Beautiful Trailer for Robert Kondo & Dice Tsutsumi's Animated Short 'The Dam Keeper' Released

Two Pixar visual development artists, Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi, have come together to release their own animated short titled The Dam Keeper. The first trailer and a clip of the short were just released in time for the short’s premiere at the Berlin Film Festival later this month.

As someone who loves the visual development process of animated movies, I was already familiar with Pixar’s Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi, two talented artists who worked on movies like Toy Story 3 and Monsters University. So when I discovered that they were working on an animated short that would showcase their signature styles, I nearly jumped for joy. Based on the trailer, the short looks very promising.

I absolutely adore he painterly look of the short. It’s very appealing, alluring and distinctive. I’m a big fan of Dice and Robert’s art style and this looks much like their art…except this time it moves! The animation is top notch, I love the character designs (more concept art and character designs can be found here), and the music and the colors are stunning. I can’t wait to see this looking short in its entirety.

The Dam Keeper is about a pig who has a very important job of keeping the town’s dam running. If he stopped, then perilous things would happen. The mood of this trailer shifts from happy to very brooding once we learn the gravity of the pig’s job. The premise also reminds me a little bit of Desmond pushing the button in LOST.

The short film will make its debut on the The Berlin Film Festival this week. The Berlin Film Festival released a first clip of The Dam Keeper on its website. Just like the trailer, the clip is beautiful. I’m particuarly impressed with how light and color look in this short.

Synopsis:

Pig does everything he can to protect his town but nobody shows any gratitude. He trots tirelessly up and down the stairs, moving heavy levers and making sure the windmill keeps turning. This is the only way he can hold back the billowing black clouds of smoke which threaten to engulf everything. In between all of this, Pig rushes to school before hurrying back to the dam each day. The townspeople continue to ridicule and scoff at him, and he finds himself sitting alone in the back of the bus. Everything begins to change when Fox, a new classmate, joins Pig‘s class.

To keep up to date on news about The Dam Keeper be sure to follow the film on Twitter and Facebook. The Dam Keeper will premiere at The 2014 Berlin Film Festival, which runs from February 6th – 16th, 2014.