Mankind has left a lot of garbage in space, and eventually we’ll have no choice but to start cleaning it all up. Hopefully though, when we we do start picking up our cosmic junk, none of the garbage will have come to life.

That’s the premise here behind this cute computer animated cartoon short “Trashonauts,” which features a grumpy old space garbage man collecting the many items we’ve left floating out in orbit. His ship features a giant magnet to lure in the trash (which we’re sure Neil deGrasse Tyson will explain is impossible), but when he encounters a smaller, more adorable, more determined little magnet, one with a big smile and even bigger eyes, his job gets a lot more difficult. We won’t give away the rest of this very brief and very aesthetically pleasing cartoon, but we can say it put a smile on our face.

It was made by Jack Corpening and produced with Ringling College of Art and Design, and Corpening says it is “dedicated to human space flight, animal rescue, and cleaning up pollution.”

While this might be a feel good and fun little piece, space pollution really is an issue. There are over 20,000 pieces of garbage, from the very small to the very big, floating around our planet. This video from Dr Stuart Grey, a lecturer at University College London, shows just how much we’ve created since 1957.

As though we don’t produce enough garbage on our home, we’ve also encased ourselves in it as well. If our space garbage does come to life, we really better hope it’s as friendly as this cartoon’s little magnet.

What style of cartoon did “Trashonauts” remind you of? Tell us in the comments below.

Images: Jack Corpening/Ringling College of Art and Design