Many people think that DreamWorks Animation is in a constant battle against Pixar. That’s because they are. However, the near-total domination from Disney’s arm means that DreamWorks gets a bit of leeway as the underdog, and they’ve capitalized on that standing with some offbeat and clever choices for production. It’s that mentality that must have given them license to bring Alma to life. The beautiful, unnerving short film from Pixar animator Rodrigo Blaas (which we featured on the site back in September) is going to grow into a feature length film under the tutelage of Guillermo del Toro and the team over at DreamWorks. With any luck, they’ll maintain the crawling sensibility featured prominently in the story of a young girl in a toy store. To that point, there’s an odds on chance that the feature will feel a lot like the short simply because DreamWorks has the brass buttons to do it. So is this reason to celebrate? Absolutely. Why? Watch the short for yourself and you tell me:

Why Watch? Our spotlight on Fantastic Fest short films from the past continues with an impressive animation bit from Rodrigo Blaas – an animator for Pixar films ever since Finding Nemo. Slightly creepy, slightly cheery, this movie takes us (and a child) to the toy store with wondrous results. What does it cost? Just 5 minutes of your time. Check out Alma for yourself:

For some time now, we’ve been in love with the art of short filmmaking, but we’ve never found a good way to cover them. So once a week, we will bring you a short film that we’ve enjoyed, or that we find interesting, in a new feature we call Sunday Shorts. This week, Sunday Shorts presents Rodrigo Blaas’ Alma.

Luckily we had a list of the winners sent to us because we didn’t remember all the names. Or where our pants went.