This month, we asked a few people involved in visual effects and experimental animation what animated films they would want to have with them if they were stranded on a desert island.

On the visual effects side, Phil Tippett is the founder of Tippett Studios, the San Francisco-based effects studio which created the spectacular giant insect effects for Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, a 1997 Oscar nominee for Best Visual Effects. On the experimental animation side, Richard Reeves is a Canadian experimental animator whose recent direct (drawn-on-film) animated short, Linear Dreams, has been receiving rave reviews as it embarks on its international festival circuit. The film can be seen next at the Annecy festival in May. Finally, somewhere between visual effects and animation, Daina Krumins is a New Jersey-based law firm administrator by day, and experimental filmmaker by night. Her surreal films such as Babobilicons combine live-action and animation with tried and true visual effects technologies such as chroma-key and optical printing. Her next film, Summer Light should be completed some time this year.

Phil Tippett's Top Ten:
1. Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo.
2. My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki.
3. Baron Munchausen by Karel Zeman.
4. The Fabulous World of Jules Verne-Invention of Destination by Karel Zeman.
5. Nausicäa: Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki.
6. Beauty and the Beast (Disney).
7. Pinocchio (Disney).
8. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (animation by Ray Harryhausen).
9. Jason and the Argonauts (animation by Ray Harryhausen).
10. King Kong, the 1933 version (animation by Willis O'Brien).

Richard Reeves' Favorites:
It was hard to pick only ten films. For example, Norman McLaren has ten films alone that I could watch over and over. The string that binds these films is that they are all non-narrative; stories told on subconscious levels often inspired by musical or visionary experiences, using a wide range of techniques. These films inspire me...and with each viewing I can find something new in them. On a deserted island with only these films? It could be fun to project some onto rocks or water...

1. Mosaic by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart.
2. Particles in Space by Len Lye.
3. Permutations by John Whitney.
4. Motion Painting by Oskar Fischinger.
5. J.S. Bach: Fantasy in G Minor by Jan Svankmajer.
6. Begone Dull Care by Norman McLaren.
7. The Bead Game by Ishu Patel.
8. Lapis by James Whitney.
9. Clocks by Kirsten Winter.
10 Frühling (Spring) by Silke Parzich.