Disney Animated Short, ‘Versa,’ Explores Loss and Hope in the Stars. Walt Disney Animation Studios released a powerful new short film called Versa at, Annecy Animation Festival in June 2025, and it’s getting a lot of attention. The short, which qualifies for the Oscars, was directed by Malcon Pierce, an artistic director at Disney. It doesn’t have any dialogue, but it still conveys a great deal about coping with tremendous loss.
While some news outlets and online influencers are trying to make a joke out of the new Disney Animated short, there is a depth and meaning behind the story that these “Jokes” are overlooking. Because the short features a pregnant female character and her male partner, some bloggers and influencers started treating the film like a joke. They started calling it things like “disgusting heterosexual breeding propaganda.”, all without actually seeing the film!
The story follows two celestial lovers—a nameless male and female couple—as they struggle with the grief of losing their baby late in the pregnancy. The entire six-minute film guides them through space, revealing their emotional journey from profound sadness to, ultimately, a sense of peace. The beautiful animation and score do all the work, carrying the story through joy, loss, grief, and finally, acceptance.
There is no official release date, but it is expected in early 2026.
TL/DR version: Disney’s new animated short, Versa, is about a couple in space dealing with the loss of their baby late in pregnancy. It has no dialogue but uses animation and music to show their journey through grief and acceptance.
The director, Malcon Pierce, based the story on his real-life experience after losing his son, Cooper. He realised he and his wife handled the loss differently: she faced it right away, while he shut down. The film is meant to help couples who have experienced infant loss connect and know they are not alone. It uses simple, symbolic objects, like a bassinet shaped like a nebula, to tell a very emotional, powerful story.
Writer and Director Malcon Pierce just sat down with Deadline for an interview, and went behind-the-scenes on the hows and whys Versa came into being, and how it told a story that many people would stay silent about.
Pierce shared that the idea started years ago when he looked at the Albireo star system—two blue and yellow stars orbiting each other. He liked the idea of using dance and movement in film, but he didn’t have the right story yet.
Then, during the making of the movie Moana, Pierce and his wife lost their son, Cooper, due to complications. He said this loss “reset” them in a huge way. He described grief as this heavy thing that felt impossible to get over.
Here’s the thing: he and his wife handled it completely differently. Pierce tried to shut it out, distracting himself and refusing to go into the nursery, thinking he’d deal with it later. But his wife faced it head-on. She’d talk about Cooper and even started taking pictures of herself in the nursery to keep a relationship with their baby.
She finally convinced Pierce to go into the nursery with her, telling him, “This is important, you need to do it. It’s going to be OK, because I’ll be there with you.” When he finally went in, he felt completely overwhelmed. She took a picture of that heavy moment, and that photo became a major turning point for the short.
Looking at that photo, Pierce realized his wife was wearing a star pendant. He remembered everything they had gotten for Cooper was star-themed, and his song was “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
Things started to come full circle. They later had another child, who is called a “rainbow baby” after a loss. They also had a crystal candle holder that their mother-in-law gave them. When the sun hit it, it made rainbows all over the house—a comforting way for them to feel Cooper’s presence.
This brought Pierce back to his original star idea. He felt he needed to share his experience, realizing it was the perfect concept for the “high star concept” he had shelved.
Pierce was very inspired by the infant loss support groups he and his wife attended. He realised that a lot of couples who experience this kind of loss deal with grief differently. One person might really need to talk about it, while the other might shut down.
This difference in how the male and female characters handle the tragedy is a major theme in Versa. Both parents feel the immense weight of the loss of a baby late in pregnancy. For many, this late-stage loss is particularly hard because they’ve gone through months of anticipation, preparing rooms, and planning futures.
The short aims to be a reflection of that struggle. It shows how intense the feelings are—Pierce remembers thinking at one point in the hospital, “I don’t think I’m ever going to laugh again.” He hopes the film can help people in the infant loss and miscarriage community feel seen and relate to one another.
Getting the story right was tricky. Pierce needed to make sure the concept—a non-verbal choreographed dance in space about infant loss—didn’t get too abstract.
They decided to keep the elements simple and symbolic. They cut out a full kid’s room setup and focused on a few powerful images. The bassinet was one thing Pierce knew had to be there because it “was going to say all we need.” The whole “nursery” became a nebula, connecting the real-world grief to the cosmic setting.
The response so far has been touching. After playing the short at a festival, a man showed Pierce a photo of his rainbow baby. Pierce said, “Oh my God, this is exactly what I wanted for this.” He was moved to see how the short brought people together to talk about something so hard.
