“Is there any other example of an animated short being remade into live-action by fans of the film?”

Yeah there’s dozens if not hundreds of live action fan films of Don Hertzfeldt’s “Rejected”. You can find a bunch of them on YouTube (search for “my spoon is too big” or other quoteable quotes) and on Hertzfeld fansites. They don’t have these production values, but they’ve got to be the biggest fanbase for an animated short I’ve ever seen: homemade cosplay, tattoos, fanfilms, annoying quotes…

In “Be Kind Rewind” they remade the Lion King in live action.

They remade “Cars” with Michael J. Fox a while back, if that helps.

Even one of my shorts was remade shot-for-shot by a group of fans. They even had two guys sliding out of frame together, copying the simplistic animation.
http://www.somethingawful.com/flash/shmorky/liveawesomedome/awsome_dome_live.swf

It’s WEIRD seeing that kinda stuff.

I just wish Jan Pinkava hadn’t put the ‘cheat’ in the original, especially as it’s such a quick cut. I do love the short and the whole conceit don’t get me wrong, but it’s just like for half a second there he didn’t have the courage of his convictions. It would’ve worked just as well without the two Geris.

Now I must go look at these, as the interesting thing is that the ‘cheat’ is about the ONLY thing about the original that made it really animation, rather than a just a technical achievement/character piece. Live-action has to go out of its way with visual effects to achieve what is essentially an editing conceit.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that as I think stuff like Simpsons and King of the Hill justify their existence through just being super-well written shows that are head and shoulders above most of the dreck. And they should be animated in so far as it gives more latitude where scope and story possibilities are concerned, and an appropriate aesthetic for the stylised characterisations where live-action would be sidetracked by accusations of racism (however unjustified) for example, and mean-spiritedness rather than parody and ribbing. Anyway that’s my personal rationale.

Does anyone know what Pinkava is working on now after the whole Ratatouille heartache? Is he still at Pixar, and is he developing another feature or working on other directors’ stuff?

Fingers crossed for Wall-e.

No surprise, it was a brilliant short. Pixar’s commitment to theatrical shorts, not only producing them but also making them an important part of their theatrical releases, is just one more way that Pixar is making sure they stay at the highest creative level. I guess it helps to make extremely popular films so you’ve got the money to invest in your people and process, but what really came first, the chicken or the egg?