Pixels (film)

Pixels is a 2010 French animated short film written and directed by Patrick Jean, and produced by Benjamin Darras and Johnny Alves. It is about an invasion of New York City by classic 8-bit video games, such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Tetris, Arkanoid, and others. Pixels was created in commemoration of the first video game.

The film won the Annecy Crystal for Best Short Film at the 2011 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.^[1] It was picked up by Adam Sandler's production company to be developed into a feature film.^[2]

Plot

A man throws away an old television set on a New York City street, but after he walks away the TV turns on and releases a multicolored cloud of pixels. The cloud floats through the city, then breaks off and becomes tremendous versions of classic 8-bit video games, that all start destroying the city. Whenever something in the city is hit or affected by the pixel creatures, it becomes pixelated too.

• Aliens from Space Invaders attack cars, which are turn into pixels and crumble.
• Pac-Man is shown traveling down a subway map, where all the stations look like white pellets from the game. As he eats each one, we see the real station disappear. (The first station he eats has a sign on it, a giant cherry)
• Next, giant Tetris blocks fall from the sky, stacking onto geometric buildings. When one floor is completed, it disappears.
• A swarm of paddles from Arkanoid play against the bricks of the Brooklyn Bridge, slowly destroying it.
• At the top of the Empire State Building is Donkey Kong, who launches huge barrels into the streets below.
• Frogger is seen crossing a busy New York highway, he is the only video game creature that doesn't cause any damage.

A variety of company logos of the era appear in advertisements: Commodore Business Machines and Psygnosis on subway entrances, and Atari on a skyscraper.

At the end, a giant bomb appears in the streets. When it explodes, the shock wave slowly turns the whole city in pixels, then it spreads throughout the world, and soon Earth is nothing but a giant cube pixel, silently floating through space, which dooms the human existance. The end of the credits are presented as a high score.

References

External links

• Pixels by Patrick Jean
• Pixels at the Internet Movie Database