Pixar breaks your damn heart yet again with Kitbull, their latest short film

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

If you're ready for Pixar to tug on your heartstrings and potentially make you cry on a Wednesday evening (I totally didn't, nope, absolutely not), then the studio's latest installment of their SparkShorts program is exactly what you need. Directed by Rosana Sullivan, Kitbull reveals "an unlikely connection that sparks between two creatures: a fiercely independent stray kitten and a pit bull. Together, they experience friendship for the first time." It's a lovely little short and well worth eight minutes of your time. Please do check it out.

Unlike most of Pixar's projects, Kitbull is a 2D animated short. "I've always loved the charm of a hand-drawn image," Sullivan said. "No two artists will draw the same way. And no two drawings are going to be exactly alike. Every frame is hand-drawn and hand-painted, and while we did draw on computers, everything was directly from the artist's hands onto the screen." Sullivan admitted that Kitbull originated from the endless cat videos which she watched during times of stress. At first she just wanted to draw something which was fun and made her feel good, but the project soon evolved into something far more personal.

Growing up I was always very sensitive and very shy. I had a lot of trouble kind of making connections, making friendship. So I related to this kitten because it never really stepped outside of its comfort zone to be vulnerable and make a connection. So that's eventually what the story became.

Pixar's SparkShorts program is "designed to discover new storytellers, explore new storytelling techniques, and experiment with new production workflows. These films are unlike anything we’ve ever done at Pixar, providing an opportunity to unlock the potential of individual artists and their inventive filmmaking approaches on a smaller scale than our normal fare." We've seen two other SparkShorts so far, Purl and Smash and Grab, and I can't wait to see more from Pixar's other up-and-coming talent.