Cosmic Cartoon

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.

Superman 75

October 2013 •English

An animated short about the 75 years of Superman.

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.

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.

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.

The Paintjackers

January 1959 •Russian

When the clock strikes twelve in a toy store a bunch of paint tubes come to life.

Nova

July 2020 •English

A young astronaut works in solitude on a spaceship, trying to avoid reminders of her life back on Earth. When an alien entity finds its way aboard her ship, she must face some difficult truths.

For Sock's Sake

July 2008 •English

Stop-motion animated short produced as a film student graduation project at the Gobelins Animation School of Paris by Carlo Vogele, class of 2008, leading to a career as a character animator at Pixar. It was selected as the winner of the Best Graduation Film award the following year at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

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.

Cameras Pointed Straight into the Sun

September 2020 •English

Two criminals take a trip up the coast of California. As they arrive at a small town- what should just be a small stop on the way- one of them begins to feel as though they've been their before.

Bambi Meets Godzilla

July 1969 •English

Bambi is nibbling the grass, unaware of the upcoming encounter with Godzilla. Who will win when they finally meet? Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.

The Little Witch

January 1991 •Russian

The youngest witch is preparing for the magical exam.

Ivashka from the Palace of Pioneers

February 1981 •Russian

Animation film about boy Ivashka's adventures in the country of fairy tales.

По дороге с облаками

December 1984 •Russian

Chatterbox

December 1980 •Russian

Coffin

October 2020 •French

A man comes home and wants to go to bed. A bunch of noisy roommates. A crowded city in southern China.

Mickey's Christmas Carol

October 1983 •English

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.

Dogs Smell Like the Sea

October 2020 •Russian

You know, it's like having a dog, and it chooses someone else as the owner, not you. And as soon as the "other" rings the Bicycle bell, the dog, happily wagging its tail, rushes to catch up with him. And you follow her. It turns out that for him, too. But you can't say anything: just stand there and breathe in silence to the beat of the waves.

The Necktie

August 2008 •French

A solitary man works in a tall office building. The only moment in his drab life that's out of the ordinary each year seems to be opening the birthday card and gift from his mother. Usually it's a tie, but one year it's an accordion. It goes into the closet with his many ties. A year or two later, he discovers what happens to the papers he processes every day. His discovery sends him first to the building's top floor, then to his closet.