2024-06-15
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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.
In the 40's, after the Spanish Civil War, many republicans defeated by the nationalist forces of Franco found refuge on the bordering mountains in the north of Portugal. Some saw them as brigands, others gave them shelter and helped them on the sly to police forces of Salazar. They were... the Outlaws.
Lewis Carroll's 'Alice' stories are used to explain certain sections of the Labelling of Food Regulations 1970.
This animated short is a play on motion set against a background of multi-hued sky. Spheres of translucent pearl float weightlessly in the unlimited panorama of the sky, grouping, regrouping or colliding like the stylized burst of some atomic chain reaction. The dance is set to the musical cadences of Bach, played by pianist Glenn Gould.
This joyful short animation features a dancing hen that transforms into an egg. The film was made without a camera by Norman McLaren, who drew directly onto 35 mm movie stock with ordinary pen and ink. Colour was added optically.
Regal is an eagle who is afraid to fly. A little bird offers to help him, but Regal does not believe he can. Will the eagle finally learn to fly?
A little pig dreams of being able to fly, but, try as he might, he fails to get up into the air. All the other pigs are heartily amused by his hapless efforts and so, the little pig has no choice but to go out into the big wide world in search of someone who can teach him how to fly.
A 20 minute masterpiece with no dialogue necessary. A King of the Forest gathers elves, sprites, and other assorted woodland spirits for a night of festivities. The spirits frolic, dance, drink, and romance. Conflicts arise and are resolved. The puppetry here is top-notch, and the rear-projections of fire and water add an extra depth to the magical world. A trip to a mysterious and happy world.
This cartoon is directed against the brutality of professional Boxing. In parody form it ridiculed unworthy methods and means used to achieve victory.
A hep teen hears a tune on the jukebox at the malt shop and calls his girl; She rounds up a crowd and soon the whole place is jumping.
Joyful, androgynous forms shimmy across the screen to the sound of world-beat music.
A short Surrealist animation from Denmark which begins with a zoom into a Paul Delvaux painting, then reverses the process by pulling back from a continually changing picture.
In a dense forest, a monoceratops-type plant-eating dinosaur is stalked by a carnivorous Tyrannosaurus rex.
A man with social anxiety gets followed by a naive and clumsy creature. Terrified the man tries to escape, unaware that the creature is actually a helper with slightly unconventional methods.
Runaway is an animated short film about a misunderstanding between a man named Stanley and his treasured 1950s refrigerator, named Chillie.
Animator Ryan Larkin does a visual improvisation to music performed by a popular group presented as sidewalk entertainers. His take-off point is the music, but his own beat is more boisterous than that of the musicians. The illustrations range from convoluted abstractions to caricatures of familiar rituals. Without words.
An educational short film featuring the character of Luxo Jr. demonstrating the concept of "front" and "back."
A poetic tale directed by Elena Petkevich for children on a small grasshopper, which is trying to learn the secret of life.