--- title: Artoo in Love: R2-D2 Replica Finds Romance in Short Film description: The 'Star Wars' character gets his heart broken, and then puts it back together canonical: https://time.com/3767506/r2-d2-love-short-film/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-01T17:48:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:48.138Z og:title: Watch R2-D2 Fall in Love in This Touching Short Film og:description: The 'Star Wars' character gets his heart broken, and then puts it back together og:url: https://time.com/3767506/r2-d2-love-short-film/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch R2-D2 Fall in Love in This Touching Short Film twitter:description: The 'Star Wars' character gets his heart broken, and then puts it back together twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch R2-D2 Find Love in This Touching Short Film > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=06c0663c-e0b9-4ba4-8b0b-c169f1c76a2d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 1, 2015 5:48 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 1, 2015 5:48 PM UTC You might think of robots as emotionless shells, but this sweet new short film shows R2-D2 of _Star Wars_ fame as a complex, sentient being. The film is called _Artoo in Love_ and premiered this weekend at the Sonoma Film Festival. “People have definitely been having real emotional reactions to it,” director Evan Atherton [told Mashable](http://mashable.com/2015/03/31/artoo-in-love/). Atherton is an engineer at software company Autodesk, where he used 3D printers to construct props for the film. (He has spent the last two years building them, Gizmodo [reports](http://gizmodo.com/how-autodesks-experimental-lab-gave-us-an-odd-little-s-1694464420).) In the film, R2-D2 deals with unrequited love, but eventually finds a way to mend his broken heart. _Artoo in Love_ is cute — and it’s especially impressive knowing how much work went into it. ### See the Concept Art For the Original Star Wars Movie Trilogy  C-3PO and R2-D2 Courtesy of Lucasfilm  The Millenium Falcon Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Darth Vader Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Y-Wings line up against the Death Star Courtesy of Lucasfilm  An X-Wing versus TIE fighters Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Hoth Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Echo Base Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Battle of Hoth Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Battle of Hoth Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Cloud City of Bespin Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Luke versus Darth Vader Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Dagobah Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Jabba's Palace Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Jabba's Palace Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Luke Skywalker versus a rancor Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Jabba's fall Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Endor Courtesy of Lucasfilm  B-Wings Courtesy of Lucasfilm  Luke Skywalker versus Emperor Palpatine Courtesy of Lucasfilm ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3767506/r2-d2-love-short-film/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3767506/r2-d2-love-short-film/"},"headline":"Watch R2-D2 Find Love in This Touching Short Film","datePublished":"2015-04-01T17:48:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:47:48.138Z","description":"The 'Star Wars' character gets his heart broken, and then puts it back together","url":"https://time.com/3767506/r2-d2-love-short-film/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3767506/r2-d2-love-short-film/","name":"Watch R2-D2 Find Love in This Touching Short Film"}}]}] ```