Review of Lifted (2006) by Dave H — 05 Mar 2009

Remember the days when cartoons were king? When each and every movie was preceded by the latest Tom & Jerry or Looney Tunes adventure? At least Pixar remember and they are fighting almost single-handedly to resurrect the practise.

Following on from Boundin and the brilliant One Man Band, their latest big screen outing gives them the perfect opportunity to showcase their talents on Lifted, a much darker effort than their earlier shorts but still having that strong sense of slapstick running throughout.

Lifted opens in typically X-Files style - an isolated house is suddenly lit up by a flying saucer as the sleeping occupant dreams on, blissfully unaware that he is about to be abducted. Fortunately for him, the alien manning the controls has no idea which one of the thousands of switches in front of him will actually get the man into the craft.

As his frustration mounts, a larger and more senior alien looks on and makes occasional notes on his clipboard like a disapproving driving instructor. Given that the opening moments are genuinely dark and tense, it's something of a surprise that Pixar chose this to show before something as decidedly kiddie-friendly as Ratatouille.

However, it isn't long before the humour takes over and makes for a very amusing five minutes. Naturally, it is over-shadowed by its bigger budgeted stable-mate but Lifted is still an accomplished piece of work in its own right.

I'm hoping that Pixar don't neglect this dying art-form as things like Lifted and One Man Band show that there is still some life left in the animated short.