Surprise Ratchet & Clank animated short appears on Crave TV

A new Ratchet & Clank animated film has arrived on Canadian streaming service Crave TV, seemingly out of nowhere.

Ratchet & Clank: Life of Pie appears to have launched on a streaming service with no prior announcement or fanfare, and was discovered by Reddit users shortly after its debut. You can see the listing for the film over on the Crave website.

The animation was completed by the Mainframe – the same studio that made the Ratchet & Clank feature film back in 2016 – and was apparently completed in 2019.

"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!" says the description of the film.

"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!"

Apparently, the show is not related to the upcoming game, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. In a statement to IGN, PlayStation noted:

“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.”

There's currently no word if the animated short will be available on other streaming platforms in the future.