Original release date: February 18, 2019 worldwide on YouTube. It debuted at the SIGGRAPH conference on August 14, 2018, before having a limited release at the El Capitan Theatre on January 18, 2019 with two other shorts.

Rating: PG

Length: nine minutes

Background:

“Kitbull” is one of Pixar’s “SparkShorts.” What’s a SparkShort, you ask?

Besides having great movies (and also the “Cars” series), Pixar is known for their dynamic shorts that typically run before movies. They decided to go in a different direction with the SparkShorts program in 2018, giving employees six months and a limited budget to see what they could create.

Not surprisingly, the Pixar employees knocked it out of the park by creating fun, advanced, and mind-blowing shorts. “Kitbull” might be the most acclaimed of them thus far, scoring an Academy Award nomination for 2020’s ceremony for “Best Animated Short Film,” a category it would lose to the short “Hair Love.”

Review:

“Kitbull” immediately begins with a gorgeous animation style and a little black kitten on the prowl, searching for somewhere to eat the fish it had claimed. The kitten finds a warm box and falls asleep under a stuffed elephant, only to be awoken by a drooling pit bull.

The cat is confrontational and the pit bull just wants to play, which is definitely something I’ve learned from having a pit breed myself. Unfortunately for the pit bull, it gets chained up outside and ignored by its owners.

The curious kitten finds a bottlecap to play with, eventually knocking it to the pit bull. The pit bull knocks it back, scaring the cat. However, the neurotic cat begins a game of knocking it back and forth before becoming scared of the pit bull’s playful ripping of a stuffed animal’s head off. Fair.

Night comes and we see the pit bull’s owners actually kicking it out of the house and into the rain. Heartbreaking. Meanwhile, the cat finds its way stuck in a six-pack of soda can rings.

The pit bull lets helps the cat out, who scratches it because A) cats are mean and B) the cat was intimidated. The poor pit goes back to its house as we see more cuts on the pit, which again is heartbreaking.

Kitty feels sorrow later and tries to pass the bottlecap back to the pit who has fallen asleep. When the pit doesn’t do it, the kitten bravely goes into its kennel and starts kicking its wounds before cuddling up to it and falling asleep, causing the pit to wag and thump its tail.

The pair go out to play as they hear the owner starting to open the door and come out with a chain. The duo escape, freeing the pit from its cruel owner and giving it a friend for life in the kitten.

As the story ends, the pair find two owners who love them for exactly who they are.

Extras:

“The Making of Kitbull” is about four minutes and is exactly as it sounds, featuring footage and interviews of the animators discussing and making their masterpiece.

Should you watch it?

Maybe it is because I have a rescue pit breed dog myself who came from a bad home, but this short hit me HARD. I felt strong emotions of anger at the owners, pity for the poor pup, and I swear my heart grew three sizes bigger at the end. I can’t recommend this short enough. Show it to everybody you know. Watch it.