Late last week, a Ratchet & Clank animated short, titled Life of Pie, debuted on the Candian streaming service Crave. With virtually no marketing behind it or no formal announcement, many were confused with what exactly Ratchet & Clank: Life of Pie is, or whether it's related to the upcoming PlayStation 5 game, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
As it turns out, Life of Pie is a new story set in the Ratchet & Clank universe. However, it's not at all related to the upcoming PlayStation 5 game or official cannon to the video game franchise. According to a Sony spokesperson:
“Ratchet & Clank: Life of Pie is a standalone, licensed animated special created and distributed by Mainframe Studios. The show is not related to the upcoming Ratchet & Clank game for PlayStation 5 and is not official canon to the franchise’s video game narrative.”
Funny enough, Mainframe Studios (formerly known as Rainmaker Entertainment) is the same production company that created the 2016 Ratchet & Clank film that served as a companion movie to the PlayStation 4 game (which itself was a re-imagining of the PlayStation 2 game). The film featured an original story loosely based on the game franchise and starred the voices of Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Bella Thorne, Rosario Dawson, and Sylvester Stallone. James Arnold Taylor and David Kay reprised their roles as the titular characters Ratchet and Clank, respectively. James Ward (Captain Copernicus Leslie Qwark) and Armin Shimerman (Doctor Nefarious) also returned.
Despite not being related to the upcoming PS5 game and not being official canon to the game franchise, Life of Pie does star the original voice cast, with James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, Armin Shimerman, and Jim Ward returning alongside Andrew Cownden, Brian Drummond, and Laara Sadiq.
The synopsis for Ratchet & Clank: Life of Pie reads:
While on an inter-galactic pizza run, Ratchet and Clank discover that the diabolical Dr. Nefarious has developed an interdimensional portal device that would allow him to rule the entire multiverse! The intrepid duo spring into action, liberating the "Portalizer" from Dr. Nefarious and then racing off to securely lock it away in a weapons museum. But along the way, they run into bumbling Captain Qwark, who uses the weapon to accidentally unleash a sentient-pizza-topping mob upon the citizens of Galactic City. It's up to Ratchet and Clank to battle the savory horde and keep the Portalizer out of Dr. Nefarious' evil hands before he uses it to destroy the galaxy!
Unfortunately, the only way to watch Ratchet & Clank: Life of Pie right now is with a subscription to Crave, which is only available in Canada. However, given the popularity of the franchise, it wouldn't be surprising to see Sony bring the short to a U.S. and UK streaming service at some point. Perhaps this could also be the start of a potential animated series.