What if Voltron fell? A live-action short that has been passed around fan sites and blogs for the past week or so scales back the special effects and instead focuses on the aftermath of a battle we don’t get to see. The effect is wonderful; everything is kept in our imagination and we get an emotional moment from a cartoon world that was never exactly known for depth.

The short film “Voltron: The End” (above) is a distinct beast, feeling more like a tragedy than a traditional big-budget take on an existing cartoon. There have been rumblings of a live-action Voltron film for years, and this is a quick look at how it could be done right.

We caught up with the director of the short, Alex Albrecht, to ask whence this madness came.

“Well, I’m a huge Voltron fan from when I was a kid and I was looking for something to shoot after I finished my first short, ‘Neverland.’ I’d always heard rumblings of a Voltron movie and was disappointed when it never happened, so this initially was my idea for the opening scene of the live-action Voltron movie I’d like to make,” Albrecht told Ars.

He wrote the script, and asked his buddy Timothy Omundson (Psych) if the actor would like to participate. “I asked, he said yes, then we shot it. With, of course, the production design magic of Greg Aronowitz, the man literally made me a 3-foot red lion for the last shot … epic!”

Albrecht got his start as the host of TechTV’s The Screen Savers, before creating the web show Diggnation with Kevin Rose. For the past year he’s been focusing on directing, and this Voltron short is his latest project to see completion.

We understand why someone with the connections and talent to create a short film would like to take a crack at one of their favorite properties, but why make it so dark?

“For whatever reason I’m just drawn to more dramatic stories,” Albrecht said. “My previous short film was also a dark thriller about a father whose son is abducted by a strange entity.”

It was also important for him to show that you can create science fiction that may be low-budget, but offers great emotional impact.

If a live-action Voltron is ever made, chances are it won’t be nearly this interesting. Still, this is a fun way to remember a great cartoon from our youth.