Awesome Animation

Dario Imbrogno’s fantastic animated short film embraces, rather than hides the mechanisms that underlie the creation of stop-motion films, exposing the armatures and skeletal joints of its protagonist – and even the almighty puppetmaster behind the scenes.

(PG-13: Language) From writer Dan Harmon (Community, Rick and Morty) comes a comedy show featuring animated reenactments of Harmon’s tabletop RPG sessions with his celebrity friends. Coming to Seeso on 7/14/16. Watch the first episode on Amazon for free.

(PG-13 Language) Mylo the Cat turns his attention to Looney Tunes for his latest lip dub, mashing up Bugs Bunny’s wacky antics with the smooth prose and flows of Tupac Shakur’s final magnum opus Hail Mary. U.S. Mirror here.

The universe is under attack by The Red Empire, a race of robots intent on wiping out all organic life. It’s up to the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise to stop them. Jürgen Kaiser’s stop-motion fan film is an incredible achievement and a true labor of love. (In German w/subtitles)

DC’s animated adaptation of Batman: The Killing Joke looks promising, but it has a more cartoonish look than the dark graphic novel. Emil Gustaffson Ryderup gives us a glimpse of what the film would be like if it stuck to Brian Bolland and John Higgins’ lines and colors.

The black and white style of artist Mattis Dovier’s animated short film reminds us of the primitive 1-bit shading style of the original Apple Macintosh, but it’s the haunting science fiction story about a man’s disturbing transformation that truly lured us in.

Animator Cyriak’s latest creation was inspired by the world’s ever growing population – representing humans with bunny rabbits whose ability to reproduce and multiply is only exceeded by their ability to creep us out.

(Gore) “Freddie the Firefly, fried by a fart.” A pair of young possums listen to their dad read their favorite bedtime story: the alphabet of death by humans. Media Design School’s fantastic and morbid short was inspired by Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies.

For those of you who don’t have that awesome poster from Pop Chart Labs, here’s another way to recall some of the greatest – and oddest – video game controllers which have kept us playing our video games since their earliest days, courtesy of Super Deluxe.

A boy is kicked out of a train, leaving him defenseless against an all-consuming tide. CalArts animation student Ning Cheng explores the idea of being left behind in this surreal and dramatic short film.

CalArts animation student Linnea Sterte’s minimal, yet totally engaging short film looks at what appears to be a post-apocalyptic world in which cats are the only survivors. Fellow student Eddie Wright’s prequel sheds some light on what happened before.

A chameleon wants to ask a fellow loner to dance. But he gets so nervous that he keeps on involuntarily blending into the environment whenever he gets near her. A cute and creative animated short by Michael Trikosko and Andrew Wilson.

Kurzgesagt lists the major breakthroughs that have taken humans to this point. Ultimately, it’s a reminder that we all benefit when we communicate, cooperate, and preserve and share knowledge, not when we deceive, enslave or censor each other.

“I think creativity is a byproduct of not trying so hard.” Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2 & 3) spoke with the Oscars about her style of filmmaking, making art in her free time to keep her creativity burning and how inspiration can come from anywhere.

Humans and vehicles pack and overlap on streets, roads and skies, but everything remains sharply focused. RISD film student Conner Griffith captures the hustle and bustle of urban life in this incredibly creative and mind-boggling twist on time-lapse videos.

Given the similar subject matter to Voltige, we’re guessing the 3rd year graduation class at MOPA all needed to direct an animation about a duo of bumbling car mechanics. Jalabert Camille’s amusing short film is definitely firing on all cylinders.

Burger Fiction’s latest compilation looks at how far CG animation has come from its early days, but also how Pixar’s core values of heartfelt stories and relatable characters have been there since the very beginning. 1988’s Knick Knack is still one of our all-time faves.

Vuk Spasojević aka oOtoke’s video starts out slow for the first 30 seconds, but quickly turns into something amazing. We won’t spoil the fun for you, but it took him over 3 years of effort to get it right. The track is Halo, Džozefina (Hello Josephine) by Đorđe Marjanović.

King Regis of Lucis is forced to marry off his son as part of a peace treaty with the mighty Nilfheim empire. But it was all a ruse – war was coming all along. Now Lucis’ royal guard might be all that’s standing between Nilfheim and the rest of the world.

Forester’s animated music video for City, a song by Taiwanese band Sodagreen. A group of children are abducted and turned into infectious spies, turning their targets into accomplices. It’s like The Matrix if Neo was nature itself.

While it seems that most of the universe has already made up their minds about the new Ghostbusters movie, this LEGO stop-motion short from Digital Wizards is nothing but spectacular, paying tribute to the 1984 classic, and packed with lots of fun minifig cameos.

A young navigator and a fallen demigod go on an adventure to save her people in Disney’s animated feature based on South Pacific lore and culture. Starring Dwayne Johnson as the deity Maui and Auli’i Cravalho as Moana.

Method Studios’ presentation for the 25th AICP awards show features dancing computer animated models made of a variety of virtual materials and shapes. One of the most impressive CGI clips we’ve ever seen.