50 NFB animated shorts

John Martz | July 17th, 2006

The National Film Board of Canada has put 50 animated shorts from their library online for free viewing. The collection spans 60 years of innovative animation and Canadian filmmaking. As a young fan of all things cartoon and animation related, I grew up watching these, and it’s great to have them available for free for new audiences.

Some favourites you shouldn’t miss:

  • Cordell Barker’s The Cat Came Back
  • Richard Condie’s The Big Snit
  • The Sweater, based on the story The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier (an excerpt of which appears on the Canadian $5 bill)
  • Jacques Drouin’s Mindscape, utlizing an animation technique called Pinscreen.
  • Norman McLaren’s groundbreaking Neighbours
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  • Tim Tylor
    Thanks! That's worth knowing. :)
  • Classics! This is great! I haven't seen The Sweater in ages.
  • OMFG! The Big Snit! The Sand Castle! Juke-bar! George & Rosemary!

    This just made my whole month. Here's hoping they post more Condie works: "Getting Started" and "The Apprentice" are equally fine as "Snit". And those Canadian history vignettes. And that claymation one of the egg stopping itself from cracking. Gawd, this list could go on forever.

    Thanks, Drawn(!)!
  • Don
    Wow, this takes me right back to Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation in the 80's and 90's. I'm getting dizzy.
  • oh no..don't get me started,
    "And the cat came back, the very next day, the cat came back....they thought he was a goner but the cat came back...he just wouldn't goo aaaawaaaaaaayyyyy."

    That's right up there with, "this is the song that doesn't end"

    good times
  • Lee
    Thanks so much for bringing our attention to this! (I'm going to lose hours of productive time in there!)
  • E.
    The Cat Came Back remains one of my favourite pieces of animation ever.
  • The Big Snit is revelatory.
  • the cat came back is AWESOME! I found my VHS animation collection from the early 90s that contained it and it quickly became my niece's favorite repetetive watch and provided me with lots to quiz her on..."what did the man see when he lit the match?" answer "RATS!"
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