Imitation of Life
Synopsis
The animated work Imitation of Life conflates past and present by using outdated production techniques in a contemporary context. Through a laborious process, Poledna produced 5,000 handmade sketches, layouts, animation drawings, watercolor backgrounds, and ink-rendered animation cells in order to create this three-minute film. He collaborated with members of the original Walt Disney animation team to design the cartoon, which stars an exuberant singing and dancing donkey in a fairy-tale forest and channels the early-20th-century animations of the so-called Golden Age of animation. Poledna also rearranged and re-recorded the 1935 song “I’ve Got a Feelin’ You’re Foolin’” with a full orchestra for the film’s soundtrack. Poledna’s painstakingly finished work is entirely convincing as an animation from the 1930s, yet the sense of nostalgia it induces is fundamentally and powerfully artificial.
You might also like

The short-tempered Daffy Duck must improvise madly as the backgrounds, his costumes, the soundtrack, even his physical form, shifts and changes at the whim of the animator.
Duck Amuck

Bugs Bunny single handedly takes on the “Gas-House Gorillas,” a baseball team of hulking, cigar-chomping bullies.
Baseball Bugs

This fantastical movie inspired by the music of Michael Jackson features imaginative interpretations of hit tracks from the iconic 1987 album “Bad”.
Moonwalker

Whether we’re young or forever young at heart, the Hundred Acre Wood calls to that place in each of us that still believes in magic. Join pals Pooh, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Rabbit, Tigger and Christopher Robin as they enjoy their days together and sing their way through adventures.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Inside of his book, adventurous Harold can make anything come to life simply by drawing it. After he grows up and draws himself off the book's pages and into the physical world, Harold finds he has a lot to learn about real life.
Harold and the Purple Crayon

Mickey, Minnie, Horace Horsecollar, and Clarabelle Cow go on a musical wagon ride until Peg-Leg Pete tries to run them off the road.
Get a Horse!

Santa Claus, Mickey Mouse and all his Disney pals star in an original movie about the importance of opening your heart to the true spirit of Christmas. Stubborn old Donald tries in vain to resist the joys of the season, and Mickey and Pluto learn a great lesson about the power of friendship.
Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas

Created for Disney's 100th anniversary, the short features Mickey Mouse corralling a gallery of legendary Disney characters for a group photo.
Once Upon a Studio

A koala named Buster recruits his best friend to help him drum up business for his theater by hosting a singing competition.
Sing

The animated buddy movie follows the misadventures of Don, a runaway puppet with boundless imaginations, and DJ Doggy Dog, an abandoned plush looking for a friend, who cross paths in Central Park and team up against all odds for a epic friendship adventure in New York.
The Inseparables

Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life.
Waking Life

Animal pals Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria are still trying to make it back to New York's Central Park Zoo. They are forced to take a detour to Europe to find the penguins and chimps who broke the bank at a Monte Carlo casino. When French animal-control officer Capitaine Chantel DuBois picks up their scent, Alex and company are forced to hide out in a traveling circus.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Daffy Duck and Bugs argue back and forth whether it is duck season or rabbit season. The object of their arguments is hunter Elmer Fudd.
Rabbit Fire

The people of Hamelin, overrun with rats, offer a bag of gold to anyone who can get rid of the rats. A piper offers to do the job, and successfully lures the rats into a mirage of cheese, which disappears. The citizens, disappointed that all he did was play a tune, offer only pocket change. The piper, angered, plays a new tune that has all the children of the city follow him, even the new twins the stork is preparing to deliver.
The Pied Piper

Winnie the Pooh and his friends experience high winds, heavy rains, and a flood in Hundred Acre Wood.
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

Ordered to teach a martial arts class of rambunctious bunny kittens, Po tells stories of each of the Furious Five's pasts.
Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five

Fed up with all the attention going to Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck quits Hollywood, teams up with recently-fired stuntman Damien Drake Jr. and embarks on a round-the-world adventure, along with Bugs and The VP of Warner Bros. Their mission? Find Damien's father, and the missing blue diamond... and stay one step ahead of The Acme Corp., who wants the diamond for their own purposes.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action

By the mid-1980s, the fabled animation studios of Walt Disney had fallen on hard times. The artists were polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old timers not yet ready to relinquish control. These conditions produced a series of box-office flops and pessimistic forecasts: maybe the best days of animation were over. Maybe the public didn't care. Only a miracle or a magic spell could produce a happy ending. Waking Sleeping Beauty is no fairy tale. It's the true story of how Disney regained its magic with a staggering output of hits - "Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast ," "Aladdin," "The Lion King," and more - over a 10-year period.
Waking Sleeping Beauty

A workman finds a singing frog in the cornerstone of an old building being demolished. But when he tries to cash in on his discovery, he finds the frog will sing only for him, and just croak for the talent agent and the audience in the theater he's spent his life savings on.
One Froggy Evening

Four animal friends get a taste of the wild life when they break out of captivity at the Central Park Zoo and wash ashore on the island of Madagascar.