A mother tries to lure her sullen, couch-sitting son away from his video games with the gift of a new puppy. At first, the boy shuns the dog for reasons that are not immediately clear, but the animal soon wins him over. That’s the simple but affecting premise of The Present, a charming, four-minute-long animated film from writer-director Jacob Frey. Exquisitely rendered in a Pixar-esque style, with appealing characters and richly detailed backgrounds, the short has already been making the rounds at film festivals, winning numerous awards in the process, before finding a home on the director’s Vimeo account. Under different circumstances, the film might have made a good supporting feature to accompany Pixar’s Up. The dog in The Present is vaguely reminiscent of Dug, both in appearance and temperament, and Frey’s film tugs at the heartstrings in the classic Pixar fashion.