Live Music is a short animation that has been buzzed about in creative and traditional media circles for several months now based primarily on its unique production history. Mass Animation, a company specializing in “crowdsourcing”—the process of enlisting the time and expertise of a volunteer force, managed to put together a large creative community to work on the film via a custom Facebook app. The goal of this is to reduce costs, and, if the PR is to be believed, increase quality . Crowdsourcing has a distinguished history in app development, but Live Music represents a novelty of sorts in the creative arts, where despite the gross reality that much of visual media is a resolutely collaborative process, the idea of a “singular” vision is often romanticized.

One could see why there has been so much hype for the film, anything remotely creative that has the word “Facebook” attached to it is likely to generate at least a few effusive journalistic pieces from writers trying to show they are down with this “tweeting” and “social media” stuff. Add in the potential to “revolutionize” animation and media production, and it is no surprise that Live Music is generating a strong rollout today, playing in theaters in front of the new feature Planet 51, and debuting for sale on iTunes.

Is the film good though? I took the hit and paid my $1.99 to Apple in order to find out.

The answer, somewhat frustratingly, is yes and no. In the context of an experiment one must conclude that the film is indeed a holistic piece, sporting a defined story and set aesthetic. Thus on the novelty factor it succeeds, as the film defies skeptics by being more than just coherent, it is in fact a competent CG animation. Independent of that? Not really. It is a harmless and cute 3-D animation in the Pixar tradition. It’s the type of film that got Blue Sky Studios on the map and certainly if it was produced even 5 years ago, people would justifiably go gaga over it. But in 2009 it is really just elicits a “meh”. Compared to top flight independent CG right now like  This Way Up or One Rat Short, the animation does not hold up. Furthermore the storytelling is simplistic, trite and the courtship section is confusing, with none of the manic or subtle flourishes that breathe life into Pixar’s great shorts.

The book on crowdsourcing in animation is not written yet, and I don’t have an opinion whether it is a viable strategy long-run or not, but I might bet that this short provides a fitting encapsulation—viable, but far from revolutionary.

Buy it (but I wouldn’t recommend it) at:  The iTunes Store