1001 Animated Shorts You Must See - Part 14

DIR: Tim Webb

SUMMARY: An animated documentary on autism, made up of original designs by and interviews with autistic contributors.

WHY IT'S HERE: Director Tim Webb's animated documentary on autism was created for Channel 4's 'Disabling World' season, designed to aid viewers' understanding of disabilities and their sufferers. Keen to give a voice to actual autistic people, as no film had yet done, Webb worked for a year with autistic adults and children and their families and carers. Although this limited Webb to working with the highest functioning 10% of those with the condition, the results give a more relatable and personal glimpse of autism than interviews with those speaking for the autistic ever could have.

Webb gives 'A is for Autism' the subtitle 'A Collaboration', acknowledging that a good percentage of the creative work for the film was done by the documentary's subjects themselves. All of the designs for the animation are taken from pictures drawn by Webb's autistic collaborators, and the fascinating interviews help explain what we are seeing on screen and understand the difference in how the world is perceived by different autistic people. The piano and flute music on the soundtrack was specially recorded by two autistic performers and some of the music was composed by the pianist as well. 'A is for Autism' gives us an extremely effective look into a world that is difficult to imagine for those who do not have autism, but ultimately it helps us to understand those with the condition by being one of the first films to give them a platform on which to discuss the issues.

DIR: Mario Cavalli

SUMMARY: A depiction of a summer's day in Soho Square.

WHY IT'S HERE: Mario Cavalli's 'Soho Square' is a beautifully immersive glimpse at a day in London's Soho Square and the people who pass through. The vivid, painterly colours are so evocative of summer that the viewer can't help but be transported to a lazy, sunny day even when watching the film in the dead of winter, as I have just done myself. Cavalli's techniques in making this film were fascinating original. First he filmed footage of real people in Soho Square. He then hired actors, exaggerated their features with prosthetics and asked them to perform stylised interpretations of the activities captured on the original footage. Cavalli then recoloured the footage and manipulated it to create the film we see on screen. Some have contested the idea that 'Soho Square' is animation at all, since what we are seeing is actually altered live-action footage, but the recolouring and manipulation of the film makes it something similar, if more appealing than, the technique of rotoscoping, which has been an animation staple since the early days of the medium.

DIR: Michael Dudok de Wit

SUMMARY: Tom Sweep is a good Samaritan trying to keep the street tidy for everyone. Unfortunately, everyone else is trying to do the exact opposite.

WHY IT'S HERE: Dutch-British animator Michael Dudok de Wit would quickly garner acclaim for his work which combines an appealing cartoony style and humour with deeper philosophical questions and emotional studies. For his early film 'Tom Sweep' however, Dudok de Wit focused chiefly on the humour. This lovely three minute piece follows the obsessive attempts of the titular Tom to keep the street tidy. Numerous slovenly passers-by throw their litter carelessly on the ground, despite the fact that there is a dustbin in clear view. Tom frantically clears up after them, loitering around the bin to try and shame them into doing the right thing. Set to an upbeat little accordion tune, 'Tom Sweep' is lightly satirical in its depiction of litter bugs but is largely noteworthy for its lovely character animation. The scene in which Tom hovers while a man finishes his crisps is priceless. According to Dudok de Wit, 'Tom Sweep' was originally intended to be the first in a series of shorts (hence the subtitle 'The Bin') but no more were made. This is perhaps for the best, as the concept could easily have become repetitive over several shorts. As it is, the one we have is a little gem.

DIR: Melodie McDaniel, Nick Donkin

SUMMARY: Junky Danny spends Christmas Day searching in vain for a heroin fix.

WHY IT'S HERE: 'The Junky's Christmas' is a Claymation adaptation of William Burroughs short story, read by Burroughs himself and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Directed by advertising and music video directors Melodie McDaniel and Nick Donkin, this black and white stop-motion short feels like a throwback to earlier days of Claymation, with a cruder, more jerky look that 90s stop-motion tended towards. However, this is wholly in keeping with the atmosphere of degradation and desperation, as is the choice to shoot the film in black and white. Bookended by scenes of Burroughs sitting in a chair reading, 'The Junky's Christmas' mimics cosy holiday specials but with a heavy dose of irony. The scenes of Danny's quest for heroin, which include a sequence in which he finds a pair of severed human legs, are incongruously accompanied by lilting, if slightly off-key, Christmas carols combined with a soundtrack by underrated hip-hop group The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. But for all its knowing irony, 'The Junky's Christmas' is also oddly and sincerely touching, as it ends with a scene of genuine sacrifice and a surprising reward. A great little alternative Christmas film for those of a certain age, 'The Junky's Christmas' has also struck a chord with many former and current junkies, who recognise the desperation of the lead character and appreciate the magnitude of his sacrifice.

DIR: Timothy Quay, Stephen Quay

SUMMARY: A short music video for His Name is Alive's song 'Are We Still Married'.

WHY IT'S HERE: Although the 'Stille Nacht' films, of which there are five, are often seen as the Brothers Quay's most accessible works, that's really not saying much! Taking the form of a short music video, 'Are We Still Married', the second of the film, is one of the most haunting things I've ever seen and, like their earlier masterpiece 'Street of Crocodiles', gave me a genuine screaming nightmare the night after I'd watched it! Aside from the haunting qualities of His Name is Alive's breathy music, the image that most disturbed me was that of a withered hand incessantly knocking against a pane in a door, trying to gain entry but being denied it. A malevolent force trying to push its way in has always been one of my worst nightmares and this image makes the film almost unwatchable for me, and yet its power makes it repulsively attractive! As with the first 'Stille Nacht' film, much of the imagery is inspired by 'Alice in Wonderland', with Jan Svankmajer's brilliant feature length film of the book being an obvious influence as well.

DIR: Mark Baker

SUMMARY: A single decent man finds himself the outcast in a village filled with wicked inhabitants.

WHY IT'S HERE: Mark Baker's 'The Village' continues in the style of his brilliant earlier nominee 'The Hill Farm', only with a stronger narrative and larger cast of characters. A look at a small village and its rather nasty inhabitants, 'The Village' features Baker's trademark attention to small details and his crude but effective character designs. It tells a brilliant story of a village of hypocrites, drunkards, bullies, gossips and thieves, from which one man is ostracized for his very decency. Through its distinctive, appealing style and superb storytelling, 'The Village' got Baker his second Oscar nomination and managed to improve on his earlier classic 'The Hill Farm'. The way its intricate plot unfolds gives it the feeling of a classic novel.

DIR: Nick Park

SUMMARY: When inventor Wallace takes in a sinister penguin as a lodger, he finds himself inadvertently drawn into a criminal plot from which only his brilliant dog Gromit can save him.

WHY IT'S HERE: After the success of his first Wallace and Gromit short 'A Grand Day Out', Nick Park's second short starring the pair, 'The Wrong Trousers', is one of the great masterpieces of animation. Improving in every way on its predecessor, this Film Noir style tale of an eerie penguin lodger, a pair of robotic trousers, a diamond heist and a traintop battle (of sorts) remains the definitive Wallace and Gromit film and became an instant classic from the moment it was first screened. I have loved it ever since that first Christmas it was shown and I never tire of seeing it again. One of the greatest short films ever made, 'The Wrong Trousers' is part of an annual tradition for me, as every Christmas eve I sit down with a beer and watch it.

Unlike the technically brilliant but ponderously plotted 'A Grand Day Out', 'The Wrong Trousers' not only upped the ante in animation terms but also matched it with a tight, fast-paced, ingenious and very funny plot punctuated with exquisite little touches throughout. Key plot elements are casually dropped in so that the viewer barely registers them until they become important. A trainset which Wallace keeps running constantly in order to transport items around the house turns up in an astonishing finale in which Gromit pursues escaped criminal Feathers McGraw and finds himself having to lay down extra track like his life depended on it. This scene may be the greatest that Nick Park has ever put on film, although it is a close run thing with several other scenes in this film, including a tense diamond heist and a heart-stopping moment of suspense in an alleyway. Feathers McGraw himself is an incredible invention. One would not think it possible to make such a sinister figure out of a penguin but his expressionless, deliberate body-language makes a potentially cute character into one of the most threatening screen presences of all time!

DIR: Jeff Newitt

SUMMARY: A man overcome by love plucks petals from a flower as part of the traditional 'loves me, loves me not' game. But the influence of the flower starts to become deadly.

WHY IT'S HERE: Jeff Newitt's Aardman short 'Loves Me... Loves Me Not' is a funny but also eerily sadistic short in which a man in love plucks petals from a flower. Each time he plucks a petal that represents 'Loves Me', everything is fine but when he plucks the 'Loves Me Not' petals, the results become increasingly deadly. The terrifically tactile Claymation makes 'Loves Me... Loves Me Not' even more gripping and hilarious, as we approach the inevitable but still blackly amusing finale. Another little gem from Aardman, whose growing popularity allowed them to continue churning out oddities of this nature alongside their more commercially popular work.

DIR: Frederic Back

SUMMARY: An animated history of the North American St. Lawrence River which connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.

WHY IT'S HERE: With 'Crac!' and 'The Man Who Planted Trees', Frederic Back had already established himself as one of the greatest animators of all time and won two Oscars in the process. 'The Mighty River' saw him nominated for a third. The activist filmmaker, whose 'The Man Who Planted Trees' had led to the planting of millions of trees, continued his environmental mission with 'The Mighty River', an animated documentary which features a wealth of information on the St. Lawrence River which Back hoped would help save this natural resource of clean water. The St. Lawrence River once teemed with animal and plant life but fell victim to over-exploitation and industrial pollution. Back evokes the glory days of the river through breathtaking animation while, in the English language version, the narration is entrusted to the velvet tones of Donald Sutherland who more than does it justice. An astonishing piece of work, 'The Mighty River' would surely have bagged Back his third Oscar had it not come up against Nick Park's 'The Wrong Trousers' but awards were clearly less important than getting the message out there, something that Back certainly did with this astonishing film.

DIR: Jan Svankmajer

SUMMARY: In three sections, 'Breakfast', 'Lunch' and 'Dinner', we examine mankind's need to consume and the result of greed taken to extremes.

WHY IT'S HERE: Jan Svankmajer, one of the great masters of the short animation, made his last short film in 1993, dedicating himself from then on to feature animation instead. His finale in the medium of the animated short, 'Food' is a superb way to bow out. A political allegory expressed through three sequences using a mixture of Claymation and pixilation, Svankmajer examines how human beings feed off (and sometime on) each other and how our lives are influenced by the rituals of meal-times. In the first sequence, 'Breakfast', we see an unending sequence of men who devour food from each other's stomachs, the previous diner becoming a robotic dumb-waiter for the next diner. In 'Lunch', the most memorable of the three sequences, two diners, one upper class and one working class, fail to attract the attention of a waiter and so begin eating everything in sight, from what's on the table to their own clothes. With the impossibility of human communication remaining a constant, the ending is inevitable but chilling. Finally, in 'Dinner' we watch various diners consume piece of themselves until the meals become more private and the etiquette of privacy must be observed, even in the case of the audience. Conceived long before it was made, 'Food' was put on ice due to its politically contentious nature. When it finally emerged after the Czech revolution, many critics saw its message as too obvious and toothless for the current plotical climate. While it surely would have been more effective in the era in which it was conceived, it probably would have also found itself instantly banned and, while its power may have diminished since then, it is still an extremely memorable short which I am glad Svankmajer finally got the chance to make before he abandoned the animated short altogether.

DIR: Timothy Quay, Stephen Quay

SUMMARY: An animated documentary on Anamorphosis, a method of placing hidden images in artwork but using distorted perspectives.

WHY IT'S HERE: Commissioned by the Program for Art on Film, The Brothers Quay created an atypical work with this fascinating animated documentary on Anamorphosis. Anamorphosis is a technique used by artists to hide images within their artwork which can only be seen through looking at the image from a certain angle. Such visual trickery sits comfortably beside the Brothers Quay's trademark puppet animation. While the animation is as fine as one would expect from the directors, 'De Artificiali Perspectiva' is dominated by its riveting subject more than the animation. Narrated by Witold Scheybal, the actor who portrayed the Russian Premiere in the famously dreadful 'Superman IV: The Quest for Peace', 'De Artificiali Perspectiva' guides us through a series of examples of Anamorphosis, ending with perhaps the most famous example of the technique, Hans Holbein's 'The Ambassadors'. In commissioning the Brothers Quay to make this documentary, the Program for Art on Film demonstrated a canny insight into how the medium of animation is the natural successor to Anamorphosis as a beautiful and mysterious visual illusion.

DIR: Joanna Quinn

SUMMARY: The rise and fall of the British Empire is examined through the symbolic actions of a giant bulldog.

WHY IT'S HERE: British animator Joanna Quinn's 'Britannia' is a superb examination of Britain's shameful imperialistic past, something which sadly many Brits still see as a source of pride. The symbolism of the giant bulldog as he plays with the globe like a ball is simple but effective and the sketchy look of the animation is perfect, allowing the bulldog to shapeshift fluidly into various British archetypes. The expressiveness of the dog character recalls the incredibly emotive expressions Chuck Jones achieved with his characters and the bulldog is both hilarious and frightening by turns, although his eventual fate extinguishes the latter completely. In just under five minutes, Quinn has presented on of the most resonant depictions of British imperialism ever put on film.

DIR: William Kentridge

SUMMARY: Felix, a South African man who lives in exile during apartheid, studies the survey charts of Nandi, a young black woman who maps the history of the barren East Rand landscape.

WHY IT'S HERE: South African artist William Kentridge worked in various mediums including the animated short. Between 1989 and 2003 he produced a series of nine animations under the collective title '9 Drawings for Projection', the most famous of which is 'Felix in Exile'. It depicts the isolated existence of Felix Teitlebaum, a character who appears throughout the nine films and is depicted as vulnerable to the monstrous acts of apartheid. His existence is contrasted with that of Nandi, a surveyor charting the East Rand landscape who falls victim herself to the devastating effects of apartheid. Using mostly charcoal with the odd splash of pastel colour, Kentridge's techniques include the reuse of the same piece of paper for many images, which has the effect of leaving traces of what has come before, a highly symbolic thematic notion reflected in the way the East Rand land subsumes people and structures, bearing marks of crimes against humanity. Kentridge's work is perhaps the best encapsulation on film of the devastation of apartheid and his strangely beautiful images do not detract from the ugliness which they depict. Kentridge said of his own film, "In the same way that there is a human act of dismembering the past there is a natural process in the terrain through erosion, growth, dilapidation that also seeks to blot out events. In South Africa this process has other dimensions. The very term 'new South Africa' has within it the idea of a painting over the old, the natural process of dismembering, the naturalization of things new."

DIR: Michael Dudok de Wit

SUMMARY: A monk becomes obsessed with catching an elusive fish but his escalating attempts to do so ultimately lead to a spiritual revelation.

WHY IT'S HERE: 'The Monk and the Fish' is a beautiful little short by the superb Michael Dudok de Wit. A captivatingly enigmatic and appealingly humorous film, 'The Monk and the Fish' follows a monk in his escalating attempts to catch a fish, which leads to the two becoming spiritually intertwined. It's an amazing film, characterised by Dudok de Wit's distinctive style and character design that will be familiar to fans of his earlier film 'Tom Sweep'. Unlike that amusing short however, 'The Monk and the Fish' has a meditative side in which a potential fight to the death ultimately becomes a journey of self-realisation and hunter and prey become dancers in perfect harmony.

DIR: Alison Snowden, David Fine

SUMMARY: A dentist who has just turned 40 experiences a mid-life crisis which undermines his wife's plans to throw him a surprise party.

WHY IT'S HERE: The downbeat little black comedy 'Bob's Birthday' by Alison Snowden and David Fine is a gem of a film which won the Oscar for its year. The story of a dentist whose midlife crisis reaches a peak just as his wife arranges him a surprise party, 'Bob's Birthday' is a delightful short which was popular enough to inspire an overlooked but equally brilliant TV series, 'Bob and Margaret'. Retaining the melancholia of this original short but also offering plenty of bittersweet laughs and observations about mid-life, 'Bob and Margaret' is an overlooked classic and 'Bob's Birthday' is where it all started. This original short combines elements of Snowden and Fine's sweet-natured 'George and Rosemary' but here the happy ending is more elusive, as Bob and Margaret's rocky marriage seems at threat from Bob's unrequited desire for his young receptionist and growing disdain towards their friends. This is not another unfunny caricature of mid-life crises. Rather, 'Bob's Birthday' is a spot-on encapsulation of the painful normality of life and the slow, encroaching realisation that you've achieved less than you had hoped to in your younger days. As the voices of Bob and Margaret, Andy Hamilton and Snowden herself are perfectly cast and would continue to excel in these roles in the subsequent series. Snowden in particular is hysterical as the well-meaning but often tactless and exasperated Margaret.

DIR: Tim Watts, David Stoten

SUMMARY: A heated discussion in a newspaper office is played out between three versions of Kirk Douglas at different stages of his career.

WHY IT'S HERE: Tim Watts and David Stoten's 'The Big Story' is one of the shortest Oscar nominees ever. At just over a minute and a half in length, this superb little comedy relies heavily on the audience having seen at least a handful of Kirk Douglas films, although fans of classic Hollywood will get a kick out of the spot-on take-off of the hard bitten dialogue. 'The Big Story' features just three characters, all of whom are portrayed by a caricature of Kirk Douglas at various stages of his career. Everything about the film is perfectly observed, from the symbolic actions of the characters to the various types that Douglas was so good at portraying. The models of Douglas are instantly recognisable, thanks to the great work of Stoten and Watts, who British viewers will be unsurprised to hear worked on the groundbreaking political satire series 'Spitting Image'. All three Douglases are voiced by spot-on impressionist Frank Gorshin. The punchline of the film, though very simple, always makes me laugh out loud. Some have complained that the film is too short but its brevity is one of its great strengths. Extending the joke beyond this point would have been to spread it too thinly. As it is, we have the perfect comedy sketch.

DIR: Alexij Kharitidi

SUMMARY: A little caterpillar who is impatient to get his chance to fly stows away in a shuttlecock.

WHY IT'S HERE: Russian animator Alexij Kharitidi's 'Gagarin' is a short, sweet and rather sad little film about a caterpillar who wants to fly and so hides away inside a shuttlecock being used in a nearby game of badminton. This ultimately results in the birth of a phobia which will render his eventual transformation all but useless. 'Gagarin' is a simple little cartoon with a great deal of appeal. Its Oscar nomination was probably a reaction to the superb point-of-view shots that we see as the caterpillar is batted between badminton racquets, which are undoubtedly the highlight of the piece. This careful-what-you-wish-for fable slightly undermined its own message, as this humble little short garnered great attention at high profile awards shows.

DIR: Bill Plympton

SUMMARY: A man plucks out a nose hair, which then becomes hell-bent on getting back in his nose.

WHY IT'S HERE: Bill Plympton's 'Nose Hair' is a very strange film indeed. It begins with a moment of typical grotesquery, a wince-inducing plucking of a rogue nose hair. Once the hair has been plucked, it makes a couple of attempts to get back in the man's nostril but fails. The nose hair then effectively becomes the man's world, creating simple line drawings all around him with which he interacts. While the premise is at first hard to pin down, the animation quickly becomes ingenious, with several shifting perspectives that are reminiscent of the work of Raimund Krumme. Throughout there are many typical Plympton gags and by the end 'Nose Hair' has somehow convinced the viewer of its logic. This is a film to watch and rewatch, as there is so much in it that is unexpected and yet it consistently entertains.

DIR: Marv Newland

SUMMARY: A series of bizarre, unexpected and surreal episodes based on the Gary Larson comic strip 'The Far Side'.

WHY IT'S HERE: The animated Halloween TV special 'Tales from the Far Side' is a great half hour film I remember seeing back in 1994 and being amused, perplexed and slightly creeped out by. Knowing nothing about Gary Larson, this was my introduction to his work and I have since enjoyed many of his 'Far Side' comic strips. Cult director Marv Newland was the perfect choice to interpret Larson's unique sense of humour into animation and he does a great job, maintaining Larson's distinctive character designs. Although the emphasis is definitely on humour, much of it is black comedy with a distinctly macabre edge. The gag that stuck in my head from the first time I saw the film was a scene in the opening sequence in which we see the pale arm of a long-dead corpse hanging out of the window of a house, while a caged bird imitates the sound of a ringing phone. I knew it was funny but it also chilled me and I didn't know why. When the film was released on DVD in 1999, Larson made several changes including altering what the caged bird was saying from a ringing phone to the somewhat more on-the-nose repeated phrase 'Is it loaded?' In either case, this gives you some idea of the humour to expect, although I defy anyone to guess the punchlines in this excellent animated sketch show of a film.

DIR: Carlos Carrera

SUMMARY: In a crowded subway station, a man spots a young girl who he believes is about to commit suicide.

WHY IT'S HERE: Mexican director Carlos Carrera received much acclaim for his live action films but he also produced several animated shorts, of which 'El Heroe' is the best known and most acclaimed. Apparently envisaged as a live action piece, Carrera decided to animate it instead when filming on the Mexican underground proved difficult. The result is a haunting, pessimistic look at one man's good intentions that not only prove to be in vain but detrimental to his own situation as well. The character designs are terrific, with expressive, large-eyed creations jostling selfishly for space on the subway platform. Carrera animates them with a loose, squashy quality befitting of their sardine-like predicament. It's fair to say that one does not come away from 'El Heroe' feeling good about the world. It is a representation of a selfish world where a single act of good-heartedness results in punishment and failure.

DIR: John R. Dilworth

SUMMARY: A bird falls in love with a cat but his love manifests itself as a perpetual desire to expose his buttocks to her.

WHY IT'S HERE: An early short by John R. Dilworth, creator of the popular Cartoon Network show 'Courage the Cowardly Dog', 'The Dirdy Birdy' is a ludicrously silly and hysterically funny short that became a big cult hit. The premise, in which a bird repeatedly exposes his buttocks to a cat, is simple and repetitive and therein lies the humour. The numerous exposures are all accompanied by an annoyingly catchy little tune which starts the moment the bird's buttocks appear and ends abruptly each time the cat violently disposes of it. Aside from the great comedy timing, Dilworth also shows a knack for character, with the wearily irritable cat particularly shining as a representation of subjects of unrequited love. At just over seven minutes, 'The Dirdy Birdy' is just about the right length to not overstay its welcome while also wringing the maximum number of laughs out of its premise.

DIR: Mikhail Aldashin

SUMMARY: Two worms discover the dangers of the world above ground when they cross over to 'the other side'.

WHY IT'S HERE: Russian director Mikhail Aldashin's 'The Other Side' is a delightful look at the world of worms. It begins with two worms meeting underground and becoming friends. Their tunnelling forms elaborate patterns and shapes until they eventually emerge above ground. But danger lurks there in the form of predatory birds. Terrified of being eaten, one worm closes up the passage and reasons that tunnelling in the opposite direction will be safer. 'The Other Side' presents us with a no-win situation for its protagonists, who must choose between either a life of underground seclusion or a world of danger in the brighter, more appealing outside world. The simple animation does a wonderful job of differentiating the two worlds and the story is told with great humour. What the viewer takes away from it philosophically speaking is very much a matter for the individual but Aldashin's intention in this respect is unclear, perhaps purposefully so.

DIR: Alison De Vere

SUMMARY: The Greek legend of Psyche, a woman so beautiful that she ignited the jealousy of goddess Aphrodite, and Aphrodite's son Eros who was sent to kill her but fell for her instead.

WHY IT'S HERE: Alison De Vere's 'Psyche and Eros' is a visually beautiful retelling of the Greek myth which silently tells the tale across twenty-five minutes. Based on drawings by her then-husband, German painter Karl Weschke, 'Psyche and Eros' is animated with the obvious passion and love for the medium that is evident in all of De Vere's work. While it is an excellent piece of work and is often celebrated as one of her most visually rich films, in some ways it is a disappointment to see De Vere adapting a classic instead of building on her own exquisite ideas which gave us such classics as 'Café Bar' and 'The Black Dog'. But for those like myself who find Greek mythology fascinating, 'Psyche and Eros' is a superb animation and well worth twenty-five minutes of your time.

DIR: Nick Park

SUMMARY: Wallace and Gromit's window-cleaning service inadvertently draws them into a dastardly plot involving sheep rustlers, dog food and a small sheep called Shaun.

WHY IT'S HERE: While the third Wallace and Gromit film fails to improve on their second outing, 'The Wrong Trousers' (few things could), it comes about as close as imaginable. Nick Park has pulled out all the stops to create a truly show-stopping short film and he was rewarded for his efforts with another Oscar. While 'The Wrong Trousers' was a deft, detailed Film Noir parody, 'A Close Shave' tackles the Caper film. Again, Park packs more plot and inspired set pieces into half an hour than should feasibly be possible. Featuring another intricate plot culminating in an exciting action set piece, 'A Close Shave' not only cemented Wallace and Gromit's place in the nation's hearts but also introduced a new character who would go on to stardom in his own right. The little sheep, Shaun, would eventually be given his own acclaimed series and feature film, making him Aardman's most successful character yet, even if 'Wallace and Gromit' will always hold the title of most iconic.

DIR: Peter Peake

SUMMARY: Pib and Pog are two characters on a pre-school TV show but their antics are distinctly more violent than you'd expect.

WHY IT'S HERE: Peter Peake's 'Pib and Pog', a cult animation for Aardman, is a wonderfully funny little film in which two characters on a pre-school TV show wage an ongoing war which escalates as their attacks on each other quickly become more and more violent. The simple idea is kept fresh throughout the six minute runtime by the sheer audacity of the premise and by the priceless reactions of Joanna Wake as the unseen narrator, who captures the patronising mannerisms of bad children's shows perfectly. A final twist at the end of the film turns into something of a double bluff, ending a hilarious film on an appropriately big laugh. Pib and Pog were popular enough to briefly star in their own series of adverts for Dairylea, followed by a revival in 2006 for a short series of distinctly adult films, particularly 'Daddy's Study', in which the pair find a pornographic DVD!

DIR: Michaela Pavlatova

SUMMARY: A series of repetitive rituals begin to break down when they inadvertently cross-over with each other.

WHY IT'S HERE: Czech animator Michaela Pavlatova's absolutely superb 'Repete' examines the drudgery of repetitive routines, both literal and symbolic. An opening sequence of sexual intercourse between humans and bugs sets the repetitive rhythm and then an insistent musical backing begins and we see a man walking his dog, a woman bringing a man his meals while he tries to concentrate on reading, two lovers being repeatedly interrupted by a telephone and a scene of unrequited love leading to multiple suicide attempts. The images go round and round but one little interruption sets everyone's rhythms off and the acts begin to cross-over. At first there is chaos, then it seems to give way to harmony, but ultimately new routines are established which are not unlike the previous ones. There is no escaping the drudgery. Despite its pessimistic side, 'Repete' is filled with humour throughout. Pavlatova's sweeping camera movements and sketchy cross-hatched art style are perfect for the film and the exquisite use of music pushes a great film into the realms of a classic.

DIR: Anthony Hodgson

SUMMARY: A man tells a child an unusual bedtime story about a princess named Hilary and her best friend, a mouse called Linda.

WHY IT'S HERE: British animator Anthony Hodgson's debut short 'Hilary' is an absolutely hilarious film which is admittedly an acquired taste. As it is a student film, 'Hilary' uses very basic stop motion puppets and crude sets but they all add to the appeal of this dark little masterpiece. 'Hilary' is basically a monologue by the brilliant John Woodvine, who portrays a man trying to put a troublesome child to sleep by coming up with a fairy tale off the cuff. The story he relates is a bizarre, wandering and apparently unfinished narrative of love, loss and obsessive house renovations and as he tells the story, the man and the child wander through various fantasy sets relating to the tale. Although the animation is endearingly jerky, what makes 'Hilary' so superb is Hodgson's script, which never makes a wrong step in its drily hilarious storytelling. In Woodvine, Hodgson has found the perfect storyteller and his deadpan delivery hits every note exquisitely. 'Hilary', then, is a masterpiece of writing and performance which happens to have some rather lovely animation to go with it. It certainly got Hodgson noticed, as he went on to become a supervising animator for DreamWorks.

DIR: Chris Landreth

SUMMARY: A strange, pseudo-intellectual animation breaks down when the creations begin to question their own creator.

WHY IT'S HERE: American animator Chris Landreth's CGI shorts have been cult hits since Landreth first released 'The End' in 1995. Given that 'The End' appeared when CGI was still a comparatively new phenomenon, the intricate, strange creations and realistic human characters he has produced in this, his first film, are very impressive. The premise of 'The End', an animator's characters conversing directly with him, is a very old concept that dates way back to the Fleischer Brothers' 'Out of the Inkwell' shorts but Landreth has attempted to take it to its logical extreme, tying himself in pseudo-intellectual knots while slyly and purposefully opening up questions about whether the film itself is pseudo-intellectual in its process of questioning pseudo-intellectuals! 'The End' plays the sort of games that Charlie Kaufman toyed with in 2002's 'Adaptation', a comparison which becomes especially pertinent when the focus of the film switches from the animated characters to the creator himself. While it is undoubtedly clever, 'The End' leaves many viewers curiously unsatisfied. It sort of slips away on its own elusiveness, which may be the point but can seem a little frustrating. Still, as a taster for Landreth's work it certainly piqued interest and the Academy were impressed, nominating this oddball little piece for an Oscar.

DIR: Trey Parker, Matt Stone

SUMMARY: Four boys in a small Colorado town learn the true meaning of Christmas when they witness a fight between Jesus and Santa Claus.

WHY IT'S HERE: Trey Parker and Matt Stone probably had no idea what they were starting when they made 'The Spirit of Christmas' but it eventually spawned the huge phenomenon that is 'South Park'. The two American directors had actually made a film of the same name three years previously, which starred characters who were reasonably similar to Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny but with some differences (for instance, in that early short Cartman is called Kenny and is the unfortunate one who gets killed). When Fox executive Brian Graden saw the film, he paid Parker and Stone $1,000 to make another film that he could send out as a video Christmas card. This second version of 'The Spirit of Christmas' features characters much closer to those featured in 'South Park', this time with the correct names and death sentences!

'The Spirit of Christmas' is an amusing little short which is now largely viewed as something of a curiosity, since it spawned a series which developed the style, characters and humour significantly. The film picked up a cult following as Graden's 'Christmas card' was passed around and appeared online. Soon, Parker and Stone were contacted by Comedy Central and the rest is history. Although it has often featured some of the most sophisticated satire on television, 'South Park' has never forgotten its roots, hanging onto the crude humour, controversial subject matter and basic animation style that made 'The Spirit of Christmas' so instantly appealing. Parker and Stone have also often referenced this early short in 'South Park'. The episode 'A Very Crappy Christmas' is based around the idea that the boys themselves made this film, while the feature film 'South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut' features a fantastic musical number called 'What Would Brian Boitano Do?' which is based around a throwaway joke from 'The Spirit of Christmas'.

DIR: Vanessa Schwartz

SUMMARY: God's janitor tells the story of how he was directly responsible for some of the most important moments in the Bible.

WHY IT'S HERE: Vanessa Schwartz's student film 'The Janitor' may be one of the most modest films to ever find itself nominated for an Oscar. Based on an amusing, lightly controversial monologue by actor Geoffrey Lewis, 'The Janitor' focuses on God's janitor as he claims responsibility for famous Biblical moments such as the flood and the ascension. Although it depicts God as not fully in control and reinterprets key moments in Christianity, it does so through a comical and potentially unreliable narrator so only the very easily offended need approach the film with caution. Schwartz's animation uses pencil line drawings with a purposefully unfinished look, although they are often deceptively intricate. The janitor character himself is a wonderful creation who stretches and waddles around the screen with fluid but awkward movements. Favouring the less-is-more approach, presumably for financial reasons as much as anything else, it is encouraging to see shorts like 'The Janitor' get nominated for big awards, recognising creative ability over surface flash.

DIR: Chris Bailey

SUMMARY: In an attempt to raise money for an anniversary trip to Hawaii, Mickey Mouse applies to work for mad scientist Dr. Frankenollie. As a result, he ends up switching brains with a feral brute named Julius.

WHY IT'S HERE: After his theatrical comeback in 'Mickey's Christmas Carol', Mickey Mouse has made intermittent returns to the silver screen. 1995's 'Runaway Brain' remains one of the most bizarre and ambitious of these films. Unlike the featurettes 'Mickey's Christmas Carol' and 'The Prince and the Pauper', 'Runaway Brain' sticks to the classic cartoon runtime of 7 minutes and tells the story of a brain swap operation that turns Mickey into a rampaging, snarling and lust-crazed beast. Although 'Runaway Brain' received a controversial response due to its perceived nightmarish qualities, it is in fact a very funny film that should amuse children who are familiar with the tropes of monster movies. The design of the feral Mickey is one of the coolest creations Disney have ever come up with and the film is also crammed with loads of great inside jokes for animation buffs. Although it modernises its classic characters in several ways, 'Runaway Brain' also feels like a throwback to the spooky cartoons of Mickey's early days like 'The Mad Doctor' and 'The Haunted House'. Although it was nominated for an Oscar, 'Runaway Brain' was also Mickey's last appearance on the big screen for the next 18 years, a cinematic silence finally broken by the brilliant short 'Get a Horse!'

DIR: Karen Kelly

SUMMARY: A day in the life of the inhabitants of a tenement building, examining the stressfulness of city life and how it affects their behaviour towards others.

WHY IT'S HERE: Karen Kelly's extraordinary 'Stressed' is one of the most evocative and memorable depictions of stress that I have ever seen. Focusing on a handful of people living in a tenement building, 'Stressed' shows how they struggle to cope with the strains of city life, tipped over the edge by the slightest thing. With its astonishingly visceral animation style, 'Stressed' uses a variety of techniques to depict the overwhelming feeling of stress, contrasting it with a serene vision of what life could be like if we could keep things in proportion. Managing to remain resolutely unpreachy, 'Stressed' certainly feels like the work of someone who is no stranger to stress themselves, so vivid is the representation. In just 6 short minutes, Kelly conjures up the feelings associated with stress so completely that it is almost stressful to watch!

DIR: Barry Purves

SUMMARY: A retelling of the story of Achilles, Patroclus and their love for each other.

WHY IT'S HERE: Barry Purves's 'Achilles' approaches its subject matter from several interesting angles. It recasts the Greek myth as a story of homosexual love between Achilles and Patroclus, an angle that Purves teases out extremely convincingly. Even more unusually, Purves has chosen to stage the story as if it were being performed as ancient Greek theatre, with a dark, artificial set and symbolic masks and props. It works wonderfully, especially under the commanding presence of Derek Jacobi's superb narration. 'Achilles' is more confirmation of Purves's love and understanding of theatre, following his Shakespeare animation 'Next', his Kabuki short 'Screen Play' and his contribution of an animated 'Rigoletto' to the TV series 'Operavox'.

DIR: Phil Mulloy

SUMMARY: A man who uses a crucifix to repair his broken window is set upon by an angry religious mob.

WHY IT'S HERE: Phil Mulloy's 'Ten Commandments' series features is made up of ten short films of about five minutes in length, each of which examines a different commandment from Mulloy's distinctive, inventive and critical viewpoint; a sort of animated version of Kieslowski's 'Decalogue'. Shot through with black humour but featuring many cogent points about the dangers of simplified moral codes, Mulloy's series is best viewed as a whole but there are definite high-points. The second film 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Blasphemy' is perhaps the most incisive and humane of the series. A dialogue-free piece in which a man uses a crucifix to mend his window and is burned at the stake by a religious mob, 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Blasphemy' has an ironic and satisfying ending, not to mention a surprising close-up image of God's penis! With his trademark ink-blot characters, Mulloy makes his point concisely and convincingly.

DIR: Paul Driessen

SUMMARY: Set to the music of Vivaldi, we see depictions of four separate seasons, with events being divided across eight small, interrelated boxes.

WHY IT'S HERE: Paul Driessen's 'The End of the World in Four Seasons' is an ingenious, funny but somewhat taxing short. It comes with some provisos, the main one being to watch it on a decent sized screen since this is a film of minutiae, in which the action on screen is divided into eight small boxes. Events occur in different boxes at different times or sometimes simultaneously and the rules of how the boxes relate to each other spatially seems to shift occasionally. This is a richly detailed piece of work in which the viewer's eyes are constantly wandering around the screen to try and identify where they should be looking, while also wondering what they might be missing in other boxes. Ultimately, this is a film to watch several times in order to appreciate all the little details, although in truth Driessen's seasonal depictions are often less eventful than you might expect. Though it may prove as divisive as its miniaturised worlds, 'The End of the World in Four Seasons' is a very unique experience indeed.

DIR: Phil Mulloy

SUMMARY: A farmer whose crops will not grow is driven to suicide by the systematic deaths of each of his family members.

WHY IT'S HERE: The shortest of Phil Mulloy's 'Ten Commandments' films, 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' is also the most unforgettable. Given the comically violent nature of much of Mulloy's work, one might expect all sorts of grisly scenarios in this film but instead Mulloy looks at the message of the commandment from an unexpected and brilliant angle. The punchline is at once shocking, then hilarious and ultimately thought-provoking. The brevity of the film is to its credit, making a good point in a very short amount of time, which somehow makes it funnier as well.

DIR: Peter Lord

SUMMARY: The twin infant sons of a lord are separated at birth, with one becoming a peasant and the other growing up in a castle.

WHY IT'S HERE: Peter Lord's tremendous 'Wat's Pig' is another Aardmann hit, a cute but barbed 'Prince and the Pauper' riff in which a pair of twins are separated at birth and grow up into very different people. It's told almost silently and makes ingenious use of split-screen to keep the pacing brisk. Lord, one of the original founders of Aardman, had continued to make brilliant animated shorts in the shadow of the studio's breakout star Nick Park. Lord admitted that he didn't expect a film like 'Wat's Pig' to make its money back but was happy that the studio had the option to dedicate itself to artistic excellence now that they were making plenty of money through other ventures. Why exactly Lord doubted the commercial viability of 'Wat's Pig' is a mystery, since it is a brilliantly made fairy tale that should appeal to most audiences. The film got Aardman animated for its sixth Oscar and, while it is comparatively little known in comparison with the Wallace and Gromit shorts, it tends to delight anyone committed or lucky enough to uncover it.

DIR: Phil Mulloy

SUMMARY: A man and a woman who are tapped on a space station together remain faithful to their monstrous partners back on Earth, even at the expense of their sanity.

WHY IT'S HERE: One of the strangest of Phil Mulloy's 'Ten Commandments' films, 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' introduces a set of circumstances under which adultery would arguably not be the worst course of action. A man and a woman, trapped forever on a space station, have such reverence for their marriage vows that they ignore their attraction to each other and stay faithful to their cheating and abusive partners. As romantic and physical urges are repressed, they begin to manifest themselves in psychosis, with violent dreams and resentful impulses emerging in their place. The story doesn't end happily for the two humans, and yet Mulloy extracts the most unexpected and bizarre happy ending from the wreckage of the main narrative. A witty look at how detrimental basing your life on oversimplified guidelines can be, 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' makes a valid point by taking its examples to the extreme.

DIR: John Dilworth

SUMMARY: An elderly couple's dog must defend them against a malevolent space chicken.

WHY IT'S HERE: John Dilworth's 'The Chicken from Outer Space' is a short which ultimately spawned the Cartoon Network TV series 'Courage, the Cowardly Dog'. It has a very 90s TV feel to it, with the grotesque and the surreal (staples of 90s kid's cartoons) playing a large part but it is also very funny. The short's relative obscurity, despite an Oscar nomination, is due to the fact that it has come to be seen more as a pilot episode than a stand alone short, a tell-tale sign of how low on the totem pole TV animation is often seen as being, despite it producing some of the masterpieces of the medium. Since 'The Chicken from Outer Space' was meant to be a stand-alone piece, Dilworth kills off the character of Eustace who would later return when a series was commissioned. In this respect, 'The Chicken from Outer Space' could be considered as non-canonical in the 'Courage, the Cowardly Dog' universe. Nevertheless, the series contained a sequel episode, 'The Revenge of the Chicken from Outer Space', in which the title character returned for the last time.

DIR: Timothy Hittle

SUMMARY: Jay Clay and his dog Blue find themselves lost in a deserted wasteland made up mostly of scrap metal.

WHY IT'S HERE: American animator Timothy Hittle's Jay Clay trilogy stars a character whom Hitttle had been making amateur Super-8 films about since the 70s. A small clay man who owns the dog Blue, Jay Clay began his official trilogy with Hittle's 1991 film 'The Potato Hunter'. Set in a desolate-looking wasteland, 'The Potato Hunter' made no attempt to disguise the fact that its world was in fact built on a table-top and the result was rather reminiscent of 1970s animation icon Morph. With 'Canhead', Hittle stepped up the production values, creating an extremely effective update of his table-top wasteland in which all signs of artifice were gone. On this newly convincing stage, Hittle stages a battle between Clay and a metal Easter Island head which turns out to be a partially-buried monster. 'Canhead' was nominated for an Oscar in 1996 but lost to the German film 'Quest', a superficially similar film about a sand creature travelling through various wastelands in search of water. 'Quest', though visually impressive, has a ponderous and unsatisfying feel, while 'Canhead' played like a version of 'Quest' with a sense of humour.

DIR: Richard Condie

SUMMARY: A man who lives in a self-contained world is tempted to peek outside, with disastrous results.

WHY IT'S HERE: Richard Condie's 'La Salla' is a very acquired taste, perhaps more so than any other Condie film outside of 'The Apprentice'. Working with CGI instead of the hand-drawn animation he became known for, Condie has created a hysterically funny take on opera, in which the main character sings a ludicrous libretto written by Condie, translated into Italian and performed by the brilliant Jay Brazeau. 'La Salla' takes place in just one room in which a character (computer generated but very similar to Condie's handdrawn characters from earlier shorts like 'The Big Snit') has all he needs but is nevertheless tempted to peek at the outside world, with disastrous results. The subtitles for the libretto are absolutely hilarious, parodying awkward translations and keeping you guessing as to what will be said (or sung) next. 'La Salla' is a divisive short as viewers tend to find it either gut-bustingly hilarious or utterly perplexing. I am very much in the former camp and was delighted to see the film nominated for an Oscar, even though it lost to Tyron Montgomery's curiously ponderous 'Quest'.

DIR: Don Hertzfeldt

SUMMARY: A rabbit tries to adapt to his animator's experiments with various movie genres.

WHY IT'S HERE: American animator Don Hertzfeldt would eventually become one of the greatest and most influential animators of the 21st Century. His early films show much of this promise and, although they were thoroughly surpassed by the ambition and brilliance of his films from 'Rejected' onwards, Hertzfeldt's 90s work is still extremely entertaining, funny and clever. Hertzfeldt's second student film, 'Genre' is the director's least favourite among his own works. While its premise of a character being persistently manipulated by its animator is an unoriginal idea explored countless times, Hertzfeldt manages to bring a fresh angle to the table that was missing from the likes of Daniel Greaves' 'Manipulation'. In 'Genre', Hertzfeldt uses a small rabbit character to examine a series of genre ideas. Title cards inform us of the genre the animator will be experimenting with, and then the rabbit is forced to react to various situations associated with that genre. The result is amusing and the jokes largely unexpected but the short gets better as it goes along. After rifling through several genres, the animator pauses, clearly running short of ideas. He then begins creating his own genres by ramming together bits of existing ones, making for some very strange experiences for the rabbit indeed. Hertzfeldt ends the film with a brief self-deprecating gag in which the rabbit makes his own suggestion for a genre. 'Genre' is not a groundbreaking or brilliant short but it is a highly entertaining early example of an animation master who can take an idea and squeeze every last bit of worth out of it. Hertzfeldt's simple drawing style, which would remain a trademark of his subsequent work, belies the wealth of invention that characterise his films.

DIR: Adam Elliot

SUMMARY: An anonymous nephew's remembrance of his uncle, told through snippets of memories and anecdotes.

WHY IT'S HERE: Australian animator Adam Elliot's debut film 'Uncle' sets the tone for his brilliant subsequent work, which includes some of the best animated films of the 21st Century. A quiet, thoughtful tragi-comic depiction of a nephew's memories of his uncle, Elliot partially based the material on his own uncles and his relationship with them. Although it is frequently amusing, 'Uncle' also maintains a melancholic tone throughout, incorporating details of suicide, loss, illness and depression into its episodic narrative. Elliot has always been a master of maintaining this balance between black comedy and genuine tragedy and his films capture the richness and complexity of life like few others. They are not necessarily upbeat and yet their forays into the strange bleakness of life are not depressing either. Rather, Elliot seems to see life as a thing of many layers and teases out the joy from within the sad and pathetic, such as the moment when his uncle's Santa costume falls apart and, despite a terrible quick-fix repair job, he pretends to still believe he is Santa anyway. Told with genuine affection and poignancy, 'Uncle' is a great start for a superb filmmaker.

DIR: Michael Dougherty

SUMMARY: Sam, a small trick-or-treater to whom Halloween is of the utmost importance, encounters a shadowy figure in a dark alleyway.

WHY IT'S HERE: Horror director Michael Dougherty made the short animation 'Season's Greetings' as a student film and a precursor to his 2007 live-action film 'Trick 'r Treat'. 'Season's Greetings' introduces Sam, a little trick-or-treater who takes Halloween very seriously and who featured throughout 'Trick 'r Treat' as an attempt to create an official mascot for the holiday. Dougherty introduces the character as a deceptively cute little kid but across the short's four minutes it quickly becomes apparent that there is something a little unusual about this particular Halloween visitor. Animated with a charming simplicity, 'Season's Greetings' has become a cult hit thanks to the cult success of its live-action successor.

DIR: Bill Plympton

SUMMARY: An animated guide to choosing, seducing and finally making love to a woman.

WHY IT'S HERE: Another of Bill Plympton's spoof instructional shorts, 'How to Make Love to a Woman' builds on his earlier short on kissing, taking things to a more explicit place. As Plympton's reputation as an animator grew, the sexual content of his films also began to increase. In some cases, this resulted in very funny satires on the ludicrousness of human sexuality, while at other times it just felt gratuitous (for examples of both extremes, see Plympton's brilliant feature film 'I Married a Strange Person' and the abysmally over-the-top follow-up feature 'Mutant Aliens'). In the case of 'How to Make Love to a Woman', Plympton is having some obvious fun with the strangeness and joys and sex, as his characters shape-shift and contort in the name of pleasure. Daniel Kaufman's high-toned narration is memorably creepy in its initially detached but eventually exalting delivery. This short was subsequently incorporated into Plympton's full-length feature 'I Married a Strange Person', a brilliant film which features many more inventively dirty scenes of animated intercourse.

DIR: Seth MacFarlane

SUMMARY: An intelligent dog named Steve is adopted by Larry, the only human being who can understand what he says. Unfortunately, he is also a dangerously clumsy idiot.

WHY IT'S HERE: Seth MacFarlane's 'Family Guy' would eventually become one of the biggest phenomena in the adult animation boom of the late 20th century. Wildly popular, 'Family Guy' is a sometimes very funny but largely frustrating series which relies on a barrage of pop-culture references, cutaway gags and shock humour for most of its appeal. Prior to the production of 'Family Guy', Seth MacFarlane made two shorts that directly relate to its development. The first, the student film 'The Life of Larry', follows a similar formula to 'Family Guy' but the second, the much more interesting 'Larry & Steve', recasts the premise as a high-energy, slapstick but intelligent children's show. 'Larry and Steve' stars Peter Griffin prototype Larry and his dog, Brian Griffin prototype Steve. 'Larry & Steve' follows Steve's adoption from the dog pound by Larry, something which ultimately proves to be more life-threatening that the impending euthanasia of the pound when a simple trip to a furniture store becomes a scene of mass destruction. 'Larry & Steve' is a very funny film indeed and is refreshingly free from the irritating meanderings and tired shock value of 'Family Guy'. It's nice to watch MacFarlane's amusing dialogue and frantic slapstick unfold without having to worry about a vile rape joke being around the corner. Aired as part of Cartoon Network's 'What a Cartoon' show, 'Larry & Steve' was sadly not picked up for a full series, but it did lead to the creation of 'Family Guy'. Fans of the series may spot an early version of Quagmire and a furniture store called Stewie's among the noteworthy precursors in 'Larry & Steve'.

DIR: Joanna Quinn

SUMMARY: When their family cat Fred dies from cat flu, two children learn that he was actually a famous rock 'n' roll star.

WHY IT'S HERE: Based on Posy Simmonds' picture book 'Fred', 'Famous Fred' is a charming children's short about the death of a beloved household cat who held a secret double life as a rock 'n' roll star. Beginning with Fred's burial, 'Famous Fred' then proceeds to chart his rise to fame in flashback, as a congregation of cats gather to mourn the loss. Lenny Henry provides Fred's singing voice but the film is stolen by Tom Courtenay as the family hamster and Fred's manager Kenneth. 'Famous Fred' combines a cosy storybook atmosphere with the vibrant energy of a musical extravaganza, resulting in an unmissable treat that was originally shown during the Christmas period and which I regularly seek out every year when it tends to be buried somewhere in the schedules. For Joanna Quinn, this was something of a stylistic shift but she interprets Simmonds' material perfectly, maintaining the original designs but adding much of her own energy evident in previous films like 'Girl's Night Out' and 'Britannia'.

DIR: Mike Booth

SUMMARY: A saintly figure in a state of pious bliss is inspected by a robotic bureaucrat.

WHY IT'S HERE: Mike Booth's stop-motion short 'The Saint Inspector' is a wonderful five minute short which at first seems to criticise bureaucratic interference with anything and everything, no matter how sacred they are to the individual. However, with its unexpected final image it becomes something more; a criticism of how religions themselves have become as regimented and coldly reproduced as the official attentions they endure. While this image gives the film more weight, for the most part it plays out as an amusing but disturbing depiction of the intrusive attentions of a probing state.

DIR: Pedro Serrazina

SUMMARY: A cat longs for the moon but its of its desires pursuit seem to be in vain.

WHY IT'S HERE: Portuguese animator Pedro Serrazina's 'Tale About the Cat and the Moon' is a bewitching short which uses the seemingly simple interplay between black and white to weave its magic. Although it was originally made in Portuguese, I would recommend that English speaking viewers seek out the English version. This is not usually the recommendation I'd make but in the case of 'Tale About the Cat and the Moon' the sound of the poem that accompanies the animation is so important, as is the focus on the visuals on screen, and in this case subtitles detract from the experience. 'Tale About the Cat and the Moon' really is an experience too, its fluidity an astonishingly beautiful thing to be a part of. The intricacy of the interplay between black and white challenges the viewer's perceptions throughout. For the most part it seems to be a black cat we are watching but there are times when it could be a white one, which then throws into doubt the other images we have witnessed.

DIR: Sylvain Chomet

SUMMARY: A starving gendarme discovers he can obtain free food from an old lady by disguising himself as a giant pigeon.

WHY IT'S HERE: French animator Sylvain Chomet's 'The Old Lady and the Pigeons' is a terrific short which was the debut effort by an animation talent who would go on to make some of the greatest animated features of all time. Playing out like a sick joke, Chomet's debut short predicts the wonderful attention to detail and penchant for the grotesque that characterised his first full length feature, 'The Triplets of Belleville'. For the most part the film is silent, with Chomet's strange, sad and expressive characters carrying the whole show with their exquisite interactions. Small details abound, some of which give the film character and others of which end up playing a far more significant part in the odd but logically structured plot. The result is one of the best shorts of the 90s, a masterpiece that sadly lost out on an Oscar to Pixar's 'Geri's Game'.