25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies
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.
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.
Mark
March 3rd, 2008 2:24 amPlease stop making posts like these… they’re absolutely brilliant and I end up losing hours watching ‘em!
Arnaud
March 3rd, 2008 2:26 amWhooo !
Justice a famous group electro in france :)
Casey Wight
March 3rd, 2008 3:20 amSPACE ALONE IS SO SAD
WHY DIDNT YOU WARN ME
ITS SOOOO SAD
HAVE YOU SEEN IT?! WHATS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?
…. absolutely stunning too.
superxtian
March 3rd, 2008 3:24 amLove it! thanks
tewoos
March 3rd, 2008 3:48 amgreat video collection… liked funny cartoons section so much…
Ghina
March 3rd, 2008 4:01 amOH 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!
Kultivation
March 3rd, 2008 4:21 amyou are just smashing… thanks again
Fernando
March 3rd, 2008 4:30 amYou should definitely add this french short movie:
- http://www.le-building.com/themovie.htm
It’s unbelievable!
alone
February 3rd, 2010 3:31 amhi fernando your film was good like you thanks
Shane
March 3rd, 2008 5:22 amNice selection of animation.
Helen Harrop
March 3rd, 2008 5:58 amSpace 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: The Animal Book … I’m hoping they get a deal soon so I can see the rest :-)
Hamish M
March 3rd, 2008 7:03 amWow, 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.
Praveen
March 3rd, 2008 7:10 amwow…great list
Captain Hairy
March 3rd, 2008 9:49 amI can’t believe that Kiwi isn’t here. Do a Youtube search for that one, it’s freakin’ fantastic.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
March 3rd, 2008 10:18 am@Captain Hairy: you’ll find Kiwi in our article Funny and Creative Animated Videos.
will
March 3rd, 2008 11:30 amYou’ve got a good list here but what about Adam Philip’s work with Brackenwood?
Ste
March 3rd, 2008 11:49 amFirst
Rúben M.
March 3rd, 2008 5:11 pmnice 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.
;)
sameera
March 3rd, 2008 7:57 pmGreate list guys, (as always ;))
Gopherbroke rocks ,!!!!
had
March 4th, 2008 2:38 amspace alone is the best in my opinion..
oewd
March 4th, 2008 5:34 amOo-da-lolly!
Tim
March 4th, 2008 8:21 amAlways wondered what you guys will come up with next – this is great – thanks.
Reginald
March 4th, 2008 12:46 pmI 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!
Mr Surbade
March 4th, 2008 1:22 pmGreat cool thanks, I like the blue one.
Braintrove.com
March 4th, 2008 4:15 pmRobin Hood is an all time favorite.
Bob
March 4th, 2008 6:53 pm50 seconds into Robin Hood: It’s the frigging HAMSTER DANCE!
microoweb
March 5th, 2008 6:09 amWhoooo!!! great work.. great videos!!
maze
March 5th, 2008 11:44 amHey guys, your spam blocker (presumably Aksimet) blocked my previous comment on this post. Please release it. Thank you.
Edwin
March 8th, 2008 6:21 amNice videos! Especially ‘In the Rough’ was very funny :)
Bond
March 9th, 2008 7:04 pmSpace Alone made me think of the music video for “In This World” by Moby. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtBnfJvf6eQ
Adorable aliens that make me sad.
Paul
March 12th, 2008 7:36 pmNow how could you leave out “Heavy Metal”?
jack
March 24th, 2008 9:41 amHi,
nice shortfilms. Here is my own collection of short films:
http://sehenswert.wordpress.com/
greets,
jack
Randy
April 8th, 2008 1:16 pmGood list, but you guys should check out the short animated film More by Marc Osborne. It’s a great piece of work.
Matt
April 19th, 2008 7:18 pmAm 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.
Theophilus71
June 12th, 2008 5:17 ami 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
NARESH
July 23rd, 2008 11:46 amHow to download the movies.????????????????
rivetindia
September 22nd, 2008 12:38 amManufacturer 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.
aga
October 15th, 2008 3:55 pmThis is my favorite short movie The ChubbChubbs :)
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?
sandeep.hs
November 24th, 2008 3:52 ammoives of gopherbroke
its good concept , charcters ,
butcher
December 10th, 2008 2:35 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoNmNmXExZ8
butcher
December 10th, 2008 2:41 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoNmNmXExZ8
Nature
December 29th, 2008 3:02 pmCheck out another animated short
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKcAbE7FlJQ&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYNcqWjeW9g
http://www.tcotp.com
Brad
January 13th, 2009 2:40 pmHas another killer animated short
http://frozenbackgroundstudios.blogspot.com/
Andrea
January 14th, 2009 12:48 pmHi, I would like to show you my low-budget adventure short movie entitled: “The Guardian”.
You can see it here:
http://it.youtube.com/user/GuardianShortMovie
I hope you enjoy!
Andrea
grace
January 17th, 2009 8:13 pmilluminations is hypnotic & dreamy, the colors and the music inspiring
grace
January 17th, 2009 8:25 pmdoll face evokes a sadness & longing that is frightening in its misplacement
Doug
April 2nd, 2009 7:17 pmHi 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
patrick
July 20th, 2009 11:03 amI am teaching in Iraq – how can i download these shorts for my students to watch – internet is too on and off here.
Thys Malan
October 14th, 2009 12:09 amhttp://www.aniboom.com/animation-video/400617/Attention/
Veronica
October 17th, 2009 2:36 amI love short films and animations and this post was a pleasure. Have you seen this one Milk of Amnesia by Jeff Scher
alone
February 3rd, 2010 3:25 amhi the world of animation is very better of world that we live at this ****************** && ^^^ $$$$$$$ ###### @@@ +++
s
October 26th, 2010 6:11 pmThe Blackheart Gang
http://theblackheartgang.com/
The Tale of How
http://vimeo.com/1516019
The Tale of How is the second part of a trilogy of works called The Dodo Trilogy. It is later to be flanked by The Tale of Then and The Tale of When. The Dodo Trilogy, in turn, fits into a much greater work called The Household. In The Tale of How we meet a giant octopus with a tree growing in his head, the terror of the Indian Ocean, OTTO THE MONSTER! His lonely pass-time is to devour the innocent dodo’s who lived on his head. We then see the dodos unite and with the help of a little white mouse, we see them escape the clutches of the terrible be-tentacled tyrant and sail off into the sunset on their mother the tree.
Fio
February 6th, 2012 12:04 amHi, I’m trying to find a short animated film about following the same routine as everyone. I remember the person or creature worked at a factory and towards the end he separates from the crowd and gains color (the creatures were all gray…I think everything was grey until he realized he shouldn’t follow the crowd). The music in the short film was heavy metal I think.
Thanks for your help!
Edit: I’m also trying to find a short animated film about “life” and it shows a man going up some big stairs and as he gets higher he gets older until he dies.