The First Circus

Stop Look and Listen

January 1967 •English

Stop Look and Listen is a 1967 sort comedy film written, directed by and starring Len Janson and Chuck Menville. It was mostly filmed in Griffith Park in pixilation [stop-motion photography].The film generates comedy by contrasting the safe and dangerous styles of two drivers who drive in the way made famous by Harold Lloyd: by sitting in the street and seeming to move their bodies as though they were automobiles. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Live Action.

A Place in the Sun

November 1960 •Czech

Oscar nominated animated short film from Czechoslovakia, 1960. Two characters fight over their claim to a small sunny spot on a beach.

The Marathon

May 1919 •English

Boy trying to impress girl, gets chased by her father and the police right into an ongoing marathon.

По дороге с облаками

December 1984 •Russian

Chatterbox

December 1980 •Russian

The Window

November 2012 •Korean

Sergeant Jeong Cheol-min's squad are in a renovated stock room with no window. The squad members are well known to be a hardworking group until Councellor Hong Yeong-soo comes in and starts causing trouble. Hong Yeong-soo seems to have difficulties adjusting to this environment. Things in the army changes rapidly, Jeong Cheol-min and his crew find themselves under attack perceived as the aggressors.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

June 2009 •English

Times are changing for Manny the moody mammoth, Sid the motor mouthed sloth and Diego the crafty saber-toothed tiger. Life heats up for our heroes when they meet some new and none-too-friendly neighbors – the mighty dinosaurs.

Kung Fury

May 2015 •English

During an unfortunate series of events, a friend of Kung Fury is assassinated by the most dangerous kung fu master criminal of all time, Adolf Hitler, a.k.a Kung Führer. Kung Fury decides to travel back in time to Nazi Germany in order to kill Hitler and end the Nazi empire once and for all.

Sherlock Jr.

April 1924 •English

A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.

Max Plays at Drama

July 1914 •French

When Max's friends doubt his acting ability, he invites them to a dramatic theatrical performance.

Rhinoceros

February 1964 •German

Based on Eugene Ionesco’s play, this is an animated film warning that by conforming to patterns and living en masse, people will become rhinoceroses.

King Kong vs. Godzilla

August 1962 •Japanese

The advertising director of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, frustrated with the low ratings of their sponsored TV program, seeks a more sensationalist approach. He orders his staff to Faro Island to capture King Kong for exploitation. As Godzilla re-emerges, a media frenzy generates with Pacific looking to capitalize off of the ultimate battle.

Night at the Museum

December 2006 •English

Chaos reigns at the natural history museum when night watchman Larry Daley accidentally stirs up an ancient curse, awakening Attila the Hun, an army of gladiators, a Tyrannosaurus rex and other exhibits.

Bourreau d'enfant

October 2011 •French

Three Men in a Tub

March 1938 •English

Alfalfa and the gang build their own "speedboat" powered by ducks, and challenge Waldo to a race for the hand of Darla.

Wholly Smoke

August 1938 •English

A neighborhood bully convinces Porky to take a puff from his cigar, causing Porky to hallucinate a smoke-man named Nick O. Teen, along with a musical number done by cigars, cigarettes and pipes in the likeness of the 3 Stooges, etc.

Walt Disney's Standard Parade for 1939

January 1939 •English

A live action black-and-white prolog tells the story of how Walt Disney came to Hollywood with $300, was rejected by all the major studios, but went on to tremendous success, many awards, and a thriving studio. Titles then ask what this means to the Standard Oil Salesman, and a parade of Disney characters gives us the answer, featuring Mickey as drum major, Minnie carrying a banner, and the 7 Dwarfs carrying the letters "STANDARD" (Dopey gets stuck with the last two): Apparently the various ads for Standard will be featuring Disney characters in the coming year.

Experimental Animation

January 1933 •English

Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a two-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.

Call for Mr. Caveman

November 1919 •English

A giant cave man kidnaps beautiful Adorable from the cave clan and the man who rescues her can have her hand and a new suit of clothes.

Elephants Dream

March 2006 •English

Elephants Dream is the story of two strange characters exploring a capricious and seemingly infinite machine. The elder, Proog, acts as a tour-guide and protector, happily showing off the sights and dangers of the machine to his initially curious but increasingly skeptical protege Emo. As their journey unfolds we discover signs that the machine is not all Proog thinks it is, and his guiding takes on a more desperate aspect. Elephants Dream is a story about communication and fiction, made purposefully open-ended as the world’s first 3D animated “Open movie”. The film itself is released under the Creative Commons license, along with the entirety of the production files used to make it (roughly 7 Gigabytes of data). The software used to make the movie is the free/open source animation suite Blender along with other open source software, thus allowing the movie to be remade, remixed and re-purposed with only a computer and the data on the DVD or download.