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karmajuice wrote:The Thief and the Cobbler (Richard Williams, 1993) - A botched masterpiece, but one that still dazzles and more than merits your attention. It's one of the most immaculately crafted animated films ever made in terms of its technique, and no corners were cut to save time or money. The production went over budget and was in production for about 30 years when they yanked the film from Williams and cut it down into an incomprehensible mess. But a fan version of the film has come out, The Thief and the Cobbler: The Re-Cobbled Cut, and while imperfect, it's an heroic act of perservation/reconstruction and an attempt to look at what the film might have been. They include animatics and sketches for the unfinished portions of the film. Anyway, the film is graphically inventive and non-stop visual wit and beauty -- it is very much a film about form.

Been meaning to watch this for years, and out of curiosity: is it important that one sees the workprint version as well, or is it ideal to move straight onward to the Re-Cobbled Cut?

The workprint version is more or less the recobbled cut unless you're talking about another unknown to me cut. Either way just going to the recobbled is probably the best though for Williams on my list I'm saving everything for his version of A Christmas Carol.

Really excited for this list. I'm more familiar with stop-motion animation than drawn animation, but am looking forward to going through all the recommendations. Gonna be hard not to let Svankmajer, Quay Brothers, and Starewicz flood my list though.

One film that I highly recommend checking out is The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb. It uses stop-motion animation for all the small characters, but also for the life sized actors similar to McClaren's Neighbors, but the whole effect give the film a really chilling atmosphere.

Additionally these 2 wonderfully executed shorts that mix charcoal animation and stop-motion animation to a really interesting effect.
Lucia and Luis

karmajuice wrote:Fehérlófia (Marcell Jankovics, 1981) - If The Thief and the Cobbler approaches pure form, this film achieves it while still retaining some narrative structure. It's based on an Hungarian folktale, and the folktale structure allows for some radical experimentation in terms of its visual design. Check out the first few minutes on youtube and I'll guarantee you'll end up watching the entire film. It will almost definitely end up someplace in my top 10.
It's available in its entirety, with subtitles, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dN_vwI8Vqg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Jankovics' short films also deserve attention, and I'll discuss them later on.

I'll second this one. His other features are worth it too. His Janos Vitez (1973) is Hungarian Folk gone Peter Max. He also released a new feature last year that took him 25 years to do, an almost 3 hours epic done in various psychedelic styles.

There's a lot of other Hungarian animated features films. Maybe the popular ones aren't worth it for this list project (Vuk (1981) a Bambi-like film except that Bambi kill for food! and Macskafogo (1985) a cult film aimed at adults with some pretty funny moments, both got sequels recently) but there's some great underground stuff.
Habfurdo(1979) is a fascinating exemple, done in a style that looks like nothing else and with pretty interesting, uh, jazzy animation.
here's a bunch of screenshots



I remember that I successfully pushed for Swing, you sinners! in the 1930s list, I hope you will all still remember it! I have no idea what could top this film, except maybe the 1987 short Face like a Frog (Uploaded on Youtube by the author herself, that's nice!).


I' pretty sure I already posted these elsewhere, but here are a few "best animated film of all time" lists to help. I don't know any other, and they all feature Yuri Norstein in the top spot or at least very near:

Olympiads of Animation, Los Angeles, 1984
1. Skazka Skazok (Tale of Tales), Yuri Norstein, USSR, 1980
2. The Street, Caroline Leaf, Canada, 1976
3. The Yellow Submarine, George Dunning, UK, 1968
4. Ruka (The Hand), Jiri Trnka, Czechoslovakia, 1965
5. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, David Hand, 1937
6. Crac!, Frédéric Back, Canada, 1981
7. Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (Night on Bald Mountain), Alexander Alexeieff & Claire Parker, 1933
8. Ubu, Geoff Dunbar, UK, 1980
9. Moonbird, John Hubley, USA, 1959
10. Satiemania, Zdenko Gasparavic, Yugoslavia, 1978
11. Fantasia, Walt Disney, USA, 1940
12. Neighbors, Norman McLaren, Canada, 1952
13. Paysagiste (Mindscape), Jacques Drouin, Canada, 1977
14. Duck Amuck, Chuck Jones, USA, 1953
15. Premiere jours (Beginnings), Clorinda Warny, Lina Gagnon
& Suzanne Gervaise
16. Allegro non troppo, Bruno Bozzetto, Italy, 1976
17. Dojoji Temple, Kihachiro Kawamoto, Japan, 1976
18. King Size Canary, Tex Avery, USA, 1947
19. Motion Painting No. 1, Oscar Fischinger, USA, 1949
20. Tango, Zbigniev Rybczynski, Poland, 1982
20. La Joie de vivre (Joy of Life), Anthony Gross & Hector Hoppin,
France, 1934
22. Harpya, Raoul Servais, Belgium, 1979
22. Allegretto, Oscar Fischinger, USA, 1936
22. Bad Luck Blackie, Tex Avery, USA, 1949
25. Frank Film, Frank Mouris, USA, 1972
26. L'Idée (The Idea), Berthold Bartosch, France, 1932
26. What's Opera Doc?, Chuck Jones, USA, 1957
26. Blinkety Blank, Norman McLaren, Canada, 1955
29. Au bout du fil (The Cat's Cradle), Paul Driessen, Canada, 1974
30. Les Jeux des anges (Game of Angels), Walerian Boroczyck, France, 1964
31. Band Concert, Walt Disney, USA, 1935
32. Minnie the Moocher, Dave Fleischer & Willard Bowsky, USA, 1932
33. Dumbo, Walt Disney, USA, 1942
34. Une Vielle boite (An Old Box), Paul Driessen, Canada, 1975
35. Pas de Deux, Norman McLaren, Canada, 1967
36. Le Chateau de sable (Sandcastle), Co Hoedeman, Canada, 1977
37. Great-I.K.B., Bob Godfrey, UK, 1974
38. La Faim (Hunger), Peter Foldes, Canada, 1974
39. A Bogar (The Fly), Ferenc Rofusz, Hungary, 1980
40. Damon the Mower, George Dunning, UK, 1971
41. Lapis, James Whitney, USA, 1966
42. La Traversée de l'Atlantique à la Rame, Jean-François Laguionie, 1978
43. Gerald McBoing Boing, Robert Cannon, USA, 1951
44. Jeu de coudes (Elbow Game), Paul Driessen, Canada, 1979
44. Steamboat Willie, Ub Iwerks, USA, 1928
44. Gertie the Dinosaur, Winsor McCay, 1914
48. Dnevnik (Diary), Nedjelko Dragic, Yugoslavia, 1973
49. Feholofia (Son of the White Mare), Marcell Jankovics, Hungary, 1981
50. La Vita in scatola (Life in a Garbage Can), Bruno Bozzetto, Italy, 1967

/!\ The one and only film I haven't seen on this list is n°40, Damon the Mower. I've been looking everywhere for years now. So I'd like it to be added to the DESPERATELY SEEKING SO AND SO list! /!\

Century of animation, Annecy, 2006
• 1 : Gertie the Dinosaur, Winsor MCCAY, 1914, US
• 2 : Fantasmagorie, émile COHL, 1908, FR
• 3 : Moznosti dialogu, Jan SVANKMAJER, 1982, CZ
• 4 : Crac !, Frédéric BACK, 1981, CA
• 5 : L'homme qui plantait des arbres, Frédéric BACK, 1987, CA
• 6 : Shazka skazok, Youri NORSTEIN, 1979, SU
• 7 : Une nuit sur le mont Chauve, Alexandre ALEXEÏEFF, Claire PARKER, 1933, FR
• 8 : A Colour Box, Len LYE, 1935, GB
• 9 : L'Idée, Berthold BARTOSCH, 1931, FR
• 10 : La rue, Caroline LEAF, 1976, CA
• 11 : Neighbours, Norman MCLAREN, 1952, CA
• 12 : Blinkity Blank, Norman MCLAREN, 1955, CA
• 13 : Duck amuck, Chuck JONES, 1953, US
• 14 : Harpya, Raoul SERVAIS, 1978, BE
• 15 : Luxo Jr., John LASSETER, 1986, US.
• 16 : Betty Boop in Snow White, Dave FLEISCHER, 1933, US
• 17 : Creature Comforts, Nick PARK, 1989, GB
• 18 : Tango, Zbigniew RYBCZYNSKI, 1980, PL
• 19 : Street of Crocodiles (Ulica krokodyli), Timothy & Stephen QUAY, 1986, GB
• 20 : Begone Dull Care, Norman MCLAREN, 1949, CA
• 21 : Le Petit Soldat, Paul GRIMAULT, 1947, FR
• 22 : What's Opera, Doc?, Chuck JONES, 1957, US
• 23 : Father and Daughter, Michaël DUDOK DE WIT, 2000, NL, GB
• 24 : Red Hot Riding Hood, Tex AVERY, 1943, US
• 25 : Ruka, Jiri TRNKA, 1965, CZ
• 26 : Steamboat Willie, Walt DISNEY, Ub IWERKS, 1928, US
• 27 : Le Nez, Alexandre ALEXEÏEFF, Claire PARKER, 1963, FR
• 28 : La gazza ladra sinfonia, Giulio GIANINI, Emanuele LUZZATI, 1964, IT
• 29 : Gerald Mc Boing Boing, Robert CANNON, 1950, US
• 30 : La Joie de vivre, Anthony GROSS, Hector HOPPIN, 1934, FR
• 31 : Miest kinooperatora, Ladislas STAREWITCH, 1911, RU
• 32 : Pas de deux, Norman MCLAREN, 1967, CA
• 33 : La Faim, Peter FöLDES, 1974, CA
• 34 : Girls Night Out, Joanna QUINN, 1986, GB
• 35 : Satiemania, Zdenko GASPAROVIC, 1978, YU
• 36 : Komposition in blau, Oskar FISHCHINGER, 1935, DE
• 37 : La Traversée de l'Atlantique à la rame, Jean-François LAGUIONIE, 1978, FR
• 38 : Moonbird, John HUBLEY, Faith ELLIOT, 1959, US
• 39 : Den Offentlige Røst, Lejf MARCUSSEN, 1988, DK
• 40 : Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs, Bob CLAMPETT, 1943, US
• 41 : Free radicals, Len LYE, 1979, US
• 42 : La Course à l'abîme, Georges SCHWIZGEBEL, 1992, CH
• 43 : Vincent, Tim BURTON, 1982, US
• 44 : Franz Kafka, Piotr DUMALA, 1991, PL
• 45 : Dojoji, Kihachiro KAWAMOTO, 1976, JP
• 46 : Entre deux s½urs, Caroline LEAF, 1990, CA
• 47 : Seriy volk i krasnaïa chapotchka, Garri BARDINE, 1990, SU
• 48 : Balance, Christoph LAUENSTEIN, Wolfgang LAUENSTEIN, 1989, RF
• 49 : Lojik v toumane, Youri NORSTEIN, 1975, SU
• 50 : When the Day Breaks, Wendy TILBY, Amanda FORBIS, 1999, CA
• 51 : Rooty toot toot, John HUBLEY, 1952, US
• 52 : The Skeleton Dance, Walt DISNEY, 1929, US
• 53 : King Size Canary, Tex AVERY, 1947, US
• 54 : Frank Film, Frank MOURIS, 1973, US
• 55 : The Flying Man, George DUNNING, 1962, GB
• 56 : Egged On, Charley BOWERS, 1926, US
• 57 : Le Paysagiste, Jacques DROUIN, 1976, CA
• 58 : Jumping, Osamu TEZUKA, 1984, JP
• 59 : Harvie Krumpet, Adam Benjamin ELLIOT, 2003, AU
• 60 : The Wrong Trousers, Nick PARK, 1993, GB
• 61 : Omboro film, Osamu TEZUKA, 1985, JP
• 62 : Damon the Mower, George DUNNING, 1972, GB
• 63 : Fast Film, Virgil WIDRICH, 2003, AT, LU
• 64 : Geri's Game, Jan PINKAVA, 1997, US
• 65 : L'Horrible, Bizarre et Incroyable Histoire de Monsieur Tête, Jan LENICA, Henri GRUEL, 1959, FR
• 66 : Ryan, Chris LANDRETH, 2004, CA
• 67 : Café Bar, Alison DE VERE, 1974, GB
• 68 : Repete, Michaela PAVLATOVA, 1995, CZ
• 69 : Ego jena kouritsa, Igor KOVALIYOV, 1989, SU
• 70 : Atama Yama, Koji YAMAMURA, 2002, JP
• 71 : Out of the Inkwell : Invisible Ink, Dave & Max FLEISCHER, 1921, US
• 72 : 78 tours, Georges SCHWIZGEBEL, 1985, CH
• 73 : The Sinking of the Lusitania, Winsor MCCAY, 1918, US
• 74 : Closed Mondays, Will VINTON, 1974, US
• 75 : Cat's Cradle, Paul DRIESSEN, 1974, CA
• 76 : Les Trois Inventeurs, Michel OCELOT, 1980, FR
• 77 : The Big Snit, Richard CONDIE, 1985, CA
• 78 : The Sandman, Paul BERRY, Colin BATTY, Ian MACKINNON, 1991, GB
• 79 : The Blitz Wolf, Tex AVERY, 1942, US
• 80 : Feeling from Mountain and Water, Te WEI, Ma KEXUAN, Yan SANCHUN, 1988, CN
• 81 : La Demoiselle et le Violoncelliste, Jean-François LAGUIONIE, 1964, FR
• 82 : Le Chapeau, Michèle COURNOYER, 1999, CA
• 83 : Lev a pisnicka, Bretislav POJAR, 1959, CZ
• 84 : The Sand Castle, Co HOEDEMAN, 1977, CA
• 85 : Apel, Ryszard CZEKALA, 1970, PL
• 86 : A, Jan LENICA, 1964, FR, RF
• 87 : Der Fuehrer's Face, Jack KINNEY, 1943, US
• 88 : Strojenie instrumentow, Jerzy KUCIA, 2000, PL
• 89 : Le Pas, Piotr KAMLER, 1974, FR
• 90 : Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor, Dave FLEISCHER, 1936, US
• 91 : Great, Bob GODFREY, 1975, GB
• 92 : Au bout du monde, Konstantin BRONZIT, 1998, FR
• 93 : Felix in exile, William KENTRIDGE, 1994, ZA
• 94 : The Band Concert, Wilfred JACKSON, 1935, US
• 95 : Le Concert de M. et Mme Kabal, Walerian BOROWCZYK, 1962, FR
• 96 : Seiltänzer, Raimund KRUMME, 1986, RF
• 97 : Hotel E, Priit PÄRN, 1992, EE
• 98 : Film-film-film!, Fedor KHITRUK, 1968, RU
• 99 : Les Jeux des anges, Walerian BOROWCZYK, 1964, FR
• 100 : Flux, Christopher HINTON, 2002, CA

(Except Damon again, I've seen everything in that one. I don't like the idea of Gertie and Fantasmagorie being number one and two, but it's still a nice list for animated shorts)


Laputa Festival, Tokyo, 2003
1. Ёжик в тумане / Hedgehog in the Fog (1975, Yuriy Norshteyn)
2. Сказка сказок / Tale of Tales (1979, Yuriy Norshteyn)
3. Fantasia (1940, Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske)
4. L'homme qui plantait des arbres / The Man Who Planted Trees (1987, Frédéric Back)
5. Le Roi et l'oiseau / The King and the Mockingbord (title of the dubbing of the incomplete 1952 version) (1980, Paul Grimault)
6. 未来少年コナン / Future Boy Conan (1978, Hayao Miyazaki) (tv series)
7. となりのトトロ / My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Hayao Miyazaki)
8. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, David Hand)
9. Yellow Submarine (1968, George Dunning)
10. わんぱく王子の大蛇退治 / The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (1963, Yugo Serikawa)
11. 太陽の王子　ホルスの大冒険 / Prince of the Sun: The Great Adventure of Horus (1968, Isao Takahata)
12. Crac (1981, Frédéric Back)
13. Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941, Dave Fleischer)
14. Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers (1993, Nick Park)
15. くもとちゅうりっぷ / The Spider and the Tulip (1943, Kenzô Masaoka)
16. 風の谷のナウシカ / Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984, Hayao Miyazaki)
17. Снежная королева / The Snow Queen (1957, Lev Atamanov)
18. Blinkity Blank (1955, Norman McLaren)
19. 天空の城ラピュタ / Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986, Hayao Miyazaki)
20. ルパン三世 カリオストロの城 / The Castle of Cagliostro (1979, Hayao Miyazaki)
21. Moznosti dialogu / Dimensions of Dialogue (1982, Jan Svankmajer)
22. Ruka / The Hand (1965, Jirí Trnka)
23. Sen noci svatojanske / A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959, Jirí Trnka)
24. Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve / Night on Bare Mountain (1933, Alexander Alexeieff, Claire Parker)
25. 道成寺 / Dojoji Temple (1976, Kihachiro Kawamoto)
26. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993, Tim Burton)
27. La Planète sauvage / Fantastic Planet (1973, René Laloux)
28. おこんじょうるり / The Magic Fox (1982, Tadanari Okamoto)
29. 千と千尋の神隠し / Spirited Away (2001 Hayao Miyazaki)
30. アキラ / Akira (1988, Katsuhiro Otomo)
31. ガンバの冒険 / Adventures of Ganba (1975, Osamu Dezaki) (tv series)
31. Tom and Jerry (1940-1957, Joseph Barbera, William Hanna) (theatrical series)
33. 鉄腕アトム / Astro Boy (1966, Osamu Tezuka) (tv series)
34. Father and Daughter (2000, Michael Dudok de Wit)
35. Pinocchio (1940, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen)
36. 機動戦士ガンダム / Mobile Suit Gundam (1979. Yoshiyuki Tomino) (tv series)
37. Bambi (1942, David Hand)
38. Street of Crocodiles (1986, Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay)
39. 火垂るの墓 / Grave of the Fireflies (1988, Isao Takahata)
40. Betty Boop (1930-1939, Max Fleischer)
41. The Iron Giant (1999, Brad Bird)
42. Чебурашка / Cheburashka (1971, Roman Kachanov) (four short films)
43. Bajaja / Prince Bayaya (1950, Jirí Trnka)
44. The Sand Castle (1977, Co Hoedeman)
45. Toy Story (1995, John Lasseter)
45. The Old Mill (1937, Wilfred Jackson) (from the "Silly Symphonies" series)
45. The Old Man and the Sea (1999, Aleksandr Petrov)
48. 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン / Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996, Hideaki Anno)
48. The Street (1976, Caroline Leaf)
48. The Snowman (1982, Diane Jackson)
51. ジャンピング / Jumping (1984, Osamu Tezuka)
52. Цапля и журавль / Heron and Crane (1974, Yuriy Norshteyn)
53. Cisaruv slavík / The Emperor's Nightingale (1949, Jirí Trnka)
54. Monsters, Inc. (2001, Pete Docter)
55. When the Day Breaks (1999, Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis)
56. アルプスの少女ハイジ / Heidi, Girl of the Alps (1974, Isao Takahata) (tv series)
57. Inspirace (1948, Karel Zeman)
58. Creature Comforts (1989, 2003-????, Nick Park) (short film & tv series)
58. 長靴をはいた猫 / Puss in Boots (1969, Kimio Yabuki)
60. ルバン三世 / Lupin III (1971-1972, Masaaki Osumi, Hayao Miyazaki & Isao Takahata) (tv series)
61. 鬼 / Oni (1972, Kihachiro Kawamoto)
62. Gertie the Dinosaur (1914, Windsor McCay)
63. Superman (1941-1943, Dave Fleischer)
64. 人狼 / Jin-Roh (2000, Hiroyuki Okiura)
65. Жил был пес / There Lived a Dog (1982, Eduard Nazarov)
66. 火宅 / House of Flame (1979, Kihachiro Kawamoto)
67. Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave (1995, Nick Park)
68. 牧笛 / The Cowboy's Flute (1963, Te Wei, Qian Jiajun)
69. おんぼろフィルム / Broken Down Film (1985, Osamu Tezuka)
70. Лиса и заяц / Fox and Hare (1973, Yuriy Norshteyn)
71. Luxo Jr. (1986, John Lasseter)
72. Le Nez / The Nose (1963, Alexandre Alexeieff)
73. 白蛇伝 / The Tale of the White Serpent (1958, Kazuhiko Okabe, Taiji Yabushita)
73. Allegro non Troppo (1977, Bruno Bozzetto)
75. 王立宇宙軍 オネアミスの翼 / Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (1987, Hiroyuki Yamaga)
76. 母をたずねて三千里 / 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (1976, Isao Takahata) (tv series)
77. ある街角の物語 / Tales of a Street Corner (1962, Eiichi Yamamoto, Yusaku Sakamoto)
78. Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out (1989, Nick Park)
79. Bad Luck Blackie (1949, Tex Avery)
80. 赤毛のアン / Anne of Green Gables (1979, Isao Takahata) (tv series)
81. Спокойной ночи, малыши / Goodnight, Children (2000, Yuriy Norshteyn) (introductory segment)
81. 機動警察パトレイバー2　The Movie / Patlabor 2: The Movie (1993, Mamoru Oshii)
81. Eine murul / Breakfast On The Grass (1987, Priit Pärn)
84. 銀河鉄道の夜 / Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985, Gisaburô Sugii)
85. Vynález zkázy / The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958, Karel Zeman)
86. Mickey Mouse (1928-present?, Walt Disney)
87. コーヒーブレイク / Coffee Break (1977, Taku Furukawa)
88. Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner (1949-present?, Chuck Jones)
89. Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom (1953, Ward Kimball)
90. 頭山 / Mt. Head (2002, Koji Yamamura)
91. Popeye (1933-1957, Dave Fleischer)
92. Шинель / The Overcoat (2 parts) (unfinished, Yuriy Norshteyn)
93. Polychrome Fantasy (1935, Norman McLaren)
94. パンダコパンダ / Panda-Kopanda (1972, Isao Takahata)
95. Něco z Alenky / Alice (1988, Jan Švankmajer)
96. Конек-горбунок / The Humpbacked Horse (1947/1975, Ivan Ivanov-Vano)
97. 宇宙戦艦ヤマト / Space Battleship Yamato (1977, Toshio Masuda)
98. うる星やつら2　ビューティフル　ドリーマー / Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984, Mamoru Oshii)
99. Варежка / Mitten (1967, Roman Kachanov)
99. Deputy Droopy (1955, Tex Avery, Michael Lah)
101. 超時空要塞マクロス / The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982-3, Noboru Ishiguro) (tv series)
102. Heavy Metal (1981, Gerald Potterton)
103. Корова / The Cow (1989, Aleksandr Petrov)
104. 花折り / Flower-Fold (1968, Kihachiro Kawamoto)
105. Mužné hry / Virile Games (1988, Jan Švankmajer)
105. 攻殻機動隊 / Ghost in the Shell (1995, Mamoru Oshii)
105. 千夜一夜物語 / A Thousand and One Nights (1969, Eiichi Yamamoto)
105. Harpya (1979, Raoul Servais)
109. The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa (1977, Caroline Leaf)
110. Powers of Ten (1977, Charles Eames, Ray Eames)
110. Revolver (1993, Jonas Odell, Stig Bergqvist, Martti Ekstrand, Lars Ohlson)
110. Neighbours (1952, Norman McLaren)
113. Le petit soldat / The Little Soldier (1947, Paul Grimault)
114. Fétiche / The Mascot (1934, Ladislas Starewitch)
115. The Hill Farm (1989, Mark Baker)
116. Tango (1981, Zbigniew Rybczynski)
117. A Well-Ordered Restaurant (1991, Tadanari Okamoto)
118. Papillons de nuit / Nocturnal Butterflies (1997, Raoul Servais, Paul Delvaux)
119. あしたのジョー2 / Ashita no Joe 2 (Tomorrow's Joe 2) (1980, Osamu Dezaki) (tv series)
119. Street Musique (1972, Ryan Larkin)
121. ルパンvs複製人間 / Lupin III: The Secret of Mamo (1978, Soji Yoshikaw, Yasuo Otsuka)
122. 銀河鉄道999 / Galaxy Express 999 (Rintaro) (one of these films, probably "Adieu")
123. 詩人の生涯 / The Life of a Poet (1974, Kihachiro Kawamoto)
124. Studie (1929-1933, Oskar Fischinger) (unclear if all of these films are meant or just one of them)
125. The Bead Game (1977, Ishu Patel)
126. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, Richard Williams, (Robert Zemeckis))
127. The Mighty River (1993, Frédéric Back)
128. Dumbo (1941, Ben Sharpsteen)
129. レインボー戦隊ロビン / Rainbow Squadron Robin (1966-7, Takeshi Tamiya) (tv series)
130. Staré povesti ceské / Old Czech Legends (1953, Jirí Trnka)
131. 南無一病息災 / Praise be to Small Ills (1973, Tadanari Okamoto)
132. もののけ姫 / Princess Mononoke (1997, Hayao Miyazaki)
133. Asparagus (1979, Suzan Pitt)
134. Alì Babà (1970, Giulio Giannini, Emanuele Luzzati)
135. Walking (1969, Ryan Larkin)
136. 8マン / 8 Man (1963-4 Haruyuki Kawajima) (tv series)
137. Canon (1964, Norman McLaren)
138. 紅の豚 / Porco Rosso (1992, Hayao Miyazaki)
139. 殺人狂時代 / Au Fou! (1968, Yoji Kuri)
140. Žvahlav aneb šatičky slaměného Huberta / Jabberwocky (1971, Jan Švankmajer)
141. SPACY (1981, Takashi Ito)
142. L'Ange / The Angel (1982, Patrick Bokanowski)
143. ど根性ガエル / Frog With Guts! (1974, Eiji Okabe, Tadao Nagahama)
144. The Big Snit (1985, Richard Condie)
145. Magical Maestro (1952, Tex Avery)
146. MEMORIES (1995. Morimoto Koji, Okamura Tensai, Otomo Katsuhiro)
147. モチモチの木 / The Mochimochi Tree (1972, Tadanari Okamoto)
148. ヤクルト「ミルミル」CM / Yakult "Miru-Miru" commercial (1979, PMBB) (wtf ?)
149. Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" (1986, Brothers Quay, others)
150. Каникулы Бонифация / Bonifas' Holidays (1965, Fyodor Khitruk)
I'm missing only a bunch of japanese TV shows here, and I can't find english subs for a few Jiri Trnka features like Prince Bajaja or Old Czech Legends. Help?

And Jerry Beck's 50 Greatest Cartoons (All North American).

Also check out the oscar winners for best short animated film, there's a lot of great stuff (and some very, very bad stuff too)

Finally, these days, student shorts are pretty good. Just take a look at something like Gobelins' Les Chiens isolés from 2011.

Oh, maybe I can mention David OReilly's Please Say Something. My favorite short from the last few years. It's pretty well known though, maybe I don't have to mention it.

Thank you for those lists, Saturnome. Between the forum recommendations and those lists, I'll be busy in the coming months. Interesting to see early Takahata and Mayazaki's TV work being ranked so highly. I've always liked it, but never really thought of it as being up there with the greats.

Yes those lists are extremely helpful and have nudged me into asking for Caroline Leaf to be brought up for edification / consideration.
Imagine The Quays marooned on a desert Island with their only recourse being a washed up light box and the available sand to work with. Some of her work is You-Tubeable e.g. Sisters, The Street, Gregor Samsa. Wonderfully mesmeric transitions and a true Princess of Darkness. There is a very reasonably priced NFB Canada selection and doco available from Amazon.fr for around $15.

Also of note on the Annecy list is South African William Kentridge who favours similarly vertiginous transitions by a process of erasure/reworking the same base drawing rather than separate cells. Of lithuanian/Jewish descent he also shares the european influences of the Quays and painters of the Neue Sachlichkeit movement such as Otto Dix, merging these into very specific SA themes of racial privilege and the nature of transient ownership. (He is the son of noted civil rights lawyer Sydney Kentridge). Of late he seems to be concentrating on sculpture and his first love theatre staging but do seek out the series that features his alter ego Soho Eckstein. Similarly dotted about on You-Tube.

Another master of the Kentridge painting / overpainting style of animation is Jochen Kuhn. Here's an example.

I'm a bit sick so I'll have to wait for the serious posting, but I figure since studio animation is such a muddled thing on home video that I should make a list of the best possible places to get some of it. I'd like to say thanks to my friend (not on this board) Sev for helping me with this. Anyways

Disney (as already discussed) has been the best at getting their shorts released with the treasures collection curated by Roy Disney himself being well organized and with great transfers. Unfortunately they are OOP and available only in limited quantities. Some of them such as the Goofy set have been released and are in print in Europe, but unfortunately this is not true of everything. Likewise unfortunate not everything has been released by Disney, but what is missing is primarily early stuff from before the creation of Mickey Mouse. Some of the Alice shorts have gotten released on the Rarities and Mickey Mouse B&W volume 1 treasures discs, but otherwise go to the Internet.

Termite Terrace home of the Looney Tunes is in even worse disarray with Warners having the organizational skills of a twelve year old. To make matters worse some of the releases (primarily those for kids) are censored or cropped into widescreen. Just to be safe stick with the Golden Collection which in six volumes has gone beyond its initial best of collection nature into a pretty definitive set. The Platinum collection, up to volume two as of this writing, is doing a good job of being that for Blu though obviously they are not so definitive. The first collection though has some first time on DVD shorts which is a similar case with their Chuck Jones Mouse collection. The only other set that seems necessary is this Snafu collection which collects all of the public domain Termite military shorts.

Finishing off the big three is of course Fleischer and Famous studios which has more or less been boned on the home video market. The only complete series out there is the essential Superman shorts which are available as extras on the big Superman Blu-ray collection Warners has put out. Popeye fairs the next best with Warners putting out all of the Fleischer films across three great volumes which have as extras several other Fleischer cartoons otherwise unavailable. Sadly they have not done the same with the Famous popeye cartoons which only have about 12 cartoons released on the third volume of Popeye. Some of these have been collected elsewhere as public domain discs, but none are particularly good. Betty Boop has got it even worse with the only worthwhile release being a very incomplete one from France. Since Boop is part of the Republic library expect Olive to release a complete set on Blu (and by our luck it will be announced the day this ends). After that in terms of shorts you're destined to mostly awful PD discs and even then they haven't cracked into the best. The best of these are the teletoon sets and VCI's Somewhere in Dreamland set. The two feature films haven't fared much better with Gulliver getting a decent PD disc, but their masterpiece Mr. Bug Goes to Town only has a severely edited disc from Legend films under an alternate title.

MGM which naturally is all owned by Warner has had some of the best luck in regards to getting stuff released. All of the original Tom and Jerry cartoons are available on disc for example with a very nice Blu to go with it. Chuck Jones superior run on the series also has a very nice nice set with only Gene Dietch's acts of insanity missing out. Tex Avery's illustrious run is a bit more difficult to parse out though fortunately we have a thread for that. Likewise to that some of the Quimby side projects such as though with Harmon-Ising are scattered around random Warner discs and you'll just have to choose your own poison there. Universal and Walter Lantz studio is a much more simple deal with two collections called Woody Woodpecker and Friends released that while not having everything are a pleasant best of set. Likewise what MGM has done with DePattie-Freleng studio is very nice. They've released the Pink Panther shorts about a dozen different times, but the big white box remains the best place for them. The rest of their films are represented in one way or another in little green boxes that promote their Pink Panther connection like this one. They aren't complete (only half of the inspector shorts are on that disc for example), but they are representative enough. Finally Sony has all but ignored their animation history with, for example, Tashlin's Screen Gems series being basically unavailable even on the Internet aside a couple of shorts. Through TCM they have finally released most of the UPA shorts. The big thing missing is the Mr. Magoo shorts which Shout! have been planning to release for over a year now.

Speaking of UPA, its mastermind John Hubley has gotten his independent films released by Image in some pretty great sets I highly recommend. Likewise silent animation has gotten a great boost lately from Tom Stathes who has released much of what remains on disc in great quality. They're expensive, but considering their rarity I'd say it would be worth picking up at least a few.

I'm trying to segue from the horror into the animation with a few cross over titles - here's a 1991 short film Balloon that manages to be both a beautiful and touching moral lesson, yet be warned that it also includes some harrowing scenes of balloon torture!

I suppose that only means you must watch Billy's Balloon now.

Hey, guys, I'm going to get all the great and very helpful resources you've posted into the OP in the next few days, as soon as I stop coughing up bile and wishing I were dead.

At least you're only coughing up the bile. I've been on tea only for the last two days. Ug, this season.

Here's a neat existential short to get you guys through this rough patch.

The film is called Stairs, from the PWA Polish animation anthology. It's basically an ash-dusted Gumby wandering through an increasingly stair-infested landscape, which allows for some pretty cool visuals. The ending though really packs a wallop.

knives wrote:I suppose that only means you must watch Billy's Balloon now.

Wonderful. It reminds me a little of those asdfmovies!

While we are on the subject of shorts available on YouTube, may I direct you to the bleakly depressing version of Ray Bradbury's short story There Will Come Soft Rains?

swo17 wrote:Here's a neat existential short to get you guys through this rough patch.

The film is called Stairs, from the PWA Polish animation anthology. It's basically an ash-dusted Gumby wandering through an increasingly stair-infested landscape, which allows for some pretty cool visuals. The ending though really packs a wallop.

Glad to see this get some attention! I was going to recommend this myself, and its stark simplicity will definitely get it a place on my list. Schabenbeck's other work (what I've seen of it) is also strong, though this is my favorite of his so far.

colinr0380 wrote:...the bleakly depressing version of Ray Bradbury's short story There Will Come Soft Rains?

Thanks, I didn't even know this adaptation existed, though the Bradbury story of an automated house with its inhabitants gone made a huge impression on me when I read it in the '80s, following the Reagan administration's renewed interest in the neutron bomb. It's interesting to see how the entire second half departs from the story, with the house hunting a bird, impaling a crucifix and then destroying itself in the process. In the story, if I recall correctly, a tree falls against the house and it simply burns down.
I just wish it were possible to see more of this kind of stuff (hell, even a lot of the greatest Looney Tunes films that have never been released on disc) without staring at blurry YouTube videos.

It is a neat little twist, and I especially like the way that the heart-rending ending works with animals in the way only animation can do:

Spoiler

As the bird is left in the devastated ruins performing a loop of continually battering itself against the projected image of beautiful countryside through a window in a futile acknowledgement of and attempt to escape back into the unspoilt past (was that image itself only just a memory even before everyone died?)

A few more recommended shorts on disc:

Those who enjoyed PWA's Anthology of Polish Animated Film, or really anyone with any interest in Polish film, should be sure to pick up the book Polish Cinema Now! by Mateusz Werner, which includes 2 DVDs of shorts, one for each year 1989-2009. There were two animated works here that I enjoyed a great deal. Piotr Dumala's Franz Kafka (1991) animates engraved plaster, and it achieves an amazing painterly crosshatched/scratchboard type of texture in the spare lighting of the film's scenes. It's amazing how it achieves so much three-dimensionality in what could easily be a flat-looking medium. (Dumala's training was in the restoration of stone sculptures.) Almost totally wordless, the film evokes dreamlike images moods from Kafka's diaries and fiction to great effect. Those who have seen the PWA set will probably remember his Little Black Riding Hood and Gentle Spirit, made in the previous decade.

The other animated work included here that most impressed me was Jerzy Kucia's final work, Tuning the Instruments, which is also included in the PWA set, and won huge numbers of international awards so will probably be familiar to many. Many of Kucia's films are concerned with memory, but to me this film seemed most concerned with visual experience as an element of our consciousness. The film's middle section uses a staggering array of techniques to create an impression of linear movement in the guise of a POV motorcycle ride through city and countryside.

Finally, a note on the DVD Cut-Up: The Films of Grant Munro. It's really a purchase for the specialist, since so much of its contents are in the Norman McLaren set (that's the essential thing to own) but I thought it was easily worth $10 to get his 1946 safety film Three Blind Mice, but the absolute standout here is Toys, an unbelievably intense depiction of war using old-fashioned GI Joe dolls, toy airplanes, etc. Children gazing into a toy store's shop window are drawn inexorably into a nightmare of combat flashback. Munro fought in Korea, and his haunted artistic voice here seems to say, "You kids who play war can't even begin to understand how it really is." One of those films that's so incredible that I almost can't believe it was even made, let alone how much he does with such limited material as these toys.
By the way, I watched two different versions of this on YouTube and they looked (and sounded) absolutely nothing like this film should. Totally atrocious that people see films like this in ways that do them absolutely no justice at all.

Speaking of obscure little titles (Munro's fab) for entirely personal reasons I want to raise that flag for Adam Beckett and ingenious abstract animator who died just as he was beginning to gain fame (he was the rotoscope artist for the original Star Wars). Here's a clip (not the whole thing) of one of his films which have been collected by his mother on disc. The link for the DVD seems dead right now, but if I find a new link I'll post.

zedz wrote:I'm defining animation in terms of still (or single frame, but in practical terms the still image may last a lot longer than that) imagery designed to create the illusion of continuity of motion. This will therefore exclude a number of drawn or painted films that are not intended to create the illusion of continuity of motion (or that do so only incidentally), such as Iimura's White Calligraphy.

Having now seen White Calligraphy, I'm even more convinced that stuff like this should qualify as animation. (You even call it animation yourself here!) Yes, the continuity between frames is absent, but the film is completely alive with motion--the motion of chaos. I watch White Calligraphy and see movement at an atomic level. I see lines convulsing erratically. I see letters breakdancing. Sure, Iimura did not intend in this case to show, say, a stick figure crossing a street, but what exactly was he going for by running through these characters at such a speed that no one could ever logically process them? Surely it was apparent to him that presenting the film in this manner allowed the viewer to dissociate the characters from their meaning and instead appreciate the beauty of their form and how they all interrelate. This strikes me as not dissimilar to what Seurat was doing with his pointillist paintings, only expanded into the dimension of time. The dots in those paintings don't clearly exhibit continuity between each other, but from a distance there is a perceived continuity (the perception of which is intended). Speed in White Calligraphy serves the same purpose as distance in Seurat. In other words, focusing on the film's elemental parts misses the point--stand back, take it all in, and you can see that Iimura is animating boundless energy out of a bunch of simple, static scratches.

swo17 wrote:

zedz wrote:I'm defining animation in terms of still (or single frame, but in practical terms the still image may last a lot longer than that) imagery designed to create the illusion of continuity of motion. This will therefore exclude a number of drawn or painted films that are not intended to create the illusion of continuity of motion (or that do so only incidentally), such as Iimura's White Calligraphy.

Having now seen White Calligraphy, I'm even more convinced that stuff like this should qualify as animation. (You even call it animation yourself here!)

Though I'm making a distinction there between how our brains process the imagery (as animation) and how the film is actually produced. We're pre-programmed to create visual continuities, and this applies to material where that illusion is intended but also where it isn't. That tension is what I love about the film, and what makes it interesting and, as you say, hyperkinetic (but I still couldn't personally count it as animation).

But hey, if you liked that, you should check out Guy Sherwin's At the Academy and Newsprint. I'd say they're even further removed from animation, but they're brilliant, mind-mashing movies. The latter, especially, is a great counterpoint to White Calligraphy.

Just remembered an interesting animation-or-not? test case that I'll be including on my list: Lis Rhodes' Light Music. It's one of those films that isn't projected onto a screen, but into (smoky) space, so you view it and interact with it as 3D, sculptural light. I'm including this two-projector work because it's the only film created in this manner I've personally experienced, but it seemed to be a very effective use of the technique.

You enter a darkened chamber in which two beams of morphing, sculptural light (generated by dual projectors facing off at opposite ends of the room) are interacting, visible because of the light smoke or vapour in the atmosphere. The 'animation' on the film strips (and on the far walls, which are largely beside the point) is 1920s primitive - scrolling lines, shrinking / growing shapes - but they translate into ever-shifting patterns of beams that intersect and animate the space as you walk around and through them, or just sit on the side and watch them duel. It's actual three dimensional (not optically generated 3D) abstract animation.

EDIT: Hey, you can actually see an example of the work, and hear Lis talk about it, here.

swo17 wrote:Having now seen White Calligraphy, I'm even more convinced that stuff like this should qualify as animation. (You even call it animation yourself here!) Yes, the continuity between frames is absent, but the film is completely alive with motion--the motion of chaos. I watch White Calligraphy and see movement at an atomic level. I see lines convulsing erratically. I see letters breakdancing. Sure, Iimura did not intend in this case to show, say, a stick figure crossing a street, but what exactly was he going for by running through these characters at such a speed that no one could ever logically process them? Surely it was apparent to him that presenting the film in this manner allowed the viewer to dissociate the characters from their meaning and instead appreciate the beauty of their form and how they all interrelate. This strikes me as not dissimilar to what Seurat was doing with his pointillist paintings, only expanded into the dimension of time. The dots in those paintings don't clearly exhibit continuity between each other, but from a distance there is a perceived continuity (the perception of which is intended). Speed in White Calligraphy serves the same purpose as distance in Seurat. In other words, focusing on the film's elemental parts misses the point--stand back, take it all in, and you can see that Iimura is animating boundless energy out of a bunch of simple, static scratches.

Further to your elaborated explanation. As you know, we're in perfect agreement on the details, but I think the Seurat analogy doesn't work, because his technique was clearly aimed at generating a (representational) big picture, whereas in the 'accidental animation' examples we're talking about, the animation may (or may not, in some instances) be simply the inevitable side-effect of any single-frame image making. We'd see similar quasi-animation effects if the single-frame imagery was perfectly randomized, with no human agency, or if somebody put microfilm through the projector.

A purely structural exercise, through the magic of cinema, can generate vestiges of animation-like activity, but for me that isn't enough to make it a work of animation. Let's say, at the end of this project, I manage to get hold of 16mm prints of every film nominated, and I splice them together, one frame at a time, in the order they're ranked. Frame one is the first frame of film no. 1; frame two is the second frame of film no. 2; frame 3 is the third frame from film no. 3; through to the end of the list. Any continuity from image to image will be purely random, but when projected (if the projector can handle all those splices!) the compilation will operate like a much more randomized and colourful version of Iimura's film, and we'll no doubt perceive a lot of 'movement' of unrelated shapes and lines simply because of persistence of vision. But that wouldn't make me an animator. And if I changed the rules of the exercise so that each single-frame image was separated from the next by a second of black leader, or if I used the first fifty, second fifty, third fifty frames of each film to make the compilation, we wouldn't observe the same quasi-animated effects.

But at any rate, I fully understand a classification of White Calligraphy as animation, even if I fall on the other side of the fence.

Just to mess with you guys I'm going to throw out T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G which gives the impression of movement without any continuity toward it and features no drawings to mess with things even more.

Spoiler

Though you'd be crazy to seriously consider it animation

I agree with your spoiler, but you should all definitely see this for the 60s list project.

Unless you're epileptic.

EDIT: My lord, that's been YouTubed to buggery. Go get the excellent Re:Voir DVD if you're really interested.