Two Aging Robots Try to Escape Life on a Locomotive in the Pixar Animated Short ‘Smash and Grab’

In the heartwarming Pixar SparkShorts animated short, “Smash and Grab”, written and directed by Brian Larsen, a pair of job-specific, aging robots who have been working together for a long time on a locomotive, decide that they are going to leave this life behind for the newer models that can easily replace them. Escaping doesn’t prove to be easy however. The two find out that they have to fight their way to freedom, depending upon each other and everything at their disposal, to get it done for good.

Smash and Grab, directed by Brian Larsen and produced by David Lally, is about two antiquated robots who risk everything for freedom and for each other after years of toiling away inside the engine room of a towering locomotive.

Here’s some behind-the-scenes footage showing how the animated short was made. Writer/director Brian Larsen and producer David Lally talk about how “Smash and Grab” came about.

This is the latest animated short from the Pixar SparkShorts series, following “Purl”.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.