Lifted (Gary Rydtsrom, 2006): USA

Reviewed by Byron Potau. Viewed on DVD.

The director’s name, Gary Rydstrom, may sound familiar to you. He is the winner of several Oscars for sound and sound editing. In his directorial debut, Lifted, this short film for Pixar brilliantly captures the anxieties of the driver’s test through a similar alien abducting exam.

Stu is the teenaged student trying to abduct a sleeping human from his house in the middle of the night somewhere in the Midwest. Mr. B is the instructor grading his performance. Stu makes mistake after mistake trying to work an impossible console until every Driver’s Ed student’s nightmare occurs; the instructor has to take over.

The film rings very true and is often hilarious in its brief five minute running time without the benefit of a single word uttered. Its best moments are inside the spaceship watching the interaction between student and instructor. Hilarious moments include the click of the pen right before Mr. B jots down his mistake, and when Stu looks pleadingly over to at the expressionless Mr. B trying to read an answer if he is about to push the right button. As Stu moves his finger from button to button Mr. B retains the same stoic expression.

The console is a brilliant design of endless, identical, generic looking buttons. The animation is excellent and the sound design, of course, is flawless. This short film is one both kids and adults can enjoy, but the adults will certainly relate to it more. Be sure to watch it at least once with Rydstrom’s commentary. That’s how I found out the names of the characters.