Lifted (2006 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, 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.

Plot
A young alien named Stu is inside a spacecraft taking an alien abduction test. He must snatch a sleeping farmer named Ernie under the watchful eye of his impassive examiner, a gelatinous blob named Mr. B. 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
Production on the film began in mid-2005 and was completed in the summer of 2006. 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. 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.

Awards
Lifted was nominated for Best Animated Short Film on January 23, 2007 for the 79th Academy Awards. It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2006.

Home media
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment included the film on the Blu-ray and DVD release of Ratatouille and as part of Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1 in 2007.