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Motorola's latest animated short 'Duet' aims to tug at the heartstrings

Motorola's latest animated short 'Duet' aims to tug at the heartstrings

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Just over a year ago, Motorola gave Moto X owners a little surprise in the form of Windy Day, an animated story from the co-director of Pixar's Ratatouille. It was a cute, slapstick tale that also took advantage of the phone's hardware — users were able to move around and control the "camera" in the world of the cartoon, letting you look around as if you were in the world yourself. It was the first of Motorola's so-called "Spotlight Stories" and was followed by Buggy Night a few months later.

Now, Google and Motorola have released the third in the series, Duet, a short that was animated and directed by Glen Keane, a longtime Disney animator who worked on films like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. Much like Windy Day, users can control the viewpoint of the camera by looking up, down, and around them with their phone. And like the previous entries in the series, it manages to tell a surprisingly complete little story with just animation and music — and the ability to control the camera means there's a little bit of replay value here, too. Owners of the Moto X (both versions) and Moto G can check out Duet now.