Eunice Macaulay

A whirlwind tour of first-class animated shorts, The World's Greatest Animation assembles, for the first time, an eye-popping assortment of Academy Award winners and nominees from the years 1978-90. From the Orwellian vision of zoo life Creature Comforts, to Crac!, a rocking chair's impressionistic view of the industrialization of Montréal, The World's Greatest Animation features some of the finest achievements in this unique art form.

A stranger comes to a peaceful village bearing gifts that bear a terrible price.

A magnificent bird performs for the Emperor inside a glittering palace. Its plumage is a blaze of colour. A blackbird, watching enviously, strives to acquire what he so desperately covets, only to discover that a golden cage can't compete with the open skies.

In an animated film sprinkled with magic and stardust, an impish little girl from Hades turns common assumptions topsy turvy. Lucretia is very curious about Christmas, a subject she has never heard spoken of above a whisper. One Christmas Eve she sneaks away and, after searching the galaxy, discovers Christmas on Earth in the company of a new-found friend. Based on the poem Lucretia by author-journalist Peter Desbarats.

This short animation based on a popular children's story by Robert Munsch tells the story of a young boy with a major problem: his apartment has become a subway station but his mother doesn't believe him and blames him for the commuters' mess.

A shy old man works up the gumption to meet a woman on whom he has a crush.

A short illustrating Wade Hemsworth's folk song about a woman's admiration for the agility of her boyfriend, the log driver.

The story of Samuel de Champlain's futile search for a passage to China in North America and his later founding of Quebec.

In this animated environmental parable, we find a people living in harmony with nature, until carelessness leads to the ravens' revenge. We follow a boy's courageous journey to the spirit world to find the only one who can save his village from the resulting darkness--the Lord of the sky. An artistic unity of form and content, Lord of the Sky is a dazzling combination of 3-D models, puppets, special effects and cut-out paper animation. Its intricate, beautifully rendered drawings reflect the natural environment and cultural heritage of the Pacific Northwest. The film speaks strongly of the need for ecological balance in the world.

A hapless husband neglects to clear the icy walk, which leads to the mailman slipping and breaking his neck. A comedy of errors results from his attempts to hide the body.

Silas Rand and Charles Leland first wrote down the legends of the great spirit Glooscap before the turn of the century. Since then, Summer Legend has been retold many times, but never more beautifully than in this colourful animated interpretation. It tells of the Mi’kmaq people in the cold white dawning of their world, and of how Glooscap battled with the giant Winter in order to bring Summer to the North.

A "cat and dog fight" film that also reminds us to keep emergency numbers close to our telephones.