Pixar's short animated film, "Borrowed Time", is a heartbreakingly beautiful masterpiece about grief, loss, and regrets. "Borrowed Time" takes you back to your childhood years and adulthood with a touch of joy, pain and bitterness making it heartbreakingly beautiful.
In Pixar's "Borrowed Time," the audience is shown six minutes and forty seconds of heartbreakingly, beautifully rendered story about a weather-beaten Sheriff as he stands alone the middle of a wreckage. Walking towards the edge of the cliff, each step the Sheriff struggles to take, unlocks the painful memory of the tragedy behind the wreckage; of his past. At the end, he must find a way to cope with his regrets and move on to the rest of his life.
The juxtaposition of the weather-beaten Sheriff and his younger self makes Pixar's "Borrowed Time" one of the best short animated films Pixar has made. Just like any other Pixar animation, it is emotionally packed but has a darker, mature feel to it. It may be short but it's poignant.
The setting of "Borrowed Time" is like that of a typical Western film. The dusty, ragged landscape, a carriage chase, a shootout but unlike other Western films, there is no hero at the end of the story.
In a featurette for the short animated film, Lou Hamou-Lhadj and Andrew Coats, both the writers and directors of "Borrowed Time", talks about taking risks in animated storytelling. Andrew Coats emphasizes the importance of short animation in opening an avenue that challenges the audience's view of a typical short animated film.
A wrenching, dark short from @DisneyPixar: Watch “Borrowed Time” on @Vimeo https://t.co/lIhVJ9Aj9Q #loss #BorrowedTime
— Scott Brunner (@RScottBrunner) October 19, 2016
Pixar's "Borrowed Time" has a bevy of accolades. The varied reactions of the audience have inspired the directors to challenge expectations, which was their goal when they began. Hamou-Lhadj and Coats wanted to show a more mature theme and that short animated films can be a perfect medium for that.
"Borrowed Time" was made in both Hamou-Lhadj's and Coats' spare time. Amanda Deering Jones produces with the music of Academy Award winner Gustavo Santaolalla.
Pixar's "Borrowed Time" is streamed on Vimeo for a limited time. Watch it now before it's gone and feel the drama and poignancy of the film.
