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The Animation Pimp: Shit Yeah, It’s Cool – Animation Shorts You Need to See

The Animation Pimp presents his list of cool animated shorts you need to see. Shit yeah.

The Animation Pimp

The Animation Pimp presents his list of cool animated shorts you need to see.  Shit yeah.

I Am So Proud of You, Don Hertzfeldt, USA, 2008

Faulkner meets scribbles in this tale of madness, mortality, and identity. Hilarious, confusing, painful, tragic. Will send shivers through your eyes.

1895, Priit Parn, Estonia, 1995

How does Parn celebrate the centenary of cinema? By attacking it of course. Parn uses the journey of Jean-Paul to show how cinema has impacted our perceptions of history, nationality and identity. Hilarious. Maddening. Clever. Rather sad too, really.

We Lived in Grass, Andreas Hykade, Germany, 1995

Young love and dick cancer told using an inventive, elliptical narrative, superb animation, and dazzling, violent and raw drawings. A harrowing, mature tale of masculinity in crisis. Hard to believe this was a student film.

Andrei Svislotski, Igor Kovalyov, Russia, 1991

The Robert Bresson of animation tosses us into the mysterious, fragmented lives of three strangers. It'll make ya feel dirty. And that's okay.

Crazy Mixed Up Pup, Tex Avery, USA, 1954

Doesn’t always have to be so dark and mucked up. Not usually mentioned as classic Avery but I be loving it for the pup's brief two step alone.

Son of Satan, JJ Villard, USA, 2003

Punk rock animation meets Bukowski. Broke all the rules here. Animation needs more Villards.

Hilary, Anthony Hodgson, UK, 1995

Sloppy, surreal and sad little student film about the beguiling life of Hilary as told by a father to his sleepy daughter.

The Hat, Michele Cournoyer, Canada, 2001

Dark, dirty and beautifully drawn film about addiction, love, seduction and emotional manipulation. It'll make ya cringe... as you should ever so often.

Broken Down Film, Osamu Tezuka, Japan, 1985

A giddy ode to old Hollywood and a kick in the balls to projectionists around the world.

Crossroads, Raimund Krumme, Germany, 1991

The animator that got it all it started for me. Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton all rolled into seven minutes of existential goodness.

Who I Am and What I Want, Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley, UK, 2005

A tragic, hilarious portrait of a crumbling man told with machine gun narration and luscious kiddie scribbles.

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, Chris Sullivan, USA, 1992

Blunt, bare and unpretentious film on the loss of spirituality, love and community.

At the Ends of the Earth, Konstantin Bronzit, Russia, 1998

Comic timing and geo-political satire at its bestest and funniest.

Beavis and Butthead: Animation Sucks, Mike Judge, 1995

Worth it just for the scene where the teacher describes the beauty and movement of animation as we watch a still shot of our two beloved twits. A loving ode to the frustration that is animation creation.

Koko, George Griffin, USA, 1988

America's greatest indie animator does Charlie Parker with torn Pop Art imagery in this exhilarating, playful slap to the face of consumerism.

Next, Barry Purves, UK, 1989

Shakespeare performs his work for a mysterious and powerful critic in this early film from the world's greatest puppet animator.

Girls Night Out, Joanna Quinn, UK, 1989

The "girls" head out to a strip club after work to unleash their repressed passions and desires.  Quinn's rough, almost punkish drawings aptly capture this unharnessed celebration of female desire.

Revolver, Filmtecknarna Studio, Sweden, 1993

The Fleischers, Victor Bergdhal, a minimalist score and domesticity are fused into a frightening, comical, annoying piece of loopy, dreamy genius.

Thou Shalt not Bear False Witness, Phil Mulloy, UK, 1995

Part of a series of blistering satirical attacks on the absurdities of The Ten Commandments. It'll probably offend you and that's good thing.

Smoked Sprat Baking in the Sun, Mati Kutt, Estonian, 1992

A fish opera! A fish opera! A fish opera! See it with Kutt's other opera, Button's Odyssey that features singing buttons and cows.

Please Say Something, David O'Reilly, UK, 2009

Takes a video game aesthetic and a cat and mouse story and squeezes it into a fresh and thought juicing narrative anti-narrative (or is that an anti-narrative narrative?).

Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor, Koji Yamamura, 2007

The Japanese masters' spellbinding adaption of a Kafka story about a burned out doctor's breakdown whilst on a call during a brisk winter evening.

Little Cow, Igor Lazin, Hungary, 2001

A cow sits in a tree singing about being a cow sitting in a tree. If you can't love this simple, silly ode to life, you should probably shoot yourself in the kneecap.

Teat Beat of Sex, Signe Baumane, USA, 2008

A very intimate, raunchy and personal depiction of various aspects of sex from a female perspective. You'll pee yourself, in a good way.

Chris Robinson's picture

A well-known figure in the world of independent animation, writer, author & curator Chris Robinson is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

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