"I wanna lift you up. I'm gonna lift you up."
Lift You Up is a 2022 Cal Arts animated short film directed by Kim Mc Mahon, aka Scribble Diary.It's about how Iris and her robot companion travel to another planet to explore and live while she's dealing with grief over losing her home planet and her friend while she is on her space mission. It can be watched here
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Lift You Up provides examples of:
- A Boy and His X: More like A Girl and Her Robot. While on a mission, Iris was kind of close to Robot but she was on a video chat with her friend Mike. Iris slowly bonds with Robot later on when Robot cheers her up by taking her to another planet to live.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Zig-zagged with Robot. He brings the laser cannon to destroy Earth and kill Iris's friend Mike to prevent Iris from going home after five weeks, so he can be with her. However, it's unclear if he's unaware of his actions because he's blind with love and obsession or he's aware of his actions and was doing it out of jealousy.
- Downer Beginning: The film starts with Iris in a spaceship, video chatting with Mike while they're watching soccer, planning to leave her space mission to go home in a few weeks. But suddenly, a mysterious orange laser blasts the Earth, killing Mike and forcing Robot to move the spaceship to flee while a horrified Iris watches the explosion, tearfully calling out Mike's name. This starts the plot.
- Love Makes You Evil: Robot having a crush on Iris is the reason why he destroys her home planet and kills Mike (who lives on Earth) before taking Iris to a different plant to get close to her.
- Mood Whiplash: The film starts with Iris video chatting and hanging out with her friend Mike while she's in a spaceship. While they watch soccer on the video call, they cheer for the team which is winning the game but suddenly an orange laser comes out of nowhere and blasts the Earth....
- No Ending: The film ends after Iris discovers that Robot is the one who destroyed Earth and Robot comes in to see Iris has discovered what he has done with no revelation of what happens next.
- Nothing Is Scarier: In the end, when Iris discovers that Robot is responsible for the destruction of her home planet and the death of Mike, she looks behind her and sees Robot suddenly appear, staring at her.
- Robosexual: Probably . It's clear that Robot has a crush on Iris. It's implied that during her times with Robot on another planet, Iris reciprocated Robot's feelings, as we see her (as a senior citizen) cuddling with Robot on a bed.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The titular song by Sean Koch is still playing during the scene where Iris sees Robot setting up a laser cannon to destroy Earth. Given the fact that Lift You Up is a calming and lighthearted indie-folk song, it's quite unsettling.
- Time-Passage Beard: Gender-Inverted. As time goes on and Iris grows old, Iris's hair becomes grey and grows so long that it reaches her hips until Iris lets Robot cut her hair.
- Titled After the Song: The title comes from a 2017 indie-folk song called Lift You Up by Sean Koch, as the song starts playing when Iris and Robot travel and explore another planet.
- Twist Ending: Iris's robot companion Robot is responsible for the destruction of Earth and Mike's death to prevent Iris from going home so he can with her.
- Wham Shot: At the end, when an elderly Iris comes back to her spaceship, she goes to the computer to see old footage of her and Robot while she was chatting with Mike in a video call. Iris then sees Robot setting up what appears to be a cannon as the cannon is aimed at Earth and begins to glow orange....
- Wingding Eyes: While Iris is video chatting with Mike, Robot's eyes briefly change to two hearts symbols while looking at Iris, showing that Robot has a crush on Iris, which leads to Robot using a cannon to destroy Earth.
