How very strange - as if the world were drunk!
One of Oskar Fischinger's earliest films, Seelische Konstruktionen (as it is known in German), clearly points the way to the masterpieces of musically-blended experimental animation he would conceive in the decades to come. The sense of masterful timing and rhythm, the easy and natural -- though patently Fischinger-esque -- character traits of the subjects, and the smooth precision of both line and movement are all present already. Unique is the black-silhouetted, semi-cartoon characters (not nearly as rigidly self-contained as Lotte Reiniger's cut-out forms) which seem to adhere to no physical limitations whatsoever. Morphing into shapes, structures, objects, patterns, and even one another, as though they were made of pure mercury and set to music. As for the "story", it's rather non-sensical, and certainly silly, but also has a slightly dark and devious tinge to it as well; men becoming monsters, uncontrollable shape-shifting and the constant, almost desperate movement.
01 Jan 1933
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.
09 Feb 1944
Two short fragments resulting from experiments in controlling the mechanical development of the instrument. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.
02 Feb 1981
Animation film about boy Ivashka's adventures in the country of fairy tales.
01 Jan 1959
When the clock strikes twelve in a toy store a bunch of paint tubes come to life.
01 Jan 1951
Early 'visual music' film by John Whitney. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 1999.
18 May 1990
Wallace and Gromit have run out of cheese, and this provides an excellent excuse for the duo to take their holiday to the moon, where, as everyone knows, there is ample cheese. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.
17 Dec 1993
Wallace rents out Gromit's former bedroom to a penguin, who takes up an interest in the techno pants created by Wallace. However, Gromit later learns that the penguin is a wanted criminal. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.
07 Mar 1996
Wallace's whirlwind romance with the proprietor of the local wool shop puts his head in a spin, and Gromit is framed for sheep-rustling in a fiendish criminal plot.
30 Oct 2008
In a fancy Parisian Café, an uptight businessman discovers he forgot to bring his wallet and bides his time by ordering more coffee.
24 Jun 2009
Alma, a little girl, skips through the snow covered streets of a small town. Her attention is caught by a strange doll in an antique toy shop window. Fascinated, Alma decides to enter.
01 Jan 1982
Using an array of gloves in different styles and from different historical periods, the film is a short history of the cinema - from silent movies via pastiches of Buñuel and Fellini and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to a futurist junkyard where tin cans become animated police cars in a city of urban decay.
01 Oct 1930
The first Studies were synchronized with records (Fischinger made a total of 13 Studies all without sound). It was only with the introduction of sound, beginning with Study No 6 that the films did full justice to this musical principle. The play of the white lines, the arcs, and the upside-down U’s running hither and thither like ballet dancers was brought into perfect synchronization with the music, and thus the films offered an abstract illustration of the melodies. Study No 6 is certainly the best of his films in terms of forms. - Hans Scheugl and Ernst Schmidt, Jr. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2001.
19 Oct 1983
Ebenezer Scrooge is far too greedy to understand that Christmas is a time for kindness and generosity. But with the guidance of some new found friends, Scrooge learns to embrace the spirit of the season. A retelling of the classic Dickens tale with Disney's classic characters.
01 Jan 1971
A trippy pop-art collage of phallic objects, naked women and American icons, most notably Elvis Presley.
18 Sep 1960
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.
01 Jan 1970
Dog racing is used as a metaphor for the futility of human existence.
11 Jun 2003
When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.
31 May 1980
A deliciously scary story about a boy who outsmarts an old witch-woman before she can have him and his brothers for dinner.
13 Oct 2013
An animated short about the 75 years of Superman.
22 Nov 2013
A young llama named Koro discovers that the grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence).