Live Music (2009) User Reviews

Not up to Pixar standard, but close to the PLANET 51 level

[charlytully · 5/10 · 7 December 2009]

I assume everyone who saw the current feature cartoon release PLANET 51 saw this six-minute short first. Unlike the often Oscar-winning Pixar shorts, LIVE MUSIC's plot (such as it is) is pretty predictable. The same can be said, of course, for PLANET 51, and at least LIVE MUSIC is over 85 minutes sooner than the accompanying feature. On the plus side, LIVE MUSIC features two instrumental versions of "Smoke on the Water," one of my 10,001 pop faves. On the less positive front, LIVE MUSIC's main attempt at humor is to label the electric guitar protagonist's crush, a violin, as "Yo Yo Vanessa," who resides on a music store front room shelf right next to her parents, "Yo Yo Mama" (a cello) and "Yo Yo Daddy" (a bass). While echoing ROMEO & JULIET's culture clash between the Capulets and Montagues (since the guitar is breaking out of the backroom rocker's ghetto to pursue Vanessa), at least the floor of the music shop does not get cluttered with bodies, as did the environs of Verona (or New York City's West Side, to cite another musical contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's original). But director Yair Landau's animators provide a polished range of mostly-string instruments perhaps designed to get little ones thinking about where music comes from before reaching an iPod, which some might view as a small public service.

Real Cute and Well-Made

[KyleLicht · 10/10 · 11 January 2019]

It took a lot of digging to find this film but I'm glad I did. I discovered that it was on my list years ago, most likely because the director Yair Landau produced Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. So, after doing some YouTube digging, the film came up and I watched it. It is around 6 minutes and is the tale of an electric guitar that comes to life and plays while his owner isn't around and how he falls in love with a violin. It's a very cute story and well-made. What I find most intriguing is how sound is utilized. No one talks in the film. All of the dialog and sounds are made by the instruments "vocalizing" with their instruments. It was very creative and practical so I was able to follow the story without actually hearing words. When the guitar "speaks", the strings make a sound that increases or decreases in pitch and the neck flexes to give body language cues. When the mother and father violins "talk", they play dark sounding music to demonstrate authority and express their disapproval with the electric guitar. It's all a ton of fun and I'd recommend it to anyone. Also, the pun of music coming to life in "live music" is well-done for this Night at the Museum¬-esque story.