Awesome Animation

“What is my purpose?” You open and close airlocks. In Mattias Plhelde’s goofy, low-fi video, a spaceship’s door control system starts to question its role in the universe as it observes the unusual and imprecise behaviors of the humans it serves.

It might have an amusing title and a playful illustration style, but NERDO’s animated short is anything but funny, as it paints a depressing picture of humanity’s negative effects on the world around us. As people obsess with selfies, social media, and outwardly looking like they’re being “green,” the planet crumbles around us.

It took animator Guldies over six months and 2500 still images to complete this weird and wild stop-motion short film, which introduces us to a strange human/frog creature who begets all kinds of shapes and objects, all made out of clay.

Trip the light fantastic with The Atlantic, as we tour the fires we made 400,000 years ago, then move on to oil lamps, lighthouses, neon, flash bulbs, television screens, and OLEDs of modern times. The simple animation makes it all the more dazzling.

In the earliest days of animation, characters had movements which seemed stiff and unnatural. Vox explains how an invention came along that allowed animators to draw movements atop live footage, creating much more believable motion. If you haven’t seen it Minnie the Moocher has been impeccably restored.

Jack Sachs created this silly animated fitness tape featuring a variety of special exercise moves which are guaranteed to help you shed pounds, give you more energy, and melt inches off your waist! Advance! Now, Embrace the Void!

Stop motion animator Bebop loves to fix fake foods out of inedible objects. After delighting us with a LEGO pizza, he’s back with a some fried chicken – made from clay and one of those squeaky rubber chickens. We’re guessing even if you fry the thing, it’s still a tough chew.

An office worker finds himself the victim of a series of daily pranks by his co-workers. But in the end, the rage kicks in, and he gets his revenge in Damien Bastelica’s amusing and extremely well-drawn animated short.

Motion artist Thomas Blanchard’s colorful short film envisions an entire universe that lives inside of our eyes. What makes the vibrant visuals even more amazing is that they were entirely created with paint, ink, oil, and soap, without reliance on CGI or digital effects.

This amazing short film took animator Gooseworx two years to create, and the payoff was worth it. Follow along with a video game character named Runmo on his journey to discover the meaning of life (or in his case, lives). It’s a weird, wild, and wonderfully inventive look at what it might be like to live in a platform game.

(PG-13: Language) This darkly humorous cartoon follows the story of a group of imps living in hell, who start up a business to assassinate the living if the price is right. From the character design, to the script, to the voice work, it’s brilliantly executed from start to finish. From Vivienne Medrano, creator of Hazbin Hotel.

In this series of six short vignettes, artist and animator Lucas Zanotto shows us how even the most rudimentary of characters can convey emotion, so long as they have a pair of eyes and a mouth. Also, it appears that Lucas has a fetish for eyeballs.

Anthony Falleroni’s animated short follows a video game character who struggles with the difficulty of completing of the very first level in his game. We love the pixel art style, chiptune soundtrack, and most of all, the storytelling. His making of video is well worth a watch too.

Grant Kolton’s humorous animated short film digs into the strange realities of human anatomy, and just how freakish we all really are. So the next time you look at someone and think they’re weird, have a good long look in the mirror.

Fans of Nintendo’s classic 8-bit game will love this hand-drawn animation, which lovingly replicates World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. Kisaragi Hutae 6 combined paper cutouts and line drawings in his notebook to create this awesome little stop-motion short.

Husband and wife design team Gareth Smith & Jenny Lee’s typographic short film plays a clever visual trick, simulating the physics of what might happen if all of the letters on advertising signage started to break loose from their appropriate locations, and came to rest in totally haphazard ways.

Since 2015, animator Henning M. Lederer has been bringing to life various vintage books, each of which featured bold geometric images on its cover. After you watch the latest clip, be sure to go back and watch Part 1 and Part 2.

We’re doubtful that the makers of The LEGO Movie franchise will ever make a zombie movie, but that’s okay, because Paramotion Films has already gone and done it for us, with their extremely well-executed short film that proves that dismemberment doesn’t have to be gory – at least when it comes to minifigs.

A talented group of students from Supinfocom Rubika co-directed this charming and uniquely-styled animated short about a plush kitty who needs to get his anger issues under control, and who might just do it after he makes an unexpected new friend in the woods.

Visual artist Rogier van der Zwaag eschews digital effects for his motion graphics projects, instead painstakingly creating his images with practical effects, like the 4085 colorful rectangular blocks featured in this 2011 video for his collective Nobody Beats the Drum. Be sure to check out his tricky illusion videos on Instagram.

Léo Brunel’s (Voltige) award-winning animation is a silly slapstick short about a duo of buffoons attempting to save a skier trapped at the top of the mountain; but it would seem the man really needs to be rescued from his rescuers. The title refers to the kind of off-trail skiing which set up the scenario in the first place.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents another origin story we didn’t know we needed, as we meet a young Shaggy and a talking brown dog who quickly become best friends, eat lots of snacks, and go on to solve all kinds of mysteries. We’re not quite sure what to make of Scooby speaking in full sentences.

You know those animations they play on the screens at bowling alleys when you get a spare or a strike? The warped minds of DigiLuxe Recreational Video decided to make a version as told from the perspective of that final pin that takes its time dropping to the floor.