Anapoda

Directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.

IMDB link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0045708/

Written and directed by Cordell Barker.

Description: This is the story of Mr. Johnson, a quiet man, living a peaceful life, who has the misfortune becoming the new owner of a tiny cute yellow cat. This tinny kitty however proves to be the devil itself and this whole funny animation revolves around the havoc the kitty creates in Mr. Johnson’s life and his desperate futile attempts to get rid of it. This one you definitely have to see and share with your friends and also a great watch for the kids.

IMDB link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0094847/

Directed and written by Bruno Bozzetto.

Description: Grasshoppers (Cavallette) is a sardonic look at history and make a very effective point about the ultimate realities and who the victors of war really are. The animation is excellently drawn and while the background music isn’t extraordinary, the action and the general message makes it well worth watching. Do not miss this ironic outlook at humanity’s troubled and violent history.

Seeing this animation also makes a poem named “Grass” come to mind, written by Carl Sandburg, which I will allow myself to share with you:

Grass

Pile the bodies up at Austerlitz and Waterloo,
Shovel them under and let me work
I am the grass I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg and pile them high at Ypres and Verdun,
Shovel them under and let me work
Two years, ten years, and passengers will ask the conductor,
What place is this? Where are we now?
I am the grass let me work.

IMDB link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0099696/

Written and directed by Michael Dudok de Wit.

Description: Father and daughter is an alegory of life and death and time itself, picturing a young girl that parts with her father who leaves on an imagined journey on a boat. Time passes and the girl returns again and again looking out to sea, hoping to see her father, and then she ultimately grows old herself, and in her final days she goes into the sea, which she finds to actually be a grain field, where she finds her father’s boat and then her father himself, symbolizing a long awaited reunion beyond the realm of life. It is a simple animation, but a very touching one nonetheless and it is also guaranteed to make you smile at least once.

IMDB link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0279079/

Directed by Ted, story by Edgar Alan Poe. Narrated by James Mason.

Description (jmcusack/YouTube): The Tell-Tale Heart is a wonderful animated short film of 1953 based on Edgar Allan Poe short-story. The story told by a mad man has a dark visual with a perfect work of narration by James Mason. It is a UPA Production and was the first cartoon to be X-rated (adults only) in Great Britain under the British Board of Film Censors classification system.

IMDB link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0046408/