In this interactive DVD, Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha and Jade return to school from summer break, letting viewers take control of their choice in extracurricular activities.
Diego the bicyclist waits to check into the PGI hotel, where each room's inhabitant seems more bizarre than the last, and the rabbits on the top floor have discovered the secret of voodoo, using electronics and carrots. Can the rare and unpredictable night of the carrots save everyone, or will their connections to the room's electrical sockets restrain them too much? Will Diego find love with an egg that speaks incessantly in German? Will the cellist, who is actually a room full of a gelatinous substance, affected in some way by buttons labeled K, G, and B, have dreams that explain everything? Or will the audience just leave scratching their heads? Not all questions get answered.
A bumblebee (to a boogie-woogie version of Flight of the Bumblebee) is being attacked by flowers made of piano keys, flowers made of trumpets, snakes made of piano keys, the piano hammers hitting the "strings" of the sheet music, and so forth.
After hearing someone's "meow" for the first time in his life, baby puppy goes in search of the unknown beast and meets various inhabitants of the house and yard. On children's curiosity and the first acquaintance with the world.
This wartime publicity trailer by Norman McLaren focuses on wartime inflation and the role of price control. Single-frame animation is used with pen drawings made directly on 35mm film stock. Music is by Louis Applebaum, a leading composer and advocate for the arts in Canada.
This publicity clip for Canada Post is Norman McLaren's first film for the NFB. For this animated short, McLaren drew symbols by pen onto clear 35 mm stock, which was then superimposed on a photographed painted background. Benny Goodman's rendition of Jingle Bells provides the accompaniment. (NFB)
In 1928, Georges Lacombe, then assistant to René Clair, filmed the ragpickers who lived in the "zone". As his camera was stationary, he took particular care over the framing and he offers the viewer a document that is imbued with both realism and poetry. We even see the once-famous cancan dancer "La Goulue", sunk into poverty at the end of her life. - MHEU
Animated musical fantasy about a scarecrow that saves an orphaned girl from the evil clutches of a maniacal count. Brought to life through magic and love, and aided by his two sidekicks -- a cantankerous mouse and a flying broom -- he's willing to sacrifice everything to win her freedom.
Adaptation of Pushkin's fairy tales. The tale is about a fisherman who manages to catch a Golden Fish which promises to fulfill any wish of his in exchange for its freedom. The storyline is similar to the Russian fairy tale "The Greedy Old Wife" and the Brothers Grimm's tale "The Fisherman and His Wife".
Taking "Isle of the Dead," a work by the Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin as his starting point, Norman McLaren creates a deeply disturbing surrealist dream.
Whilst celebrating Lleu's 18th birthday, Lleu and two friends go for a boat ride, when they discover beneath the water the golden doorway to the Mabinogi (the Otherworld). They swim down and are transported back in time many centuries to the Mabinogi. There they encounter some problems with mediaeval life, and they have to deal with the conflict between fate personal choice and magic
Mankind's numerous ways of measuring the passage of time through history are depicted through stop-motion animation, from ancient sundials to simple mechanical devices, up through complex modern timepieces.
Andy Panda conducts the "Hollywood Washbowl Orchestra" (an ensemble of farm animals, on a farm) in the title tune. After Andy removes a frog from under his wig, he begins. All is well until his shirt gets stuck on a nail; while he's fighting it, the orchestra breaks into a swinging tune. Back under control, a talkative squirrel in the audience annoys the pig sitting next to him; the pig zips the squirrel's mouth shut. A bird lands on Andy's baton; he waves it, and 2, 3, 4, and 5 birds appear (apparently, his baton's become a magic wand). He waves some more, and the birds disappear one by one, finally replaced with a very happy cat. Two ducks dance as ballerinas; then one fox and one duck, but the second duck is not as easily captured.