Watch This Beautiful Hand-Animated Short Film By Disney Legend Glen Keane

A new animated film by Glen Keane is a cause for excitement among fans of animation, and should be just as exciting for fans of good-old fashioned storytelling — and hand craftsmanship.

You have almost certainly seen the work of Glen Keane. He is a living legend among Disney animators. It was Glen Keane who designed or created many of the characters in recent Disney animated instant-classics. You’ll see his work in Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast, among others.

But now you can see his work in its purest form. See, in 2012, Keane departed Disney, a studio that he loved and had worked as an animator since 1974. The reason: he wanted to draw again. The art of hand animation is becoming a lost one, and Keane wanted to help keep it alive.

“After long and thoughtful consideration, I have decided to leave Disney Animation,” he wrote in his eloquent resignation letter at the time. “I am convinced that animation really is the ultimate art form of our time with endless new territories to explore. I can’t resist its siren call to step out and discover them.”

Last month, Keane displayed his first effort in that journey. The 60-year-old artist completed a three-and-a-half minute short for Google’s Spotlight Series, a project aimed at creating new forms of storytelling for mobile devices. While the project sounds — and is, mostly — very high-tech, Keane’s new shirt film, Duet, was created the old-fashioned way.

Keane drew every frame by hand — with a good old graphite pencil.

In fact, here is what a single, hand-drawn frame from the film actually looks like.

The film itself is a beautiful little love story, following Keane’s two main characters, Mia and Tosh, from their carefree days as children through adulthood. The few minutes you spend with it it may be the most entertaining minutes of your day, especially if you love animation. Keane debuted the film on June 26 at Google’s I/O Conference in San Francisco.

Later this year, the film will become available for Android mobile devices with new interactive features, seamlessly melding the classic, hand-crafted animation with Google’s latest technological storytelling tools.

Oh, and when we say that Glen Keane is a Disney legend, we’re not just exaggerating for effect. In 1987, Disney started the Disney Legends program honoring current and former Disney employees who have made what the company considers extraordinary contributions.

Glen Keane was officially named a Disney Legend in 2013.