Monday, June 18, 2007

For the record...

There are some early reviews of Ratatouille on Ain'tItCoolNews right now, including one where a viewer compares the Pixar short film "Lifted" unfavorably to my own "Alien Song". To quote:
Another thing that bugged me was the Lifted short, the main alien reminded me to much of the “I Will Survive” animation that was everywhere online about five years ago where the alien was singing “I Will Survive” and then at the end a disco ball falls on it and flattens it. There were some funny parts in the short, but not great.
First of all, don't believe this guy. Lifted is hilarious! But beyond that I don't see much similarity between it and my film, other than that there are green aliens involved, and some violence. I don't even think director Gary Rydstrom had seen my film before he started to develop Lifted. The alien designs are a lot more interesting than mine, and they have TWO eyes! Take that! This reminds me of some similar conjecture years back when people were saying that Mike Wizowski of "Monsters, Inc." was a rip-off of my alien as well. Well, maybe there's a hair of truth to that...

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:51 PM

    I totally agree on that note. I don't see why people tend to draw non-existent parallels in great movies and not enjoy the wonderful work. By the way congratulations on Ratatouille I saw it Saturday. It was absolutely beautiful. I wrote a review of it on my blog, http://blakessketches.blogspot.com/2007/06/rat-review.html. It's definitely the best movie that Pixar has developed, and personally the best animation I've seen, overall, both 2d and 3d. I truly believe that you guys have broke new ground in the movie.

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  2. I too saw Lifted and Ratatouille this past Saturday. Completely blew me away! Lifted was hilarious (and I see no real connection to your short, which is also hilarious.) But Ratatouille...man it was the stuff that animators dream of. Send a big thank you to everyone who worked on it!!

    Also, I recently moved to Berkeley and I went to see the film with some friends from Emeryville over at Bay St...then we drove past Pixar and it was very surreal to say the least. Amazing movie!

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  3. I guess you could say there's a slight resemblance in headshape/mouth, but hardly. I sure never thought of it when I saw that little clip online.

    But Mr. Rydstrom didn't see Alien Song? Seriously, EVERYONE has seen it! :-D It's quite possible THE most watched internet short from before the YouTube age.

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  4. Yeah Victor,
    I don't know what that guy's talking about. Regardless, Lifted was a great short film and not once did I think of your great short film while I was watching it. Both were extremely original and not even close to the same thing.
    Ratatouille was an amazing piece of work. It is the type of film that will hold a special place in movie history as it does not only have great animation, but it is a great film with strong storytelling and beautiful art. I enjoyed both very much.
    Your Alien Song short is one of the many animations that inspired me to get into animation. So thank you to you and the boys and girls at Pixar for inspiring me to work in this industry and to continue to love the world of animation.

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  5. I saw 'Lifted' at Annecy. Rydstrom held a little presentation. I must say that, although I thought it was very funny, from what he showed us on conception art I think both the design and the story could have been stretched a bit farther. I saw a little trailer of it online somewhere earlier nad the finished film didn't really surprise me anymore after that.
    Still, I enjoied it and it was very well done.

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  6. and Pixar bought Victor's silence by giving him a job but they didn't forsee that he would become a kick ass animator and wouldn't be able to get rid of him ;-)

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