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Watch the incredible short two Pixar animators made in their free time

Published Oct 17th, 2016 10:13PM EDT
Image: Vimeo

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The best animated movie of the year is six minutes long.

Over the weekend, Pixar animators Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj shared a new short called Borrowed Time on Vimeo. Although the short features the same impressive animation quality you’ve come to expect from the studio, this isn’t a Pixar feature. Rather, it’s a passion project that the two animators have been working on in their free time for the past five years.

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Clocking in at six minutes, the short tells a devastating story about a sheriff “[returning] to the remains of an accident he has spent a lifetime trying to forget.” It’s darker and more violent than what you’re used to seeing out of Pixar, but it’s incredibly moving and absolutely worth watching:

In an interview with Cartoon Brew, the animators explain that Borrowed Time was made possible by the Pixar Co-op Program, which gives Pixar employees the opportunity to apply to use the Pixar technology and tools on their own time for projects outside of the development cycle of Pixar’s studio films.

As for whether or not Borrowed Time might some day be a feature length film?

“We would love to make a feature,” said Coats, “but we don’t know what the reality is for really doing that, especially with the budgets required to make these kinds of films. We’ve had five years of our time in this world so right at the moment we’re itching to do something new and different.”

If you want to know more about how Borrowed Time came to be, you should watch the making-of featurette that debuted alongside the short:

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.