The big bad cats are the villains/Indians, and the little mice are the settlers going west in their little covered wagons, and the Indians are on a rampage about it. Things look dark indeed for the settlers when the likes of Buffalo Bill, General Custer and Daniel Boone are unable to defeat the attacking cats but...wait...up in the sky...here comes the singing, flying mouse...Mighty Mouse. Not recommended for Revisionists.
This animated short from Malcolm Sutherland is an engaging dance of shapes and sounds. The "game" is played by opening the box, unfolding the board and placing shapes on it that you manipulate with your hands. There are no winners or losers in this game; the fun is in the creative way the forms unfold. Features a score by Luigi Alleman and music by Ravi Shankar.
This animated short looks at the building of Canada's transcontinental railroad with wit and whimsy. Engine 371 illustrates the struggle humans have with nature and how this fundamental tension united a country.
Popular children's illustrator James Marshall takes a turn at bringing his unique artistic style to several well-known fairy tales. These five animated stories, including some retold by modern writers with entertaining twists, will enchant children and delight parents.
Family - The actual Declaration of Independence has been rolled up, moved, hidden, copied and transported many times since its signing in 1776. In this witty and factual history, audiences will learn about the document that has defined American freedom.
Art class is over, but Vashti is sitting glued to her chair in front of a blank piece of paper. The words of her teacher are a gentle invitation to express herself. But Vashti can’t draw - she’s no artist. To prove her point, Vashti jabs at a blank sheet of paper to make an unremarkable and angry mark. "There!" she says. That one little dot marks the beginning of Vashti’s journey of surprise and self-discovery. That special moment is the core of Peter H. Reynolds’s delicate fable about the creative spirit in all of us.
It starts off as an ordinary class trip to the farm - boring, kind of dull. But before very long, chaos takes over as one zany incident leads to another, even zanier, one. Soon the entire farm is uproariously out of control.
In this animated contemporary interpretation of a Hans Christian Andersen morality tale, a pair of magic slippers help two young African-American girls learn the value of friendship after they are divided by selfishness and jealousy.
In this classic fable, a hen asks help with chores from other farm animals. None of the animals want to help do work, but they all want to share the fruits of the hen's labor.
Miss Nelson goes away for a week, and the kids in Room 207 fear that they'll have the dreaded substitute teacher, Viola Swamp. Instead, they get Principal Blandsworth, who bores them into taking drastic measures.
Who hasn't felt apprehensive at the thought of starting high school? This is the central theme of this short animated film. Playing on imagination and humour, the director offers viewers a thought provoking piece dealing with the transition that young people between the ages of 10 and 13 experience. Inspired by the work of Escher and Magritte, Catherine Arcand has created a graphically rich film through optical illusions and trompe-l'oeil effects. Her style aptly illustra tes the theme of perceptions and is perfectly suited to conveying the dream world into which the film takes us.
Few words pack a lot of punch in this delightful story about bedtime rituals. There will be no pouting or shouting or moping or moaning when the lights go out because dinosaur kids everywhere will want to see this production again and again.