Filled with different art styles, as if an artist went on a trip and tried new things with each page in a sketch book. This film, directed by Bastien Dubois, was nominated for a 2010 Academy Award.
Category Archives: Animation
Hansel and Gretel – 1954 Stop Motion Opera Feature
This 1954 RKO Radio Pictures film was based on Engelbert Humperdink’s opera and directed by Michael Myerberg. Be warned: the actress who plays Gretel gives what is possibly the single worst vocal performance in the history of animated films!
Trouble in Space – A Film by Chris Koelsch
Chris Koelsch made this slyly humorous space tale by appropriating footage from an old sixties science fiction cartoon called Space Angel. He put the footage to his own wise uses and came up with something memorable.
The Thumbsucker Cutter – A Film by Philip Brett
Philip Brett’s short film is an unsettling hybrid of puppets and animation. It’s dollhouse weird, full of shadows and garish colors, blood and clowns. Horrific. It’s based on the tales of naughty children by Heinrich Hoffman. The music is by the Vendetta Orchestra.
Tyran Goes to the Sea – Animation by Yura Boguslavsky
Russian animator Yura Boguslavsky made this film with children and adults in his animation workshop. It’s a lunatic and irrational story about a king with a wild beard and some very strange fish people who live in Cardboardia.
The Backwater Gospel – An Animation Workshop Film
The Animation Workshop produced this dark and wonderful little tale of a grim reaper who shows up in a town full of fools.
Garuda – An Animation by Gobelins Students
A Gobelins production of a film by Nicolas Athane, Meryl Franck, Alexis Liddell, Andres Salaff, and Maïlys Vallade.
Evolution Made Us All – A Film by Ben Hillman
An informative and lovely little film by Ben Hillman for all the nitwits out there who think the earth is only around 5,000 years old.
Horse Glue – A Film by Stephen Irwin
Stephen Irwin is the animator behind this horrifically beautiful and mysterious film. Its heart is located right in the deep dark forests of fairytales, but its story is a conflagration that puzzles even while it astounds. Irwin slyly weaves two films together inside an old cathode ray TV tube to create his fascinating hybrid horror.
I posted about this filmmaker’s previous film, The Black Dog’s Progress.
You can visit the filmmaker’s site at SmallTimeInc.com.
Urashima Taro – Animated Japanese Folktale
An animation by Donna Kendrigan based on a Japanese folktale. A magic box from an island under the sea!
Constable Witch – Animation by the Brothers McLeod
An episode of Sticks by the Brothers McLeod for BBC Comedy.
The Thomas Beale Cipher
This excellent short film was made by Andrew S. Allen, utilizing a form of rotoscoping that creates a flat paper cutout look. The story follows the strange and suspenseful activities of a Professor White who sets out to decode one of the famous Thomas Beale ciphers which supposedly reveals the location of an enormous stash of gold that has remained a secret since 1820.
The director is also a founding member of the Short of the Week web site which has more information about the film.
There’s screening and press information at ThomasBealeCipher.com.
Encounter – 16mm Stop-Motion Film
Professional feature film animator Joel Fletcher made this 16mm stop-motion film in 1982. Since then he’s worked on a ton of films including The Nightmare Before Christmas and King Kong.
The Art of Drowning – Poem by Billy Collins
Diego Maclean animated this film which is narrated by the poet Billy Collins.
The Fantastic Adventures of Cloudman
Look at this! Will you just trust me and watch this thing all the way through? It’s absolutely brilliant! It mixes techniques like they are child’s play! Stop-motion, hand-drawn, live action super 8, claymation, psychedelic explosions, fireworks exploding from the heads of alien attackers when they die, forest battles, miniature model sets! It’s incredible. It deals with mythical forces at battle. The director, Phoebe Parsons, has enormous talent and filmmaking know-how and is going be making very excellent films well into the future. Look out for this young filmmaker.
So this Cloudman is created when a pilot gets shots down and his blood mixes with a cloud. That’s the gorgeous opening animation that sets our crazy story rolling.
This film is… well… I love to use a cliché, but it’s mind-bending! Super cool and totally far out!
This is one of my favorite films online I think. Spectacular.
There’s a PhoebeParsons.com.