The Meaning of Life

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mad God: Part 1

January 2014 •English

Mad God is a fully practical stop-motion film set in a Miltonesque world of monsters, mad scientists, and war pigs.

Swing, Monkey, Swing

September 1937 •English

A scarce and seldom seen cartoon from 1937 with excellent hot jazz and containing caricatures of Cab Calloway, Ted Lewis and Bessie Smith.

White Hole

February 1979 •Japanese

Avant garde/experimental film. A mesmerizing trip through the psychedelic vastness of space.

Achooo Mr. Kerrooschev

September 1960 •English

A cut-out of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev sails over newspaper articles as they take place. Combines live photography and collage animation in one film.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

April 2005 •English

One of the most exciting and memorable stories in the history of the World Trade Towers is that of Philippe Petit, a French man who walked a tightrope between the massive monuments in 1974. Narrated by Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal, this is an animated adaptation of the lyrical Caldecott Award-winning book by Mordecai Gerstein. Directed and animated by Michael Sporn, with music by Michael Bacon (of the Bacon Brothers).

No Fish

November 2006 •English

Animation short by Baoying Liu.

Farmer Al Falfa's Ape Girl

August 1932 •English

The Farmer is abducted by a capering Jungle Goddess. As pre-Code as a Terrytoon ever got. Most animation is by Frank Moser; with him are Art Babbitt, Jerry Shields, Bill Tytla and others.

Big Buck Bunny

April 2008 •English

Follow a day of the life of Big Buck Bunny when he meets three bullying rodents: Frank, Rinky, and Gamera. The rodents amuse themselves by harassing helpless creatures by throwing fruits, nuts and rocks at them. After the deaths of two of Bunny's favorite butterflies, and an offensive attack on Bunny himself, Bunny sets aside his gentle nature and orchestrates a complex plan for revenge.

Teeny-Tiny and the Witch Woman

May 1980 •Czech

A deliciously scary story about a boy who outsmarts an old witch-woman before she can have him and his brothers for dinner.

Danemon Ban: The Monster Exterminator

January 1935 •Japanese

The boozy mercenary of the title, based on the actual historical figure of Naoyuki Ban (1567-1615), attempts to rid a haunted castle of spooks.

How Animated Cartoons Are Made

September 1919 •English

Wallace Carlson walks viewers through the production of an animated short at Bray Studios.