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Share your favourite short animated films with me!
What short animated films do you really love and why? Here's two of mine:
Anna & Bella - says so much without saying much of anything! I love the lack of dialogue and the expressiveness. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy thinking about my relationship with my brother.
Affairs of the Art - NSFW, love the animation style and character designs, and the overall message on obsessions, passion and art being for everyone!
The World of Tomorrow - Don Hertzfeldt
Oooh anything Done Hertzfeldt. I'm still partial to Rejected.
Everything Will Be OK and its sequels are my favorite. I went to a screening of the entire trilogy in 2011 where Hertzfeldt was giving an interview and Q&A, and I got a copy signed for the friend who had introduced me to his stuff.
Oh that's awesome I wish I could go to a Q&a with him too :) my Don trinket is from the physical dvd of Rejected, which includes one frame from the film itself that he cut up and distributed into the dvds....my frame is from the Spoon Is Too Big scene.
I'm going to snoop on how he's doing these days. Last time I looked he was teaching at one of the UCLA I think?
For The Birds is my favourite Pixar short, hands down. I have trouble thinking of another time I’ve laughed so hard at a movie (possibly the chase scene at the end of The Emperor’s New Groove).
edit: the audio on the above link isn’t the original version, I’m assuming it was edited to prevent copyright takedowns. The original audio is much better if you can find it.
Sketchy Ice Creams is another one in a similar vein.
Feast! I discovered this one at the Pixar Film Fest in EPCOT. Left the theatre crying telling myself, "There's no crying at Disney world!" Lol
They also played Piper and the animation and detail of this one still blows me away. I'm old enough to have been wowed by the CGI lava in Aladdin and the chandelier in Beauty and the Beast. To see where we've gone with CGI is mind blowing and just amazing!
Piper is especially wonderful because it's so darn hard to actually SEE those skittish little shore Birbs.
Kitbull gets you right in the godsdamned feels
Ah that was the one I wanted to post
The kitten is animated like (cat) Tak-kun from FLCL: kinda floppy, kinda random, so much energy from such a small frame. And Bull-pup is such a sweetheart
I don't know how I came across this many years ago, but this is my favourite animated short. It was the uploaders masters thesis animation. I hope they passed
https://youtu.be/sdUUx5FdySs
Kiwi
oh god I remember seeing this not long after it came out -_-
All of Felix Colgrave's stuff is aces, but DOUBLE KING hits the sweet spot for dark comedy, imaginative design, and narrative structure. Plus it's rich with pleasing animation tricks, and has an intriguing soundtrack to boot.
Marcel the Shell!!! The series of shorts is so odd and delightful, and the movie was also fabulous.
https://youtu.be/VF9-sEbqDvU
Kiwi! Gets me every time, even now. https://youtu.be/sdUUx5FdySs
I try to catch all of the animated shorts nominated for Oscars, those are always pretty excellent. Wikipedia has the master list of nominees: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Animated_Short_Film
I also like perusing the short film category on Disney Plus. It is astonishing how much high-quality animation there is.
Toyland - This one makes me weep. It’s about a Jewish parent and child in Nazi Germany. Beautifully told.
I remember watching this one two or three times. Such a good, bittersweet story.
It's a relic from flash animation times, but the Bitey of Brackenwood series is really charming and unique. The series is set on a fictional planet called Brackenwood, a small planetoid covered entirely in dense forest that would make Tolkien hard.
It follows the titular character, Bitey, a mischievous fawn who spends most of his days tearing around Brackenwood and bothering its other inhabitants.
There are episodes that follow other characters in the world too. The animation is breathtaking (done by one guy), the films are funny and emotional, and there's a strange thread of zen that runs through everything.
YES! I remember the Brackenwood series, I was absolutely entranced as a kid discovering this, I think the animation still looks great today :)
Two come to mind almost instantly.
First, is Fifty Percent Grey. This is an old one, so it was pretty difficult to find a decent quality online, but it's stuck with me through the years.
And the second one is a combo of sorts. The original short film is called More by Mark Osborne, but that's not the version that sticks with me. Kenna adapted the More short film to his music video for Hellbent, but it's hard to find because apparently it was done without permission. So it makes it even harder to find a decent quality version online. So this is the best I could do.
Great idea for a topic btw!
Shelter by Porter Robinson and Madeon is my recommendation. It's a music video, but I think it should be counted!
A lot of people don't know this about David Lynch, but he actually started off as a painter, and most of his early short films include at least some aspect of painting and animation into them. Six Men Getting Sick (six times) is... special. The Grandmother probably has my favorite animations by him, but that's also coupled together with what I think is a pretty strong score, however it's mostly live-action.
Vincent is hard to gauge in relation to Tim Burton's other work, I really love it, but if you want to kind of see where Tim Burton got a start to his style (I don't think he ever really evolved after this... and it's his debut) then it'll scratch and itch for you. Also narrated by Vincent Price which is very funny.
You can probably tell I usually only watch animated shorts when it's in relation to directors I already like from their live-action films, but I'm looking to fix that so thank you for making this thread!
Lucia (Chile, 2007, 4 min) Dreamlike, grimy, creepy, with an urgently whispered narration.
How Wings are Attached to the Backs of Angels (NFB Canada, 1996, 11 min) Oh look, another dark and creepy one. About madness and obsession.
Ohayo by Satoshi Kon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYUFBnAmK28
Late Afternoon from Cartoon Saloon :
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7077824/
Mark Osborne's MORE :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCeeTfsm8bk
The Mysterious Geographical Explorations of Jasper Morello - A dark Victorian/Steampunk short with an interesting silhouette art style.
Here's the Plan - A predictable but sweet love story about a married couple that realizes they have lost sight of their shared dreams and drifted apart.
The Old Man and the Sea
Your Face
25 Ways To Quit Smoking
Fifty Percent Grey
I Think I Was An Alcoholic
Ice Merchants was a great one that was up for the Oscar earlier this year. One of my favorites of the year, whether we're only talking about shorts or not.