Awesome Animation

A girl pining for her departed mother is taken on a wild adventure. The short film is named after the Mexican holiday where people encourage the souls of the dead to visit the living, often through festivities and recounting happy memories.

Microsoft pimps its upcoming racer for the Xbox One with this awesome commercial in which footage was captured by shooting stills from the game and speeding past them at 120mph with a camera bolted to a McLaren MP4-12C supercar.

(Gore) On a cold and dark night, a boy finds himself lost in the woods. A miraculous offer gives him a chance to live, but it comes with a price, whether he’s prepared to pay or not. Carn is Jeff Le Bars’ graduation film.

While it was created as a promo for fast food chain Chipotle’s Scarecrow app, this animated short encouraging sustainable food production stands on its own. Fiona Apple’s cover of Pure Imagination is worth the price of admission.

Flash mobs were all the rage a couple of years back, and they still pop up occasionally. While it’s okay to break into song and dance in the middle of a mall, Yankee Peddler reminds us there are some places where it’s better to not.

Bored with biology class, a kid starts doodling. Things escalate quickly. Made by Ornana Films, (notes on) biology is one of the best short films we’ve ever seen. Read what’s on the pages for even more fun.

This animated commercial for a Japanese lighter and USB drive has so many mind-boggling aspects. First off, it’s over two minutes long. Second, it looks like it was made two decades ago. Third, everything else.

A man makes his way through a forest at night. Growls rip through the darkness like the beam from his flashlight. EMCA students Olivia Blanc and Marion Delpech made good use of a wonderful art style to create dramatic tension.

YouTuber Domics explores the difference between the informality we use when text messaging, compared with the pressure we put on ourselves to have our act together when writing e-mails.

(NSFW) A man chooses to abandon the love of his life to join countless others in a soul draining task. Sound familiar? Myosis was made by a group of students from the Gobelins visual communications school in France.

Tom Yaniv’s daughter inspired him to make this visually-rich animated short film. It will make you think twice about cutting your kid’s playtime short. We don’t remember it being that trippy though. The song is Starálfur by Sigur Rós.

Donovan Murdock loves his coin. Do not, under any circumstances, take it away from him. Or at least wear a GoPro when you do. A hyperbolic homage to Contra and numerous other video games by Exit 73 Studios.

A musclehead and his greedy pal play a game of real-life Tomb Raider on a quest for a rare prize. Unfortunately, the tomb has other plans for them. An amusing animated short by Elian van der Heiden and Jeffrey Schreuders.

A seemingly deranged doomsayer cannot believe his luck when he’s proven right. A black hole appears in the sky, bringing an end to his forsaken existence. A brilliantly animated short film created by Hey Beautiful Jerk.

(NSFW: Language) Riichiro Mashima revitalized horse racing arcade games in Japan with Japan World Cup, a nonsensical horse racing betting game that combines CG animation with bizarre comedy. More here and here.

End of the Line is an upcoming 8-minute-long TF2 machinima. The trailer hints at a lot of action, but its creators promise that the film will have lots of humor as well. The track is based on The Glitch Mob’s Seven Nation Army remix.

(NSFW: Language, Crude Humor) Cyanide & Happiness’ profane and inhumane stick figures go mountain climbing. This is one of the times when going alone might actually be less dangerous than taking someone with you.

An over the top take on a first world problem: opening a pack of preserved fruit. YouTuber Octopimp added music and uhm, shook the images drawn by Stephanie Pepper. YouTuber DustyOldRoses dubbed the girl’s voice.

Depending on your perception of urban life, Louis Morton’s animated short will either depress or delight you. Animation and sound blend into a river of color and noise that’s as restless and relentless as its subject.

Aardman Animation director Darren Dubicki created this surreal video to promote BBC Radio 2’s tribute to Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side of the Moon, by playwright Tom Stoppard. Listen to the entire play here (starts at 4:12).

Animator Leigh Lahav has gathered the greatest television writers on the planet – Joss Whedon, George R.R. Martin, Dan Harmon and more – to collaborate on the most epic TV show ever – assuming they can agree on anything.

Before shooting big action scenes, directors often commission rough pencil animations to work out the composition and sequencing. Here’s some footage of an epic Iron Man sequence that never made it into The Avengers.

(Gore) Learn how to be a man Mann with YouTuber Dunk Movies’ inspiring video, featuring Team Fortress 2’s Red Team performing the song I’ll Make a Man Out of You from Mulan. Who knew the Pyro could sing?