Kondo and Tsutsumi began developing the film while working as art directors on Monsters University and produced it through a co-op program at Pixar.

One day, she mistakenly drops the sketchbook while leaving the classroom, and Pig discovers that Fox draws mocking caricatures of classmates and teachers.

Instead, sitting in sorrow, he puts on his gas mask and waits as the fog envelops the town while the other animals flee in terror.

The Dam Keeper was produced as part of a co-op program at Pixar, under which employees are allowed to develop their own films without the use of studio resources.

While Kondo's first job was at Pixar, Tsutsumi had previously been employed at Blue Sky Studios[3] and is married to a niece of famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki.

[4] Kondo recalls having been "fascinated by [Tsutsumi's] outside experience" and recognized at the time that his co-worker's "vision always seemed to be greater than the box [of] our responsibility.

Recognizing the process as a "learning experience", and choosing to extend this opportunity to the rest of the crew, they hired animators who were predominantly young and had just graduated from school.

Ramsay's co-workers gave him the chance to come onto The Dam Keeper in an even more distinguished position than production assistant - producer.

All the same, he found himself gradually being drawn into the project, and once he committed full-scale, he convinced his friend, Megan Bartel, to come onto the film as a producer with him.

[3] As the film's length expanded, eventually reaching eighteen minutes, the production period stretched into a total of nine months.

"[3] Commenting on the film's burgeoning run time, Kondo explained that eight minutes seemed insufficient to convey the kind of story that he and Tsutsumi wanted to tell - one in which a character's perception of life significantly changes.

[14] The dark fog that encroaches upon the town serves two purposes: it comments on the "contemporary reality" of pollution, while also symbolizing Pig's struggle with internal demons.

[6] Kondo explained that both he and Tsutsumi desired to create a world that feels "impermanent", in which things "don't seem like they can last forever.

[15] Although the two directors did not seek to make a "social statement" with their film, commentary on world issues flowed naturally into their story.

[2] A test screening of the first story reel was organized for a group of Kondo and Tsutsumi's friends who had more writing experience than the two former art directors.

[7] Although Kondo and Tsutsumi had wanted to finalize the story before starting production, they now had to revise it, while concurrently working on other aspects of the film.

[14] Carrying little experience with them in the actual process of animating a film,[3] the duo developed a visual style for The Dam Keeper that utilized their painting abilities.

[6] He actually considers this misconception to be complimentary, and he credits it to his and Kondo's painting style, which emphasizes light and "how the characters interact with [it].

Kondo noted that without the ease of "communication, information organization and collaboration" provided by new technology, the film "would have had to have changed in scope, complexity and quality to be able to be done" on schedule.

[18] Noting the importance of this point, Roberts said that because Pig's pain has become normalized in his life, the score should only reflect "a tinge of sadness" and not be "overly dramatic".

[2][3] Although they would eventually move locations to Berkeley, California, at first Tonko House was situated within the same windowless studio that The Dam Keeper was produced in - right across the street from Pixar.

[15] Collin Souter of Rogerebert.com called The Dam Keeper "a beautiful piece of work" and speculated that it may win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

[23] Noting that the "ever-shifting images perfectly capture a fragile community that could easily vanish into the ether", he considered the film "emotionally harrowing.

"[2] One of How to Train Your Dragon 2's writers and directors, Dean DeBlois, said that the animation style of The Dam Keeper resembles development artwork that has been given "life and poetry and movement.

[28] Unable to finance an Oscar campaign, Kondo and Tsutsumi formed a grassroots strategy that relied on social media platforms.

[3] First Second Books announced a collaboration with Tonko House to publish a trilogy of graphic novels that would expand Pig and Fox's adventures 5 years after the events of the short.

Along the way, the questions raised from the short on the whereabouts of Pig's parents and the poisonous fog engulfing the other side of the dam to begin with, will be answered.

Robert Kondo, one of the directors and artists of The Dam Keeper, remarked that the continuation is "inspired by a personal anecdote of Tstusumi’s, [saying] that they’re interested in exploring how friendship evolves as [they] mature."

However, following The Walt Disney Company's acquisition with 21st Century Fox as of March 20, 2019, the film is currently being developed independently at Tonko House, looking for other movie studios to collaborate with.

[35] Tonko House produced an animated television series based on the short titled Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems.