Netflix's Love, Death + Robots: Close Encounters of the Mini Kind
2025
After the success of Vol. 3’s "Night of the Mini Dead," the Love, Death + Robots team asked us to create another tiny global apocalypse… this time with ALIENS.
The episode is a spiritual sequel to "Mini Dead," telling the story of how humans violently (and ironically) ruin their first encounter with highly evolved, peaceful aliens — triggering a swift and vengeful invasion of Earth. It’s got Big Sequel Energy: revenge, terror, global carnage, and implied beastiality.
Making A Mini Disaster... Again
Coming back for a sequel, we loved the idea of revenge, and, of course, in our mini-verse, it’s always the humans’ fault.
In "Mini Kind," peaceful aliens make first contact with a group of small-minded border-town cops — one thing leads to another, and no one survives. (It’s funny, trust us). The Alien franchise has Xenomorphs; we have good ol’ fashioned xenophobia. Cue alien retaliation!
The Threat Escalates
The battle devolves into an intergalactic arms race, and the aliens’ growing frustration with human resilience inspires them to unleash highly advanced weaponry. Giant alien tripod mechs drop from the Mothership, wielding black hole cannons that tear open space-time. They suck… real hard.
Humans Fight Back!
We wanted the episode to capture the fist-pumping bravado of a classic ’90s smash hit, where people from all walks of life band together to fight a common enemy.
"Close Encounters of the Mini Kind" explores the staggering heights of human ingenuity — and the depths of human stupidity. Resourceful “redneck engineering” of alien tech sets the stage for humanity’s ultimate strike, leaving their lasting mark on the cosmos… though it’s more of a skid mark.
Redneck Engineering
Part of our writing process involved making quick sketches and concept art to check the visual clarity of a shot and make sure it would read from far away.
Story Development
How do you tell a story entirely in wide, fast-forward aerial shots? We built on lessons from "Mini Dead": lock in the structure, pack it with jokes, and pressure-test everything with concept art, storyboards, and animatics. Also, try not to go cross-eyed animating characters that are 5 pixels tall.
Finale
The film was as fun to make as it is to watch, an epic, solar-system-ending disaster filled with adorably entertaining ultraviolence.
So go ahead, give your cow a loving kiss and check it out, now playing on Netflix.
BUCK
Directed by
Andy Lyon
Robert Bisi
Written by
Andy Lyon
Robert Bisi
Executive Producer
Luisa Murray
Production Lead
Andrew Chan Gladstone
Producer
Alex dos Santos
David Guti Rosado
Associate Producer
Cody Rose O'Neill
CG Supervisor
Marc Steinberg
3D Animation Lead
Peter DeSalvo
Tyler Lancaster
3D Lead
Chris Ribar
Joshua Studebaker
Editor
Dave Conte
Chief Creative Officers
Kevin Walker
Orion Tait
Ryan Honey
Executive Director of 3D
Doug Wilkinson
Head of 3D
Alex Dingfelder
Global Head of Post
Jose Fuentes
Production Coordinator
Celine Nguyen
Elizabeth Abrams
Leeann Sands
Storyboard Artist
Jacob Myrick
Matty Deans
Stephen Loveluck
Tristyn Pease
Tucker Klein
2D Previs Artists
Juan Ricardo Hernandez
Matty Deans
Tinghe Yang
Tucker Klein
Color Key Artist
Joe Dennis
Concept Director
Dae-Han Yi
Art Director
Jacob Myrick
Jong Lee
Concept Artist
Arron Ingold
Jim Lind
Joe Dennis
Jong Lee
Marcus Collins
Nancy Liu
Patrik Rosander
Scott Mcinnes
Stan Chan
Tuo Kan
Vanessa Cheung
Vickie Liu
Asset Modeling & Lookdev
Albert Lee
Alfonso Petersen
Andy Tai
Anita Kang
Arvid Volz
Ash Samet
Beatrice Viguier
Elias Glasch
Filipe Machado
Giovani Kososki
Joshua Studebaker
Tim Krakowiak
Wing Sze Lee
Rigging Supervisor
Ernesto Ruiz Velasco
Rigger
Hernan Ares
Juan Carlos Barraza Mendoza
Regina Cicone
FX Artist
Carlos Moran Villanueva
Jacky Jackson
Mahmoud Elragheb
3D Animator
Chris Meek
Eric Wang
Ida Zhu
John Karian
Josh Baum
Lawrence Wong
Matt Parent
Peter DeSalvo
Teri Shellen
Tyler Lancaster
Lighter
Chloe Tu
Chris Ribar
Eugene Goryachev
Jens Lindgren
Meng Chwen Joy Tien
Ruxin Liang
Sam Smith
Sana Srinivasan
Shane O'Hara
Tina Chao
Wing Sze Lee
Compositor
Beatrice Viguier
Brinton Jaecks
Carlos Moran Villanueva
Chloe Tu
Chris Ribar
Dan Rodgers
Fiona Lu
Joshua Studebaker
Marc Steinberg
Melissa van het Spijker
Rui Huang
Sam Smith
Tina Chao
Wing Sze Lee
Technical Director
Jens Lindgren
Nathan Shipley
2D Animator (AE)
Fabian Morison
Juan Ricardo Hernandez
Supporting Editors
Cameron Kelly
Heather Bartholomae
Blur
Based on the short story written by
Jeff Fowler
Based on the short story written by
Tim Miller
Created by
Tim Miller
Executive Producer
David Fincher
Executive Producer
Tim Miller
Executive Producer
Jennifer Miller
Executive Producer
Joshua Donen
Supervising Director
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Supervising Producer
Victoria Howard
Supervising Creative Director
Jerome Denjean
Music by
Rob Cairns
Series Casting by
Ivy Isenberg
Series Production Manager
Stella Levy
Production Accountant
James Martin
Contracts Specialist
Sumeena Birdi
Senior Production Coordinator
Peter Rosemeyer
Production Coordinator
Sarah Hayes
Production Assistant
Annie Knox
Post Production Supervisor
Victoria Howard
Post Production Manager
Adam Hall
Little Zoo
Additional Animation by
Little Zoo Studio
Executive Producer
Jason Taylor
Head of Production
Jackie Munro
Production Manager
Amanda Linscott
Head of Animation
George Schermer
Animation Director
Todd Wilbur
CG Supervisor
Andrew Conroy
Animation Supervisor
Roman Kobryn
Animators
Andres De Los Rios
Andrzej Ellert
Emerson Manfrin
Francisco Catão Caldeira Pires
Laura Lempert
Magin Marques Rosa
Manu Mendez
Ryan Zale
Thomas Price
Loop Group
Loop Group
Ben Pronsky
Caitlin McKenna
Daisy Torme
Lex Land
Matthew Wolf