Legendary Disney animator Glen Keane premieres a new hand-drawn short film for Google

Animator Glen Keane, who was responsible for some of Disney’s most famous faces of the past 40 years, didn’t put down his pencil after he retired from Disney in 2012.

Google Spotlight Stories Tumblr

Instead, he turned his old-fashioned hand-drawn animation skills toward a new medium, teaming up with Google and Motorola to produce an original short film designed to be experienced on a smartphone.

The result, “Duet,” was released last week at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. Without dialog, “Duet” tells the story of a boy and girl who are born, grow up, meet and fall in love in the course of the flowing, lyrical 3-minute film.

“Duet” evokes the pencil sketches you’ve no doubt seen from Keane’s work for Disney, particularly the exuberant Ariel.

The aim of Motorola’s Spotlight Stories is to create content that uses the capabilities of a smartphone as part of the experience. Ultimately, the short films are meant to be interactive and immersive.

In announcing the partnership with Keane, Motorola touted “the raw emotion of the hand-drawn line brought to life in our technological world. And yours.”

You can see “Duet” here now, and it’s coming to Motorola devices later this year.

There’s a reason Keane was named a Disney Legend upon his retirement. His filmography includes most of the animation studio’s biggest hits of the past 40 years:

1977: The Rescuers, Pete’s Dragon
1981: The Fox and the Hound
1985: The Black Cauldron
1986: The Great Mouse Detective
1989: The Little Mermaid
1990: The Rescuers Down Under
1992: Aladdin
1991: Beauty and the Beast
1995: Pocahontas
1999: Tarzan
2002: Treasure Planet
2010: Tangled
2012: Paperman, Wreck-It Ralph