Christmas Is Coming (1951)

Recommended

UK

Animated Short Film

Director: Lotte Reiniger

When Father Christmas declares himself to be on strike – complaining that nobody helped him out the previous year by posting their cards and gifts early – he has his mind changed by St. Peter, who assures him that “there’s nothing to worry about, everyone is going to post early for Christmas,” in this delightful and delightfully animated short film, commissioned by the GPO to advertise the final dates for Christmas postage. Iain.Stott

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Presto (2008)

Recommended

USA

Animated Short Film

Director: Doug Sweetland

Writers: Doug Sweetland, Valerie LaPointe, Ted Mathot, Justin Wright

Composer: Scot Stafford

A magician attempts to pull a rabbit out of a hat during a stage performance, but the rabbit, who wants nothing more than a nice fresh carrot, has other ideas, in this hilarious and inventive short, which manages to cram almost every facet of human nature into its brief running time. Iain.Stott

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The Tortoise and the Hare (1935)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Animated Short Film

Director: Wilfred Jackson

Writers: Larry Clemmons, Aesop

Max Hare (a great but arrogant, bunnyising athlete) and Toby Tortoise (a decidedly dozy, but endearingly earnest participant) take part in a one-on-one cross-country race, but the result proves not to be the formality that one would assume, in this mildly entertaining animated re-telling of Aesop’s fable. Iain.Stott

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Three Orphan Kittens (1935)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Animated Short Film

Director: David Hand

Composer: Frank Churchill

Animator: Ken Anderson

On a snowy winter’s night, three orphaned kittens sneak into a warm, dry house, and go in search of food and excitement, but precede to wreck the place, in this mildly amusing Disney cartoon, which was created as part of the Silly Symphonies series. Iain.Stott

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Music Land (1935)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Animated Short Film

Director: Wilfred Jackson

Writer: Pinto Colvig

Composer: Leigh Harline

A pair of star-crossed lovers – the princess of The Land of Symphony and the prince of The Isle of Jazz – make regular crossings of The Sea of Discord in order to meet clandestinely, but when their respective fathers find out, war is declared, in this mildly diverting animated short film. Iain.Stott

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Composition in Blue (1935)

Highly Recommended

Germany

Animated Short Film

Original Title: Komposition in Blau

Animator/Director: Oskar Fischinger

A series of coloured geometric forms move through a blue landscape to Nicolai’s The Merry Women of Windsor, in Fischinger’s delightful animated short film. Iain.Stott

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A Colour Box (1935)

Highly Recommended

UK

Animated Short Film

Director: Len Lye

A Colour Box is one of the first films, and Lye’s first, to use the technique of painting directly on to the film stock; here producing a series of abstract images, which have been synchronised with a lively piece of music from Don Baretto and his Cuban Orchestra – the result is quite delightful. Iain.Stott

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Broken Toys (1935)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Animated Short Film

Director: Ben Sharpsteen

Composer: Albert Hay Malotte

Cast: Tommy Bupp

A toy soldier’s arrival at the rubbish dump rouses his fellow dilapidated playthings into action; soon they are performing sawdust transfusions and eye transplants, all in order to re-enter the outside world and make their way to the local orphanage just in time for Christmas, in this mildly diverting animated short film from Disney (part of the Silly Symphonies series). Iain.Stott

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Mean Barbara (1987)

Cautiously Recommended

Czechoslovakia

Animated Short Film

Original Title: Lakomá Barka

Director: Vlasta Pospísilová

Writers: Jirí Kubícek, Jan Werich

Cinematographer: Vladimír Malík

Composer: Vladimir Merta

Narrator: Jan Werich

When the village school master discovers the body of a mean-spirited, miserly old woman, with whom he has had a disagreement, he decides to dispose of the body himself without alerting anyone else to it, but when the body is discovered by another villager the same cycle begins again, with the body eventually passing through the hands of half of the village, in Pospísilová’s slightly leaden but generally entertaining animated short film. Iain.Stott

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How Wang-Fo Was Saved (1987)

Recommended

France

Animated Short Film

Original Title: Comment Wang-Fo fut sauvé

Director: René Laloux

Writers: René Laloux, Marguerite Yourcenar

Composer: Gabriel Yared

Cast: Olivier Cruveiller, Jean-Claude Dreyfus

A Chinese emperor, raised in isolation with only a renowned artist’s paintings to serve as an indication of the outside world, sends for the artist in question in order to punish him when he discovers that reality doesn’t come close to matching the beauty of his art, in Laloux’s conventionally animated but thought-provokingly compelling short film. Iain.Stott

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George and Rosemary (1987)

Recommended

Canada

Animated Short Film

Writer/Director/Animators: David Fine, Alison Snowden

Composer: Patrick Godfrey

Narrator: Cec Linder

A lonely, plump, balding, myopic, middle-aged man attempts to build up the courage to ask out the woman of his dreams – the lonely, plump, myopic, middle-aged woman who lives across the road, in Fine and Snowden’s slight but charming animated romance. Iain.Stott

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Automania 2000 (1964)

Recommended

UK

Animated Short Film

Director: John Halas

Writers: Joy Batchelor, John Halas, Györgyei, Todor

Composer: Jack King

Narrator: Ed Bishop

Both hilarious and nightmarish, Halas’s cracking short film – in which the residents of the world’s major cities in the year 2000 live in their cars because there is no longer any room for them to move – proves to be a delightfully and bitingly satirical attack against consumerism and the bigger-better-faster-newer attitude that feeds it. Iain.Stott

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