In dark times, it behooves us to cling to every scrap of light we can find in the world. Sweet stories are all the more precious in 2017, and especially stories that grant happy endings to people who don’t get to see them very often. Enter: the cutest gosh-darn animated romance you’ve ever seen.
In a Heartbeat is a treasure of a movie about a schoolboy whose overactive heart threatens to give away his attraction to a blissfully oblivious male classmate. And in just five short days, it’s managed to capture hearts and minds the world over: since its YouTube release on Monday, the film has already racked up more than 3 million views.
Esteban Bravo and Beth David, both animation students at Ringling School of Art and Design in Florida, created In A Heartbeat as a passion project. Though they originally intended to center their love story on a male-female duo, Bravo and David—who both identify as queer— soon realized that they had the opportunity to make something truly special by portraying a same-sex romance instead. And the results are special, indeed.
What did you think of In A Heartbeat? Tell us in the comments!
Ting Ting Chen
Kyla Rain
Christiana Birch
Charlotte Entwistle