sudden a bright light appears outside. A large alien ship tries to pull the human outside with the light power, the abduction by the way is being done by a teenage alien. There are so many switches tough, and he is failing to even get out the window, and no matter where he is being thrown and banged against the wall, the human doesn't wake. The other alien is not pleased, but the human does eventually come out the window, but looking all smug, the teenage alien forgets the light power, and they put him back in bed, but not before crashing into the ground, and taking the ground, apart from the human's bed, with them. Phew! Obviously see it for yourself, I'm not always good with long explanations like this, even for a short film. It was nominated Oscar Best Short Animated Film. Good!

Doesn't look funny to me

[AnonymousbutDilpreet002 · 4/10 · 23 June 2018]

This is probably Pixar's weakest short film. Every Pixar short has one of these three qualities - It can be cute or it teach us something or atleast be funny. But this film did not has any of the three. I didn't feel entertained.

Puppetering

[RResende · 11 September 2007]

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

http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

idea of mistakes

[riodejaneirofl · 8/10 · 9 August 2017]

I learned a lot from this short movie. Especially, the greatest point of this is that is a silent film. There is no dialogue that we can understand. There is only sound effects. So, people regardless of age or gender can enjoy each scene. Moreover even hearing-impaired people can easily understand the whole story. In this movie, failure is explored. However we can know that making mistakes is not bad. Pixar change the mistakes from the idea of being bad things to idea of being funny things. Pixar never forget the humor in making movies from the beginning to the end. This short movie also consists of the funny beginning and end. I think the beginning is the most important for movies because audience may stop watching if the beginning is boring. I also think if the audience thought that they want to watch more, it means the movie was successful. Pixar including Lifted taught me such things.

Great entertainment

[qingruivic-25161 · 8/10 · 10 July 2018]

I cannot describe how much I am amused by this short film. Also, this film gives me a practical lesson how up and down are properly arranged for optimum effects.

A young alien, who seems like a freshman, tries to practice abducting human by the spaceship technology under the supervision of a predecessor, which is not going smoothly at all. Many funny moments are brought by the continuous failure. For instance, after a sequence of struggling, he gets impatient and flicks switches randomly on the spacecraft control panel, causing the sleeping man to crash into walls, ceilings, trees... Finally he gets the man out of window, but he dropped the man again. Then the up comes. His predecessor steps in, fixing everything in house in order and putting the human back to bed. Instead of taking over the control of panel, the predecessor gives him another chance. The young freshman manages to drop the whole spaceship on the human's house, before flying off. The scream from the abductee in the end gives me a last surprise, which is the point of this film I especially like.

Pixar short films are well known by the way it handles characters. The protagonist's expressive face and his predecessor's poker face intensify the amusement in a contrary way. Lifted is a great film for laughter, but it might fail in building vivid characters. After finish watching the film, audiences should have had emotional connection to the character, but audiences of Lifted might rarely think about the background or off-scene stories of either the clumsy freshman or the skilled predecessor. They are just there for entertainment.

!

[rctng · 8/10 · 20 November 2013]

Apprenticeship alien of this story hero is goofy. He is so cute. His trainer is little strict. So the trainer's line of sight to watch him while flying is my favorite point. I think that it would puzzled as alien when there is so much control button of UFO. I understood feelings of alien why smile wryly when he miss press many times many times. And, until he guess right button, alien's purposes boy act violently in the room by the operation of the alien. This scene is laughed me. But, if I were this boy, I would woke up When he hit the body to the wall. So, I thought that he was pretty deep sleep. I think best nice point, it is expression of character in this story. It is strange that I can see little strict trainer's expression is pretty well at the end. I hope he grow up to be pilot full-fledged early.

This movie is really funny from the beginning to the end

[saoatama · 9/10 · 30 June 2018]

This movie is really funny from the beginning to the end. A quiet night, a young man sleeps in his bed. And an UFO flies outside the house. All of a sudden, he is lifted by invisible power! He sleeps sound and does not notice what is going on him. And now, he nearly go out from the window, he bumps against the wall! The alien which trys to do human abduction seems to be inexperienced. Actually, this is practical exam of human abduction. This short movie taught me the fundamental thing: Everyone is once beginner, even aliens. It is very funny if an immature alien pilot really stuggles to kidnap a human just like an immature driver struggles to carry his first passenger to her destination. And alien's expression is also just like human. I sympathize with the alien. Of course I won't encourage human abduction. Beginer has many trouble. Trial and error is nessecary. And the structure is really good. You don't know what happens for the first time and cannot expect what happens in the end.

Another good job

[Polaris_DiB · 7/10 · 17 July 2007]

Animated shorts are making something of a small, barely-noticed comeback, mostly because of Pixar. In general, they are used as extra bells and whistles in special edition DVD releases to help tack on an extra five bucks or so to the cost of the disc. However, Pixar has been very faithful about preserving an old tradition and including animated shorts before each feature in the theatre.

The best part? Almost all of them are sans-dialog.

"Lifted" is another short in this vein involving a botched alien abduction. It's very good slapstick, and a great opening to a very visual and kinetic film to follow (Ratatouille). In terms of general approach, the characters are a lot more cartoon-y than previous Pixar works (Yeah, I know, it is a cartoon, but these characters seem more like something you'd find on a cable children's show than as an independent feature), but they're still well written and empathetic.

I wouldn't say it's a more memorable short from such a prolific studio, but the way things have going these past years, "Lifted" itself is much more worth the price of admission than most other Hollywood films.

--PolarisDiB

It's funny!

[Mokka-mocha45 · 10/10 · 7 August 2017]

I have some questions about this film. While I watched it, I could't know what the relationship between two aliens is and why they try to take a young man away. I could know a young man slept well. Whenever he was bumped on a wall by aliens, he did not wake up. Ordinary people should notice it by pain. Did he not feel painful? If it is true, I think he is a superman. Then, I guessed two aliens tried to take him away because of it first. However they returned furniture in a young man's room to normal places in the end, so I suppose they just practice taking humans away. The scene I like in this film is that an alien became desperate and pushed buttons randomly. The alien succeeded in bringing a young man into UFO once, but he did not notice it. When I watched this, I burst out laughing. At the last scene, he also tries to operate UFO and failed in it. He did everything hard, but he always did not succeed at all. I think this character resembles a snowman of Knick Knack. They both have sweetness just like Pixar's works.

This story is amazing.

[matoryo3 · 6/10 · 4 September 2013]

One night, a man is sleeping in a bed. There is a UFO near the man's house and a small alien tries to pull up the man. However, the alien fails to pull up him many times. A boss of the alien finally pulls up the house but he left only the man. What I liked in the movie is that the small alien is bungler and it was interesting. However, I could not understand why the alien tried to pull up the man and why a big alien left only the man and his bed in the last scene. This movie is maybe for children because there is no meaning. I think it will be better if I can understand why the small alien wants to pull up the man. I wanted to know it.

Ode to the Daily Grind

[Jirorian · 10/10 · 6 June 2018]

Telling of an apprentice alien in the craft of human abduction struggling with the overwhelming control panel in front of him, 'Lifted' is a goofy story that everyone can relate to in our attempts to overcome the pressures of work, the mountains of tasks that lay endlessly before us with no obvious means of easily being solved, and the indifferent looks from our bosses as we struggle to find redemption over our clearly insufficient efforts. It is an ode to the common man, the daily grind, and the efforts one makes to prove oneself. The stylistic visuals and comedy is as expected of Pixar, and everyone will surely get a laugh or two out of their viewing of the short film.

wonderful Pixar

[kazu-gaku · 7/10 · 22 July 2016]

I think that this movie is high quality as it were main Pixar movie. Other Pixar short films use BGM but this work hardly uses. The most different point I think is how to use sounds effect. These sound is often turned on little by little and ends with a laugh. We can enjoy it with no words. Also, the music in this movie is like an orchestra, so we amuse ourselves not only by sight but also by healing. Because of modulate effect sounds for effect, this film have us be excited and make climax point better by the stress. In short film I have seen by Pixar, for example "Geri's Game", "Luxo Jr", I can't understand the laugh point. However it is easy to know the point in this film, so I think that children can enjoy watching easily. In addition, the quality of CG is higher than other Pixar short films, so adults can enjoy too. In short, everyone can enjoy watching this film.

nice

[satohakilesson · 5/10 · 17 July 2013]

This movie is that the aliens try to lift a man to their spaceship who sleeps in his house.

There are many interesting scenes in this film. I like the contacts between aliens. It is very humorous. A small alien's trial and error is very funny and a big alien's correspondence is cool and interesting. The scene that a man in a house crashes into a wall many times is also funny. The BGMs in this movie are very good. They suit each scenes. They also enlarge the fun of this film.

There is no scene that I don't like. I like all of the scenes.

This movie is constituted by the funny moment, so I think it is made to make people funny. I like the movie that is full of fun. When you are sad and want to make yourself cheer up, you should watch it!