And now for something completely different.

While we have been called the “Mtv” of pony media, due to the fact we branched out beyond the colorful equines, our only real reason for doing so is the fact this site was started by a bunch of animation fans who generally enjoy animated flicks from television shows, to movies, to fan films.  I would personally call myself a general animation fan due to the fact that I do not exactly pay close attention to the animation industry.  I’ve watched plenty of it, was that one ‘stoner’ eons ago who caught the premiere of Adult Swim’s original shows airing unannounced at 4am on Cartoon Network.  As someone born in the early 80s, I got to ride that now very classic wave of cartoons, from the Saturday Morning shows like He-Man, Voltron, Transformers, Thundercats, My Little Pony and then advancing to the Disney Afternoon after its inception.  I say general as one of the big draws to Friendship is Magic from many people in the pony community was the fact such industrial names as Lauren Faust & Rob Renzetti were attached to the show.  I fell into the void thanks to nostalgia, as I watched the show and had the toys as a kid.  But enough about me.

Earlier in the year we had a featurette dubbed Piper, about a Piper chick learning about life along the coastline.  In line with much of Pixar’s content, it was emotionally filled and light hearted.  And while the studio has experimented with some dark concepts within their movie franchises, Their new featurette was created to show that animation can be dark and gritty, but not in that emo Hot Topic way.

Borrowed Time is the short story about a Sheriff and his son in the old west, and a life changing event.  Clocking in at 6 minutes and 45 seconds total, like anything Pixar produces, you might want to be prepared for some feels, and possibly a tear.  Unlike other features and featurettes from Pixar, the story covers some really dark subjects in a mostly visual story.  A few words are spoken in it, but for the most part it is pure eye candy.

The darkness of the short film was one of the main points of it.  Its creators wanted to show the general media world that not all animation has to be aimed at ‘kids’, but that animation could tell a really good story.  While most fans know that, the fat executives think otherwise, though are now just slowly coming around to it in many established places.  Watch this feature, its practically better than anything mainstream Hollywood has crapped out.  Don’t worry though, I’m sure they’ll reboot this short story in another 5 years and change a few things.

Since I’m a fan of telling people to go form their own opinions, do not consider this a review.  Just a ‘hey check it out’ deal.  Directly below is the featurette, and a behind the scenes clip from its creators.