Non-Disney Animation

which non-Disney (although they have some good stuff) animated films do you like?
specificially im thinkin of artier fare like spirited away, triplets of belleville, and waltz with bashir

Yes, indeed. Triplets of Belleville is absolutely brilliant. I badly wanted to see Waltz with Bashir, but I never got a chance to; also, it seems, Spirited Away eludes me every time I try to go find it at some store.

Actually, though, my favorite animated film of all time is Linklater’s Waking Life, a film that delves into such thoughtful notions on life that it just brings me such great joy to watch it.

I’m attempting to think of others, but I am having a hard time. I do want to see, though, Takakata’s Grave of the Fireflies, a film that I expect to be beautiful and devastating at the same time.

Savvy

Big Buck Bunny and Elephant’s Dream
Both are animated with free software and were released under a creative commens license.

Well, of course Miyazaki (My Neighbour Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle), but especially Yuri Norstein’s Tale of Tales, and the Quay bros’ Street of Crocodiles.

Films by Jiri Trnka, Jan Svankmajer and Karel Zeman (all Czech-slovak), and Starewicz are well worth checking out.

im definitely interested in grave of the fireflies, and i wanna c waking life, but i feel like id hav to see slacker first

Some people don’t take it seriously, but all Pixar films are animated masterpieces (excluding Cars, some are better than others). Check out Don Hertzfeldt on YouTube. Steamboy is great as well.

Miyazaki ANYTHING.
Also, there is a cute film that is by Hiroyuki Morita called The Cat Returns. It’s adorable and sometimes gets overlooked because it’s not Miyazaki.

Enjoyed, Big Buck Bunny. Thanks, Anti!

Anything by Bob Clampett

I just today got around to seeing Sita Sings the Blues and it’s fantastic (if a little self-indulgent in spots). I’m also a huge fan of Aleksey Budovskiy’s video for The Real Tuesday Weld’s ‘Bathtime in Clerkenwell.’ I’d like to single out Miyazaki, Chuck Jones and Brad Bird as well.

some more specific recommendations, lots of shorts:

The Mascot (Starewicz)
The Wrong Trousers (Park)
The Hand (Trnka)
Astronauts (Borowczyk, Marker)
Betty Boop’s Snow White (Fleischer)
Sciany (Dumala)
Night on Bald Mountain (Alexeieff, Parker)
Flatworld (Greaves)
Dimensions of Dialogue (Svankmajer)
Balance (Lauenstein)
The Cow (Petrov)
The Fly (Rofusz)
Jumping (Tezuka)
Composition in Blue (Fischinger)
Begone Dull Care (Mclaren)
Swinging the Lambeth Walk (Lye)

The Tempest by Stanislav Sokolov
Tale of Tales by Yuri Norshtein
House of Flame by Kihachiro Kawamoto
La Bergère et le ramoneur (The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep) by Paul Grimaud
Le Chat caméléon by Ernest Ansonge

Moomin Valley by Tove Jansson …

ah, i’m not sure if i’ve seen The Tempest, but good to have someone else recommend Tale of Tales. Norstein’s Hedgehog in the Fog is excellent too. There are so many goodies from Eastern Europe

Oh and Lotte Reiniger’s Adventures of Prince Achmed

Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo). Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata). Anything manga-esque really. But Akira above all.

I really like movies from Svankmajer and the Quay Brothers. I enjoyed Les Triplettes de Belleville a lot. Grave of the Fireflies is really heartbreaking.

@Kenji: I’m gonna check if they have those movies at my videoclub, I’m quite interrested!

Bob Godfrey’s “Great” – about Brunel – is fantastic, and I think he did a very funny one called “Kama Sutra Rides Again”, which had me laughing every time I recalled some scenes.

I always forget about The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, which combines both live action and animated segments created by Todd McFarlane.

The Cat Returns was 1000x better than its predecessor Whisper of the Heart. It’s HILARIOUS! I highly recommend it.

Miyazaki, Miyazaki, Miyazaki… don’t forget Isao Takahata! My Neighbors the Yamadas is one of my all-time favorite animated films, or just one of my favorite films in general. Also hilarious.

The Big Snit — Scrabble, sawing furniture, nuclear war, and problematic eyeballs.

Kim, i’ve not seen the Moomin animations but i liked the books a lot as a kid, and Tove Jansson’s Summer Book (a book, not animation, that is) is excellent. And i again don’t think i’ve seen the Grimaud and Ansonge. Kawamoto is impressive.

Gabrielle: most if not all the shorts i recommended are on youtube, if you can’t get to see them otherwise

Kenji, this might be an example where the book is superior to film, actually, but I loved the first TV series version that came out in Japan between 1969 and 1970. The animation is definitely for children but I think the book can be read at any age and I’m sure that it can be adapted to animation for a wider audience. I haven’t seen the latest film version and The TV series version produced between 1990-1992 (Finnish-Japanese collaboration) looks like this:

Groke

The Moomins family and friends

Original illustration by Tove Jansson

Here’s an episode that reminds me of the book more than others..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve1U9EbiZx4&feature=PlayList&p=970F4D557157BD1E&index=13

Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin) movies: Trust, Betrayal, and Reflection (and the Rurouni Kenshin show was great, too)

and

Tekkonkinkreet

Sorry for the mistype it’s Ernest Ansorge, not Ansonge. You can view it here
It’s in French but the drawings are nice.
Grimaud also made Le Roi et l’oiseau much later in 1980 based on La Bergère et le ramoneur.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki o Kakeru Shōjo) is also great if you like Tekkonkinkreet or Paprika, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Leapt_Through_Time

The Moomins was my favorite t.v. show when I was young.

The Fantastic Planet. Brilliant and trippy. In my opinion, one of the best animated films ever made.

Watership Down — absolutely gorgeous

The Iron Giant — better than most non-animated stuff that year

Yellow Submarine — this should go without saying

and almost anything by Ralph Bakshi. I prefer Wizards over most.

Sorry, the last name of the French animator I mentioned earlier is Paul Grimault instead of Grimaud. Glad Samantha mentioned the impressive Paprika which I would recommend for its sophistication but I’m personally happier watching something like A Bug’s Life by Pixar (but I don’t know whether it qualifies as non-Disney).

I personally thought that La Maison en Petits Cubes was quite good. It won the Academy Award for animated short subject this past year.

Tetsuwan Atomu aka Astro Boy by Tezuka Osamu

A robot with a kokoro débuted in 1952

WIZARDS or HEAVY TRAFFIC by Bakshi. Just watched COOL WORLD, and there’s some incredibly imaginative animation going on in it (along with some pointed attacks at Disney), but overall, it’s pretty dreary going…