Watch 'Borrowed Time,' a Not-for-Kids Short From Two Pixar Animators
Dark Westerns about violence and regret could well be their own genre — but it’s not one that you’d expect Pixar animators to explore. That’s one reason why Borrowed Time, a six-minute short directed by veteran Pixar artists Andrew Coats (Inside Out, Brave) and Lou Hamou-Lhadj (The Good Dinosaur, Brave), is so affecting. In the short (watch it above), an aging sheriff revisits the scene of a horrible accident that occurred in his childhood and must decide whether he can live with the memories. Needless to say, it’s not for kids.
Related: ‘Inside Out’ Minus Emotions Still Has All the Feels
In a making-of featurette posted by the filmmakers, Hamou-Lhadj explains that Borrowed Time is meant to contest the idea of animation being “a genre, and one for children specifically.” Instead, he says, animation should be “a medium to tell any sort of story.” That’s a not a new notion, but it’s one that the American film industry has been slow to embrace. While there have been a few notable adults-only animated films in recent years, including this summer’s raunchy comedy Sausage Party and 2015’s critically acclaimed stop-motion film Anomalisa, none of them have been produced by the same major animation studios that create family-friendly fare. It’s important to note that this film is not an official Pixar production, as Pixar is unlikely to dip its toe into this pool anytime soon — even though its Japanese analogue, Studio Ghibli, has been producing grown-up animated films for decades (including 1988’s ultra-bleak classic Grave of the Fireflies).
Related: How the R-Rated Animated ‘Sausage Party’ Owes Its Existence to Pixar
Meanwhile, Borrowed Time seems a likely finalist for next year’s Academy Award line-up for Best Animated Short, where not-for-kids animation (like last year’s totally-robbed World of Tomorrow) is an annual fixture.
‘Storks’ directors on whether Warner Bros. has its own ‘Pixar Rules’:
