It’s rare to include Pixar Animation Studios and distressing in the same sentence. Yet Pixar animators Lou Hamou-Lhadj and Andrew Coats have independently teamed up to create an exceedingly harrowing short film called Borrowed Time. The story wades deeply into the realm of loss and mourning. Borrowed Time has toured film festivals receiving critical acclaim. It’s now available for a limited time on Vimeo.
The story will be particularly riveting to parents since it explores the relationship between a father and son. Despite the familiar pixar animation style, the movie content is expressly for adult audiences. The visual artistry is realistically detailed throughout the movie. In close-ups of the main characters, you not only see the idiosyncrasies of their faces, but you also notice the minute details of their clothing. Much like the physics involved in creating the amazing world of The Incredibles, so too do we see the technical wizardry on display here offering up a realistic feel to the movements of the characters, horses and even the stagecoach. Yet the heightened emotional impact clearly drives the story.
“A goal for us was to make something that kind of contested the notion of animation being a genre, and one for children specifically. We really wanted to make something that was a little bit more adult in the thematic choices, and show that animation could be a medium to tell any sort of story.” – Lou Hamou-Lhadj
We loved the results of their efforts and hope they expand on the short to a feature length story. What do you think?
