Watch: New short Borrowed Time explores mature themes of guilt and grief

It may look and sound like the next kids’ film from Pixar, but Borrowed Time — a new short film from two Pixar animators_,_ is far from child-friendly fare. In roughly six minutes, Pixar animators Lou Hamou-Lhadj and Andrew Coats explore the themes of guilt and grief in Borrowed Time. [caption id=“attachment_3057806” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A still from the short ‘Borrowed Time’[/caption] Coats and Hamou-Lhadj, who have worked on the animation for films like Cars and The Good Dinosaur, have made this film as a side-project for the last five years on their off days, and plan to screen it at various festivals upon its release, according to their Facebook page. The film has been scored by award-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who took home the Oscar for the best original soundtrack for Brokeback Mountain (2006) and Babel (2007). “A goal for us was to make something that kind of contested the notion of animation being a genre, and one for children specifically,” Hamou-Lhadj says in a making-of short that debuted on Vimeo alongside Borrowed Time. “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.” Borrowed Time follows a weathered sheriff returning to the remains of an accident he has spent a lifetime trying to forget. The look of the film is gaunt and monochromatic, and the duo is said to have found inspiration from films starring Clint Eastwood and Sam Elliott. Andrew Coats told The Hollywood Reporter, “We started with a story about forgiveness, but we changed it to a story about finding closure with something you did in your past that you might regret. Finding a way to move on with the life — ultimately it’s about self forgiveness.” Watch the film here: