Short animated films

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QuietGuy

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Calling all fans of short animated films! I thought it might be fun to start a thread in which we can recommend our favourite films of this genre. I know edgecrusher has already started an anime thread, so this can be the non-anime thread!

My first recommendation is Ken Lidster's "Balloon", which won the 1991 Short Animated Film BAFTA. The characters never speak, and there's no narration - the whole story is told visually with the aid of music. Surreal and beautifully animated.

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Watch it on YouTube (split into two parts):

[youtube]0akNoRYUqaA[/youtube][youtube]dI7PfVFQFak[/youtube]

I've embedded the videos here for your convenience, but I recommend watching them on YouTube so that you can fullscreen them:




Or watch it on Dailymotion in one part (but with much lower quality):



Enjoy!
 
My next recommendation is "Doll Face" by Andrew Huang. It was shown at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, as well as the Electronic Theater at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston. It won a CINE Award of Excellence in 2007, and has had 3.8 million views on YouTube.

"A machine with a doll face mimics images on television screen in search of a satisfactory visage. Doll Face presents a visual account of desires misplaced and identities fractured by our technological extension into the future."

It's particularly clever how the animator has combined real-life footage of the girl with computer-generated animation.

A very simple film with a powerful and sad message. Amazing work.

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[youtube]zl6hNj1uOkY[/youtube]

As before, I've embedded it here for your convenience, but I recommend watching it on YouTube so that you can fullscreen it:

 
My next recommendation is "Clockworks" by Edward Barrett, an animation student at the University For The Creative Arts.

"This is a story of two clockwork men, whose dependence on one another is crucial for their survival. Imprisoned in a room for years until one day they get a chance to escape."

The characters have almost no facial expressions - they can only move their eyes - and yet the emotion that the animator creates is amazing. This film demonstrates that you can tell a meaningful and emotional story with the most basic of characters.

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[youtube]KLzqOLL9-VY[/youtube]

Watch on YouTube

Watch on Vimeo

Edward Barrett's UCA page

Umm... anyone else got any recommendations they'd like to share? I hope I'm not the only animation fan here!
 
You need to check out the work of Norman McLaren his most famous piece is his film the neighbours - a piece of pixilation about two neighbours fighting over a flower.

He also did some great animations by painting directly onto film stock.

There is also Mike Jittlov who did a feature film that you should really see if you can dig it out called "The Wizard of Speed and Time" based on the making of his short film of the same name - . A true wizard of animation, did a piece of stop motion for a Disney short too.

The final one of my animation heroes is Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer, his dark Gothic eerie style has influenced countless amounts of animators and directors. He animates using a wide variety of media, from cut out animation to claymation, to stop motion to even using bits of raw meat. He's a genius. Here's my favourite short by him -
 
Oscillate_Wildly said:
You need to check out the work of Norman McLaren his most famous piece is his film the neighbours - a piece of pixilation about two neighbours fighting over a flower.


I remember first watching that film many years ago. It won an Oscar in 1953, as well as a Canadian Film Award. It was produced by the legendary National Film Board of Canada. Wikipedia article.

Oscillate_Wildly said:
There is also Mike Jittlov who did a feature film that you should really see if you can dig it out called "The Wizard of Speed and Time" based on the making of his short film of the same name - . A true wizard of animation


Thanks for the recommendation, never seen it before, it's great! Wikipedia article. It seems there's no DVD release of the feature film yet, but you can watch it online here.

Oscillate_Wildly said:
The final one of my animation heroes is Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer, his dark Gothic eerie style has influenced countless amounts of animators and directors. He animates using a wide variety of media, from cut out animation to claymation, to stop motion to even using bits of raw meat. He's a genius. Here's my favourite short by him -


Fantastic short! So surreal! I love it! :D

Have you seen Jan's 1988 film Alice, retelling the story of Alice In Wonderland? It's a wonderful combination of normal footage and stop-frame animation. DVD from Amazon

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Yeah I've seen Alice, got a region one version of the DVD but no longer have a region one player so can't watch it. I love Svankmajer did my college "Appreciating Animation" piece on him. I've got a box set of all his shorts. I've also got a 7 disc box set of McLaren's work. All great stuff

If you liked The Neighbours I suggest this short Gisele Kerozene by Jan Kounen a pixilation race with people flying on broomsticks. Brilliant stuff.

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Yeah, you are right, it was really a cool thread. I have also watched the Alice movie film, and I really enjoyed it. The special effects were great and the story was very entertaining.
 
My next recommendation is "To Be" by John Weldon, produced by the legendary National Film Board of Canada. It was nominated for a Golden Palm award for Best Short Film in 1990.

"A scientist has invented a teleportation device, but when an observer learns the details of how it works, she is left with a moral dilemma and a meditation on the nature of self and morals."

Although it's light-hearted in style, it touches on some surprisingly deep issues about life, death, murder/suicide, ethics and morality in scientific research, etc.

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"Throughout John Weldon's career, he has been fascinated by scientific thought and moral philosophy. He's a rationalist in an age of fundamentalism. In "To Be", one of his most personal films, Weldon uses the science fiction notion of a teleporter to speculate whether human beings have souls, and if so, whether a copy of an original would be possessed of a creature's individual spirit. Heady stuff, but so is much of Weldon's work."

Watch it on YouTube:

[youtube]pdxucpPq6Lc[/youtube]

Here are some of the lyrics from the intro and outro song:

There's a question haunting me
A problem in philosophy
It's a puzzle dark and deep
That robs me of my sleep

I wake each night at half past three
Wondering why I am me
Pondering the mystery
Of what it means to be

What's this body I am using?
When I die, will I be losing
Everything that I'm now choosing
To be or not to be?

A simple fact, sad but true:
Nothing's fun unless it's new
That's why we take turns to see
What it's like to be
 

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