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25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

By Smashing Editorial, March 3rd, 2008 in Inspiration | 100 Comments | Forum

Beautiful animated short movies are excellent for tedious coffee breaks and uninspiring monday mornings. To put some beautiful story in a short 2-5 minutes sequence isn’t easy, but even in this case designers and artists are quite creative and manage to come up with very surprising and unusual results. The selection below is supposed to make you cry, laugh, feel bizarre or even shocked — in every case being absolutely smashed.

Let’s take a look at the collection of 25 brilliant animated short movies. Among them you’ll find funny cartoons, typography-related movies as well as artistic masterpieces — hopefully everybody will find something interesting and unusual for his/her personal taste.

Please take a look at the related articles

Funny And Creative Animated Videos with funny and touching animated videos and
Typography in Motion showcases examples of typography embedded into movies and videos.
29 Brilliant Music Videos covers original and inspirational music videos,
Graphics In Motion with beautiful examples of videos in which graphics are set in motion.

Short and Sweet

Starless Night
A short animation about a cat, a dog and… a sleepless night. Sweet!

Circle of Life
“Life constantly changes, as it comes full circle…” A finalist of numerous animation contests and festivals.

Space Alone
Everyone is looking for a friend. Even in space. A beautiful piece of art by the Greek animator Ilias Sounas.

At a glance
2nd single of 2nd album Ease Your Mind of the Belgian band Sioen. [via resfest]

Jasper Morello Animated Movie (AMV)
An AMV made using clips from ‘The Mysterious Geographical Adventures Of Jasper Morello’ and The Widow, by The Mars Volta.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Israel Kamakawiwo Ole’s version of Somewhere over the rainbow. It’s just damn hard not to love this song.

Artistic Short Movies

Elephant’s Dream
Elephants Dream is the world’s first open movie, made entirely with open source graphics software such as Blender, and with all production files freely available to use under a Creative Commons license. Quicktime-version.

Illuminations
The film consists of a choreography based on an original musical score. The movements illustrate a dialogue between the figurative and the abstract, attempting to find a mutual meaning and an affinity between them while at the same time emphasizing the polarity. By an Isreali artist Itai Froumin.

Screenshot

Doll Face
A machine with a doll face mimics images on television screen in search of a satisfactory visage. Doll Face presents a visual account of desires misplaced and identities fractured by our technological extension into the future.

Herr Bar
Epidermis ornamentation and a ballet of legs. Images of vegetation encircled by humming birds initiates a science-fiction-style journey into a surreal and meaty landscape. By Clemens Kogler.

Seasons
A fluent sand animation about Spring in the form of a beautiful young girl hatching from the ground. Singing nature’s bustling song of life, she dashes through the seasons until, having spend all of her strength in one go, she must once again sleep in the earth before being reborn.

Hold your breath - Apnée
Apnée / Hold you Breath by Claude Chabot is an impressive one shot sequence short movie. A photographer tries to capture an embarrassing moment of someone in the public eye, but he doesn’t realize that time is working against him.

Ted
The animation might be not the most attractive piece of art, but it perfectly blurrs the border between real and abstract motion.

Typography

Tenspace
A short movie created by a Japanese design agency WoW. Wow, beautiful.

Full Metall Jacket
Taking a famous scene from the classic film, Full Metal Jacket, typography is used to illustrate a heated dialogue between a Sergeant and a Soldier in a station bumper for AMC, American Movie Classics.

Handlettering Animation
A stunning handlettering-animation presented during the TYPO Berlin 2007 party in 2007.

Alternative Rugby Commentary - The Ten Commandments
This typographic video reveals 10 commandments of rugby.

Justice DVNO
Typographic motion design by design agency Machinemolle.

Oceans Eleven
Ok, nothing phenomenal. But the elevator part is pretty fancy.

Funny Cartoons

Cane Toad
What the hell happened to Baz?

Gopherbroke
A hilarious story of a funny gopher who wanted to eat some tomatos. Life is tough, buddy.

In the Rough
A cartoon created by the Blur Studio.

Bananas
Zach Parrish A greedy monkey gets what he wants… sort of. A short movie by Zach Parrish.

Last Click

Robin Hood
If you haven’t seen Robin Hood you haven’t lived. This is the opening sequence of the 1973 Disney animated version of Robin Hood. At 00:50 starts the best moment in the history of music film scores. Well, it’s not really short, but it’s indeed brilliant.

Further Movies

Published in Inspiration, March 3rd, 2008
Tags: animated, cartoons, movies, videos

1.

Mark (March 3rd, 2008, 2:24 am)

Please stop making posts like these… they’re absolutely brilliant and I end up losing hours watching ‘em!
2.

Arnaud (March 3rd, 2008, 2:26 am)

Whooo !

Justice a famous group electro in france :)
3.

Casey Wight (March 3rd, 2008, 3:20 am)

SPACE ALONE IS SO SAD

WHY DIDNT YOU WARN ME

ITS SOOOO SAD

HAVE YOU SEEN IT?! WHATS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?

…. absolutely stunning too.
4.

superxtian (March 3rd, 2008, 3:24 am)

Love it! thanks
5.

tewoos (March 3rd, 2008, 3:48 am)

great video collection… liked funny cartoons section so much…
6.

Ghina (March 3rd, 2008, 4:01 am)

OH MY! That Robin Hood opening song!
That’s my favorite song ever! I watched the movie when I was 3 or 4 years old, I already forgot about the movie but still remember the song. My father loves it too..

Long time no hear the song, and now you post it. LOOOVE IT!
7.

Kultivation (March 3rd, 2008, 4:21 am)

you are just smashing… thanks again
8.

Fernando (March 3rd, 2008, 4:30 am)

You should definitely add this french short movie:
- Link [www.le-building.com]

It’s unbelievable!
9.

Shane (March 3rd, 2008, 5:22 am)

Nice selection of animation.
10.

Helen Harrop (March 3rd, 2008, 5:58 am)

Space Alone is just heartbreakingly beautiful, sniff! This little collection will keep me occupied for quite some time :-)
I came across a short film recently that looks amazingly beautiful if the trailer is anything to go by: Link [www.secondhomeproductions.com] … I’m hoping they get a deal soon so I can see the rest :-)
11.

Hamish M (March 3rd, 2008, 7:03 am)

Wow, great list SM!

And thanks so much for posting the Robin Hood video. That whole movie brings me back to my childhood; I’m going to have to re-watch it sometime.
12.

Praveen (March 3rd, 2008, 7:10 am)

wow…great list
13.

Captain Hairy (March 3rd, 2008, 9:49 am)

I can’t believe that Kiwi isn’t here. Do a Youtube search for that one, it’s freakin’ fantastic.
14.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (March 3rd, 2008, 10:18 am)

@Captain Hairy: you’ll find Kiwi in our article Link [www.smashingmagazine.com].
15.

will (March 3rd, 2008, 11:30 am)

You’ve got a good list here but what about Adam Philip’s work with Brackenwood?
16.

Ste (March 3rd, 2008, 11:49 am)

First
17.

Rúben M. (March 3rd, 2008, 5:11 pm)

nice one SM ;)

love the robin hood video, nice to remenber again those times.
i saw that when i was a child .

continue the good work.
;)
18.

sameera (March 3rd, 2008, 7:57 pm)

Greate list guys, (as always ;))
Gopherbroke rocks ,!!!!
19.

had (March 4th, 2008, 2:38 am)

space alone is the best in my opinion..
20.

oewd (March 4th, 2008, 5:34 am)

Oo-da-lolly!
21.

Tim (March 4th, 2008, 8:21 am)

Always wondered what you guys will come up with next - this is great - thanks.
22.

Reginald (March 4th, 2008, 12:46 pm)

I completely enjoyed watching the 25 animations showcased. I appear to have developed a curiosity about animations, as a result of this.

Hopefully, in a future post, you could list 25 of the greatest animation showcased.

Great post!
23.

Mr Surbade (March 4th, 2008, 1:22 pm)

Great cool thanks, I like the blue one.
24.

Braintrove.com (March 4th, 2008, 4:15 pm)

Robin Hood is an all time favorite.
25.

Bob (March 4th, 2008, 6:53 pm)

50 seconds into Robin Hood: It’s the frigging HAMSTER DANCE!
26.

microoweb (March 5th, 2008, 6:09 am)

Whoooo!!! great work.. great videos!!
27.

maze (March 5th, 2008, 11:44 am)

Hey guys, your spam blocker (presumably Aksimet) blocked my previous comment on this post. Please release it. Thank you.
28.

Edwin (March 8th, 2008, 6:21 am)

Nice videos! Especially ‘In the Rough’ was very funny :)
29.

Bond (March 9th, 2008, 7:04 pm)

Space Alone made me think of the music video for “In This World” by Moby. Link [www.youtube.com]
Adorable aliens that make me sad.
30.

Paul (March 12th, 2008, 7:36 pm)

Now how could you leave out “Heavy Metal”?
31.

jack (March 24th, 2008, 9:41 am)

Hi,
nice shortfilms. Here is my own collection of short films:

Link [sehenswert.wordpress.com]

greets,
jack
32.

Randy (April 8th, 2008, 1:16 pm)

Good list, but you guys should check out the short animated film More by Marc Osborne. It’s a great piece of work.
33.

Matt (April 19th, 2008, 7:18 pm)

Am I the only one noticed there’s only 24 clips in this 25-item list?

Try doing what I did….count them over and over again.
34.

Theophilus71 (June 12th, 2008, 5:17 am)

i forgot to say this THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! useful for MP$/iPods..seriously
35.

NARESH (July 23rd, 2008, 11:46 am)

How to download the movies.????????????????
36.

rivetindia (September 22nd, 2008, 12:38 am)

Manufacturer and exporter Rivet, Rivet Machine, Rivet Nut Tool, Semi Tubular Rivet, Metal Rivet, Auto motive, auto part, spare part, truck part, Screw Rivet, Fasteners.We are Trader Exporter Rivet, Maker Rivet.
37.

aga (October 15th, 2008, 3:55 pm)

This is my favorite short movie Link [najlepszyfilmik.pl] :)
38.

Ignatz Horowitz (October 22nd, 2008, 6:09 am)

“Hold Your Breath” was just some load of crap with a guy in a hazmat suit. WTF?
39.

sandeep.hs (November 24th, 2008, 3:52 am)

moives of gopherbroke
its good concept , charcters ,
40.

butcher (December 10th, 2008, 2:35 am)

Link [www.youtube.com]
41.

butcher (December 10th, 2008, 2:41 am)

Link [www.youtube.com]
42.

Nature (December 29th, 2008, 3:02 pm)

Check out another animated short

Link [www.youtube.com]

Link [www.youtube.com]

Link [www.tcotp.com]
43.

Brad (January 13th, 2009, 2:40 pm)

Has another killer animated short

Link [frozenbackgroundstudios.blogspot.com]
44.

Andrea (January 14th, 2009, 12:48 pm)

Hi, I would like to show you my low-budget adventure short movie entitled: “The Guardian”.
You can see it here:

Link [it.youtube.com]

I hope you enjoy!
Andrea
45.

grace (January 17th, 2009, 8:13 pm)

illuminations is hypnotic & dreamy, the colors and the music inspiring
46.

grace (January 17th, 2009, 8:25 pm)

doll face evokes a sadness & longing that is frightening in its misplacement
47.

Doug (April 2nd, 2009, 7:17 pm)

Hi there -

Thanks for the great animations. I’ve been looking for one that I though was called “the plate” - animated short - 2 guys fishing from a plate balanced in the middle, one guy catches a box, other guy wants it - ends up one guy falls off and other is stuck on other side balancing box. Do you know of this?

Thanks much