For however much people are keen to tell you the latest Pixar film made them feel all the feels, a few (or a fountain of) tears naturally included, their works don’t get very dark — at least not in their conclusions. (Consider this a way of admitting that, yes, the opening of Up still has a way of rattling yours truly.) It’s nice, then, to see two of their animators experiment a bit with Borrowed Time, a new short (streaming for a limited time via Vimeo) that, were it officially part of their catalogue, may be the first to elicit a genuine “huh!” with the conclusion.
In a featurette that’s included alongside the short, co-director Lou Hamou-Lhadj (who’s credited alongside Andrew Coates) expressed a wish to “make something that kind of contested the notion of animation being a genre, and one for children specifically.” Unless your kids love sad sheriffs, of course, in which case I’d recommend a child psychologist.
I’ll save the experience for you, the viewer, and let the actual viewing commence (via Slate):