Five students of the ESRA Bretagne school in France made this excellent animation about a robot who travels the American west playing his banjo for hand-outs. Trouble starts when he comes across an unexpected toll stop. I love the cartoon look of the landscape and the expressive characters.
What's an illustrated essay? Well, David Gillette makes lots of them and they are wonderfully drawn video expressions of personal opinion. This one's all about visiting New York City and what one can learn by doing so. It's fun to watch and may have you buying a ticket to the Big Apple!
What's this? An animated Winnie the Pooh that's not boring? Here are several Russian Pooh stories that are beautifully drawn, have fantastic comic timing and characters that are completely charming. These are all in Russian but it doesn't matter a bit. I was laughing out loud as soon as the first one started. This Pooh is a hoot.
Koji Yamamura has made a simply stunning animation called Man & Whale. It's about a headmaster at a school who remembers a drawing he made of whale when he was a small boy. The artwork is wonderful and the movie actually means something. If you have something to express, you make a movie like this. If you have nothing at all to express, you make something like 'Happy Tree Friends.'
Hans Bacher has a blog called Animation Treasures that shows complete background artworks from classic animations. He makes seamless images by stitching together screen grabs. It is unusual to see backgrounds from animated movies in their entirety.
