They're the animation studios famous for tugging heart strings with their full-length movies but now Disney-Pixar have released a sweet short that will have you welling up.

The creators of Up, Wall-E, Brave and Coco have produced a 2-D animation, Kitbull, that tells the story of a friendship between a stray kitten and an abused pitbull.

Directed by Rosana Sullivan and produced by Kathryn Hendrickson, the nine-minute film is set in San Francisco's Mission District and is part of the studio's Sparkshorts project, which aims to give emerging artists a platform.

The subject of the movie focuses on animal abuse, with a pitbull left scarred and scared after being forced to fight who makes friends with a plucky, self-reliant kitten.

The idea for the moving short came from cat videos which sparked Ms Sullivan into making this heartwarming tale of friendship and love.

She said: " I loved watching cat videos in times of stress ... At first, I just wanted to draw something that made me feel good and was fun, but it evolved into something more personal to me eventually. 

"Growing up, I was always very sensitive and very shy, and had actually a lot of trouble making connections, making friendship. So I related to this kitten because it never really stepped outside of its comfort zone to be vulnerable and make a connection."