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On Borrowed Time: Pixar's Darkest Animation

Hykal94

Hykal94

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Article:
This powerful short by two Pixar animators is darker than Pixar has ever gone

Pixar Animation Studios is known for making surprisingly dark, bold storytelling choices in its movies. For movies that are meant to be accessible to children, they can be sharply daring in the directions they take. Ellie Fredricksen's life montage at the beginning of Up, the toys grimly facing oblivion together at the end of Toy Story 3, and Bing Bong's tear-jerking decision inInside Out all tap into painful emotions around death in order to underline the joy the characters feel around life. But none of these films gets as dark as Borrowed Time, a short film that Pixar animators Lou Hamou-Lhadj and Andrew Coats made as a side project. The piece, which has toured film festivals and is now available on Vimeo for a limited time, is expressly about loss and mourning.

.....

Granted, an actual Pixar film would certainly make a point of relieving the tension and sorrow this short sets up, and would use it to some spectacular end. Hamou-Lhadj (a Pixar character developer on Inside Out and animator on Brave and Cars 2) and Coats (a character modeler and artist on Brave, The Good Dinosaur, and various Pixar shorts) have set up what feels like the beginning to a terrific story. Here's hoping they keep it going, past this tragic moment and on to the rest of the story of this man's life.

Source:
This powerful short by two Pixar animators is darker than Pixar has ever gone


 
'catagory: comedy'

The fuck youtube

(because fuck watching it on vimeo)
 
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Yeah you should feel bad you stupid fuck. How could a teenager who grew up in the Wild West with a Sheriff for a father be so stupid they forget that when Mr. Trigger is pulled, Mr. Rifle is no longer your friend? But then again I guess his father shares the blame for handing his idiot son the gun stock-first. But then again it's still the son's fault because trigger guards exist to prevent exactly this happening so this wasn't just an accident, this was Advanced Stupidity. And also where the fuck did the guy who was attacking the wagon go? Did the dad kill him? If so the son is doubly responsible for everything bad that happened because the danger had passed but he drove the wagon over a bunch of rocks at full tilt anyway because his father should never trust him with any kind of task ever.

This wasn't 'ugh the feels *fans face*' it was a bunch of shitty contrivances stacked up over gratuitous melodrama for the sake of being artsy. This is why animators aren't writers.
 
ZerbanDaGreat said:
Yeah you should feel bad you stupid fuck. How could a teenager who grew up in the Wild West with a Sheriff for a father be so stupid they forget that when Mr. Trigger is pulled, Mr. Rifle is no longer your friend? But then again I guess his father shares the blame for handing his idiot son the gun stock-first. But then again it's still the son's fault because trigger guards exist to prevent exactly this happening so this wasn't just an accident, this was Advanced Stupidity. And also where the fuck did the guy who was attacking the wagon go? Did the dad kill him? If so the son is doubly responsible for everything bad that happened because the danger had passed but he drove the wagon over a bunch of rocks at full tilt anyway because his father should never trust him with any kind of task ever.

This wasn't 'ugh the feels *fans face*' it was a bunch of shitty contrivances stacked up over gratuitous melodrama for the sake of being artsy. This is why animators aren't writers.
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My mother once told me how a teacher in a nearby school accidentally back her car into her three year old son, killing him instantly.

This was real life, some five years ago. Sometimes bad things just happen and spiral out of control.
 
ZerbanDaGreat said:
Yeah you should feel bad you stupid fuck. How could a teenager who grew up in the Wild West with a Sheriff for a father be so stupid they forget that when Mr. Trigger is pulled, Mr. Rifle is no longer your friend? But then again I guess his father shares the blame for handing his idiot son the gun stock-first. But then again it's still the son's fault because trigger guards exist to prevent exactly this happening so this wasn't just an accident, this was Advanced Stupidity. And also where the fuck did the guy who was attacking the wagon go? Did the dad kill him? If so the son is doubly responsible for everything bad that happened because the danger had passed but he drove the wagon over a bunch of rocks at full tilt anyway because his father should never trust him with any kind of task ever.

This wasn't 'ugh the feels *fans face*' it was a bunch of shitty contrivances stacked up over gratuitous melodrama for the sake of being artsy. This is why animators aren't writers.
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Zerban probably cried and is just trying to cover it up.
 
CornyBones said:
Zerban probably cried and is just trying to cover it up.
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Given how at least parts of his complaints are counter to what's actually shown, I think he's really covering for something. His complaint boils down to "what, bad things happen in a crisis? THIS IS TOTALLY UNREALISTIC AND TERRIBLE!"


The gun has a trigger guard, but that doesn't help during a crisis when your hand slips. Using a gun to pull someone up is a bad idea, but it's apparently what they had. And just because a gun killed someone doesn't mean you aren't going to feel shitty if it was an accident.

As for the highwayman, he may well have been killed. But, it looks like it's only a few seconds after the gunshot that they crash, so not exactly time to make huge changes. In fact, they crash after the Father tells his son to steady, at which point he then tugs on the reins.
 
Cosar said:
Given how at least parts of his complaints are counter to what's actually shown, I think he's really covering for something. His complaint boils down to "what, bad things happen in a crisis? THIS IS TOTALLY UNREALISTIC AND TERRIBLE!"
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Nah I mean I largely get where he's coming from.

This isn't a really compelling story when you get right down to it. Like heavy shit happens but...it doesn't tease your heart-strings so much as grab them by the fistfull and try to do a power solo because tragedy. It makes the whole sequence of events feel contrived with the way that the literal worst possible sequence of events plays out which, like, yeah happens IRL I guess? But isn't exactly satisfying as a narrative.

Like just have the Dad slip and fall for fuck's sake, it's already the same "OH NO MY HAND'S SLIPPING" cliche that's been in a billion things just stretched out some and with the kinda gratuitous layer of "BUT THE KID SHOT HIS DAD LOOK BLOOD IN A PIXAR THING" slathered on top.

The animation's really pretty but the story's sorta shallow and a lot of it felt pretty forced. I feel like it's mostly getting attention for the former and because it's Pixar and Pixar doesn't normally do this kind of dark shit. It's the novelty and the quality of the animation. Not because the events depicted are actually particularly profound.

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Like the reason the gun is all they had is because the writer said that this was all they had. So it makes it a bit of a shitshow all around. Like you're lawmen out in the Wild West, at least unload that shit. You know how guns work.

It's pretty on the surface but kinda shaky as you get farther down and yeah I get that they only had however many minutes to tell a story but it just...doesn't gel on it's own honestly. It relies too much on the shock and schlock and the heavy-handed overtones of DEATH and FORGIVENESS to keep itself together.

Or maybe I secretly loved that shit and I'm just covering for something. 8V
 
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Hykal94 said:
My mother once told me how a teacher in a nearby school accidentally back her car into her three year old son, killing him instantly.

This was real life, some five years ago. Sometimes bad things just happen and spiral out of control.
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And if you turned that into an animated short, people wouldn't call you a genius. Most people would probably just call you fucked up actually.
CornyBones said:
Zerban probably cried and is just trying to cover it up.
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I cried because Baby's First Dark Story was winning awards in the field of Feels.
Cosar said:
Given how at least parts of his complaints are counter to what's actually shown, I think he's really covering for something. His complaint boils down to "what, bad things happen in a crisis? THIS IS TOTALLY UNREALISTIC AND TERRIBLE!"
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You're right, I'm covering for something. The fact that I went into this short expecting UGH THE FEELINGS and got Nothing.
The gun has a trigger guard, but that doesn't help during a crisis when your hand slips. Using a gun to pull someone up is a bad idea, but it's apparently what they had. And just because a gun killed someone doesn't mean you aren't going to feel shitty if it was an accident.

As for the highwayman, he may well have been killed. But, it looks like it's only a few seconds after the gunshot that they crash, so not exactly time to make huge changes. In fact, they crash after the Father tells his son to steady, at which point he then tugs on the reins.
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You're right, it doesn't help during a crisis because the writer said the dad handed it to his son so the barrel was pointed at his chest and the writer said the son's hand slipped and pulled the trigger. And the writer wanted the son to shoot his father instead of the father just falling straight off the cliff because they wanted it to be Shocking and Dark. MY STOOL IS DARK. And the doctor says that's bad. But I dunno what he knows about interior decorating. Fuck, did you see the wreckage of the wagon? If the son had taken five seconds to pick up a piece of wood of similar size to the gun (which I saw) he could've pulled him up no problem.
 
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TenfoldShields said:
Nah I mean I largely get where he's coming from.

This isn't a really compelling story when you get right down to it. Like heavy shit happens but...it doesn't tease your heart-strings so much as grab them by the fistfull and try to do a power solo because tragedy. It makes the whole sequence of events feel contrived in the way that the literal worst possible sequence of events plays out which, like, yeah happens IRL I guess? But isn't exactly satisfying as a narrative.

Or maybe I secretly loved that shit and I'm just covering for something. 8V
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I'm not saying you can't think it's contrived or not compelling. I'd actually agree with some of that. But, in that case, you probably also need to accept that people might not find other people's complaints compelling. I mean, maybe I'm just strange, but I don't feel that a hand slipping on a gun or a crash during a chase are that ridiculous, but ZerbanDaGreat spends quite a lot of his post and vitriol saying how utterly moronic these things are.
 
Cosar said:
I'm not saying you can't think it's contrived or not compelling. I'd actually agree with some of that. But, in that case, you probably also need to accept that people might not find other people's complaints compelling. I mean, maybe I'm just strange, but I don't feel that a hand slipping on a gun or a crash during a chase are that ridiculous, but ZerbanDaGreat spends quite a lot of his post and vitriol saying how utterly moronic these things are.
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>"You can think it's contrived or not compelling"
>"Unless you're ZerbanDaGreat in which case you can't"

Did you just miss my follow-up post or would you really prefer to think I'm criticising story elements sight-unseen rather than in the context of something that purports to be so Deep and Tragic and Artistic You Guys?
 
Cosar said:
I'm not saying you can't think it's contrived or not compelling. I'd actually agree with some of that. But, in that case, you probably also need to accept that people might not find other people's complaints compelling. I mean, maybe I'm just strange, but I don't feel that a hand slipping on a gun or a crash during a chase are that ridiculous, but ZerbanDaGreat spends quite a lot of his post and vitriol saying how utterly moronic these things are.
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I'dunno, he's not saying it's bluntly moronic and I'm not either. More of the fact that like...

So the rules for tragedy are a lot like the rules for horror right? It can't be just bad things happening to good people (cause that's unsatisfying) or bad things happening to bad people (cause that's just karma). Generally reasonable people need to bring it on themselves in some way and there needs to be some rules, some way for them to fix it that they can fuck up (or not!).

The gun as a pull up thing sorta trips at that hurdle because it's like the babysitter running up into the dark attic. You're just like "oh, she's gonna die now I guess". And the crash, like, where were they even going to begin with? It's just a straight up cliff but they were headed there anyway?

It's important that you buy into the setup is what I'm saying, for the payoff to have any impact. The short doesn't really set that up and sorta just presents you with what amounts to a beautifully animated workplace accident brought about by employee thickness. Which is sad I guess? But not exactly viscerally gripping or deeply moving.
 
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ZerbanDaGreat said:
>"You can think it's contrived or not compelling"
>"Unless you're ZerbanDaGreat in which case you can't"

Did you just miss my follow-up post or would you really prefer to think I'm criticising story elements sight-unseen rather than in the context of something that purports to be so Deep and Tragic and Artistic You Guys?
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I'm saying that some of the specific complaints that you made weren't compelling. You know, the same thing I've been saying for 3 posts now. Or is your position that while you can find thing not compelling, other people are forbidden from finding any of the vomit you spew forth that way? Are you that much of a hypocrite?

I think you're going out of your way to manufacture issues with the story, more than it already has. I was basing my opinion off what you presented originally, which was largely not compelling in substance or style. Your second post adds more information, and I can't fault what you say there, though it doesn't make your first post any more compelling.
TenfoldShields said:
I'dunno, he's not saying it's bluntly moronic and I'm not either. More of the fact that like...
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Really? So then I take it someone else posted this?
Yeah you should feel bad you stupid fuck. How could a teenager who grew up in the Wild West with a Sheriff for a father be so stupid they forget that when Mr. Trigger is pulled, Mr. Rifle is no longer your friend? But then again I guess his father shares the blame for handing his idiot son the gun stock-first. But then again it's still the son's fault because trigger guards exist to prevent exactly this happening so this wasn't just an accident, this was Advanced Stupidity. And also where the fuck did the guy who was attacking the wagon go? Did the dad kill him? If so the son is doubly responsible for everything bad that happened because the danger had passed but he drove the wagon over a bunch of rocks at full tilt anyway because his father should never trust him with any kind of task ever.
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Because I'm not sure how you read that and don't take away the idea that he's calling it bluntly moronic. I mean, he all but uses that terminology in there.
 
Cosar said:
I'm saying that some of the specific complaints that you made weren't compelling. You know, the same thing I've been saying for 3 posts now. Or is your position that while you can find thing not compelling, other people are forbidden from finding any of the vomit you spew forth that way? Are you that much of a hypocrite?

I think you're going out of your way to manufacture issues with the story, more than it already has. I was basing my opinion off what you presented originally, which was largely not compelling in substance or style. Your second post adds more information, and I can't fault what you say there, though it doesn't make your first post any more compelling.
Really? So then I take it someone else posted this?

Because I'm not sure how you read that and don't take away the idea that he's calling it bluntly moronic. I mean, he all but uses that terminology in there.
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Then could you maybe stop being so needlessly aggressive like calling me a hypocrite and saying I spew vomit? 'cause that'd be nice.
 
Cosar said:
Given how at least parts of his complaints are counter to what's actually shown, I think he's really covering for something. His complaint boils down to "what, bad things happen in a crisis? THIS IS TOTALLY UNREALISTIC AND TERRIBLE!"
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Dude, you don't need to go berserk to defend this.

It's a nice-looking animation which was unfortunately written by animators, with very clear results.

We've seen this sort of thing before. As RWBY is to shounen anime, this short is to tragedy. All the form, none of the function, because form is what animators deal in.
 
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ZerbanDaGreat said:
Then could you maybe stop being so needlessly aggressive like calling me a hypocrite and saying I spew vomit? 'cause that'd be nice.
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Sure, as long as you stop being so needlessly aggressive like calling me a hypocrite. You know, what you did in that post that I was directly responding to.

I will genuinely apologies for the latter insult. It was uncalled for, I lost my temper at that moment.
 
Oh my god would you two stop it. Like if you wanted to talk about the short it'd be different but ATM yer just bitching at each other and derailing the thread. Like, I dunno, take it to PM's or something or report the other guy if you think he's acting like a twat but stop arguing in thread about who was a jerk first.
 
They didn't only have the gun

There's also some rope in the wreckage.
But that seems like not a big issue to me, though I can understand how it might bother some people. Myself, I can rationalize that as people being panicked, not thinking right, or not having enough time.

Revlid said:
Dude, you don't need to go berserk to defend this.

It's a nice-looking animation which was unfortunately written by animators, with very clear results.

We've seen this sort of thing before. As RWBY is to shounen anime, this short is to tragedy. All the form, none of the function, because form is what animators deal in.
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It's written by animator, who perhaps don't have experience writing before, but I feel it isn't that poor in my subjective opinion.
It's a fairly basic story, but that has value in it's own way. It doesn't need to be complex or anything, at least how I feel.

Also, do we need to spoiler tag info about the short? I just started because everyone was doing so.
 
If I'm being honest, I've seen legitimately more saddening stuff on youtube. CalArts makes a lot of good stuff, as does the Gobelin art school. Both tend to bring the same level of darkness into play.

On Borrowed Time's not bad. It's just not anything beyond what I've seen before.

Stuff like this:
 
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CornyBones said:
If I'm being honest, I've seen legitimately more saddening stuff on youtube. CalArts makes a lot of good stuff, as does the Gobelin art school. Both tend to bring the same level of darkness into play.

On Borrowed Time's not bad. It's just not anything beyond what I've seen before.
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Pretty much. The animation quality is obviously great, but smaller works can easily make up the difference with art style and clever direction, and in terms of actual content this just... isn't very good. It's painfully simplistic, and doesn't so much hit the right notes as jam its finger down on a single key and wait the audience out. In concept, it's the sort of thing I'd expect from an animation posted online as part of a technical student project with no time for story. It's a worthy first attempt, but disappointing for anyone with any kind of portfolio. It's only noteworthy for its tangential association with the Disney name.

It's just completely unremarkable, which isn't good enough given the talent behind it.

Cosar said:
Sure, as long as you stop being so needlessly aggressive like calling me a hypocrite. You know, what you did in that post that I was directly responding to.
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Sorry, I'm just... not sure if you understand the format, here. We're posting written messages. Literally anyone can scroll up and check what the other guy wrote. Hell, they can Ctrl+F and type in "hypocrite" to find out exactly who said it, and where. It's not even like there's a long and tangled chain of exchanges to dig through. I'd probably just drop it.
 
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