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25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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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

Short and Sweet

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

Starless Night in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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

Circleoflife in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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

Inspace in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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

Sioen At A Glance in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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.

Amv in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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

Rainbow in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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.

Tel in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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.

Illuminations in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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.

Doll Face in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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.

Herrbar in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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.

Seasons in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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.

Photo in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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

Ted in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

Typography

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

Fubiz in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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.

Fullmetall in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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

Handwriting in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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

Jed in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

Justice DVNO
Typographic motion design by design agency Machinemolle.

Colors in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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

Oceans Eleven in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

Funny Cartoons

Cane Toad
What the hell happened to Baz?

Cane Toad in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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

Gopher in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

In the Rough
A cartoon created by the Blur Studio.

In The Rough in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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

Bananas in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

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.

Robinhood1 in 25 Brilliant Animated Short Movies

Further Movies

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  1. 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. 2
    Arnaud
    March 3rd, 2008 2:26 am

    Whooo !

    Justice a famous group electro in france :)

  3. 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. 4
    superxtian
    March 3rd, 2008 3:24 am

    Love it! thanks

  5. 5
    tewoos
    March 3rd, 2008 3:48 am

    great video collection… liked funny cartoons section so much…

  6. 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. 7
    Kultivation
    March 3rd, 2008 4:21 am

    you are just smashing… thanks again

  8. 8
    Fernando
    March 3rd, 2008 4:30 am

    You should definitely add this french short movie:
    - http://www.le-building.com/themovie.htm

    It’s unbelievable!

  9. 9
    Shane
    March 3rd, 2008 5:22 am

    Nice selection of animation.

  10. 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: The Animal Book … I’m hoping they get a deal soon so I can see the rest :-)

  11. 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. 12
    Praveen
    March 3rd, 2008 7:10 am

    wow…great list

  13. 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. 14
    Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
    March 3rd, 2008 10:18 am

    @Captain Hairy: you’ll find Kiwi in our article Funny and Creative Animated Videos.

  15. 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. 16
    Ste
    March 3rd, 2008 11:49 am

    First

  17. 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. 18
    sameera
    March 3rd, 2008 7:57 pm

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

  19. 19
    had
    March 4th, 2008 2:38 am

    space alone is the best in my opinion..

  20. 20
    oewd
    March 4th, 2008 5:34 am

    Oo-da-lolly!

  21. 21
    Tim
    March 4th, 2008 8:21 am

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

  22. 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. 23
    Mr Surbade
    March 4th, 2008 1:22 pm

    Great cool thanks, I like the blue one.

  24. 24
    Braintrove.com
    March 4th, 2008 4:15 pm

    Robin Hood is an all time favorite.

  25. 25
    Bob
    March 4th, 2008 6:53 pm

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

  26. 26
    microoweb
    March 5th, 2008 6:09 am

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

  27. 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. 28
    Edwin
    March 8th, 2008 6:21 am

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

  29. 29
    Bond
    March 9th, 2008 7:04 pm

    Space 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.

  30. 30
    Paul
    March 12th, 2008 7:36 pm

    Now how could you leave out “Heavy Metal”?

  31. 31
    jack
    March 24th, 2008 9:41 am

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

    http://sehenswert.wordpress.com/

    greets,
    jack

  32. 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. 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. 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. 35
    NARESH
    July 23rd, 2008 11:46 am

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

  36. 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. 37
    aga
    October 15th, 2008 3:55 pm

    This is my favorite short movie The ChubbChubbs :)

  38. 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. 39
    sandeep.hs
    November 24th, 2008 3:52 am

    moives of gopherbroke
    its good concept , charcters ,

  40. 40
    butcher
    December 10th, 2008 2:35 am

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoNmNmXExZ8

  41. 41
    butcher
    December 10th, 2008 2:41 am

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoNmNmXExZ8

  42. 42
  43. 43
    Brad
    January 13th, 2009 2:40 pm

    Has another killer animated short

    http://frozenbackgroundstudios.blogspot.com/

  44. 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:

    http://it.youtube.com/user/GuardianShortMovie

    I hope you enjoy!
    Andrea

  45. 45
    grace
    January 17th, 2009 8:13 pm

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

  46. 46
    grace
    January 17th, 2009 8:25 pm

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

  47. 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

  48. 48
    patrick
    July 20th, 2009 11:03 am

    I am teaching in Iraq – how can i download these shorts for my students to watch – internet is too on and off here.

  49. 49
  50. 50
    Veronica
    October 17th, 2009 2:36 am

    I love short films and animations and this post was a pleasure. Have you seen this one Milk of Amnesia by Jeff Scher

  1. 00

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