Stories (57)

Antagonia
Nicolas Brault 2002 8 min
This short animation film takes place in a topsy-turvy land of ice, water and sky. What does the penguin think about on the barren ice floes? How can a cataclysm be triggered by its attempts to fly? We've all heard of the butterfly effect; now see what happens when a penguin takes to the air.
At Home with Mrs. Hen
Tali 2006 7 min
This animated short is a comical tale that pokes fun at motherhood. It depicts the temper tantrums of a child and the efforts a mother makes to set her son on the right path. You don’t need to be a chicken to relate.
Age of the Buffalo
Austin Campbell 1964 14 min
A vivid recollection of the free west of the North American Indigenous Peoples and the vast herds of buffalo that once thundered across the plains. From paintings of the mid-1800s, the animation camera creates a most convincing picture of the buffalo hunt, both as the Indigenous People and, disastrously, the white hunters practised it.
Adventures
Michael Rubbo 1968 10 min
This short live-action film tells the story of little raccoon who encounters many adventures when he strays from home to explore the world.
The Animal Movie
Grant Munro & Ron Tunis 1966 9 min
An animated cartoon to help children explore why and how animals move as they do. A little boy discovers that he cannot compete with a monkey, a snake or a horse by imitating the way they move. He can only outdistance them when he climbs into a vehicle that can travel in any environment, proving that the human capacity for technological invention creates a wholly different relationship to our environment.
The Barewolf
Valère Lommel & Joke Van Der Steen 2010 10 min
The werewolves that live in this secluded place are particularly savage: when not attacking anything that moves, they spend their time arguing and fighting. Driven by instinct, one young werewolf chases pink flamingos through the wild, straying far from home. Before he knows it, he’s in a place he knows nothing about: the world of humans.
The Boy and the Snow Goose
Gayle Thomas 1984 10 min
This animated short tells the story of a young boy who finds an injured snow goose and nurses it back to health. Constant companions through the sun-filled days of summer, the two sadly separate in the fall when the bird obeys the call to join its flock for the annual flight south. Will the friendship endure?
Beaver Dam
F.R. Crawley 1960 15 min
The great appeal of this film is watching the beaver at work, busily and cheerfully demonstrating the characteristics for which it is famous. Sometimes, however, the beaver's industry runs counter to the plans of people. When the beaver's dam floods their father's hayfield, two boys devise a plan to save the beaver from their father's displeasure.
The Bear and the Mouse
F.W. Remmler & Ingmar Remmler 1966 7 min
A variation on a fable by Aesop ("The Lion and the Mouse") in which a mouse aids a mighty lion who had once spared his life. This children's film casts real animals – with a big brown bear in the role of the lion, and proves that little friends can prove to be great friends indeed.
Balakrishna

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Colin MacKenzie & Aparna Kapur 2019 15 min
When an extraordinary new resident – Balakrishna, an Indian elephant – arrived in the town of East River, Nova Scotia, in 1967, no one was more in awe of the creature than young Winton Cook, who became inseparable from his mammoth new friend. Using painterly animation, photographs and home-movie treasures, Balakrishna transmits the wistfulness of childhood memories, while evoking themes of friendship and loss, and issues of immigration and elephant conservation.
Blackfly
Christopher Hinton 1991 5 min
This animated film about the pesky blackfly is based on the song of the same title, written and sung by Canadian folk singer Wade Hemsworth, with back-up vocals by the McGarrigle sisters. It recounts Hemsworth's battles with this quintessential "critter" during a summer of surveying in Northern Ontario.
Circuit marine
Isabelle Favez 2003 7 min
"All you need is food," the Beatles could have sung if they had been inspired by Circuit marine, a whimsical fantasy about our cruel, carnivorous world. To be eaten or not to be eaten: that is the question for a ginger cat, a goldfish and a colourful parrot which a tender-hearted pirate tries to get to live happily together along with his hungry crew. We can only wonder who will be the next meal on this ship of food. As the ship pitches and rolls to a sprightly gypsy tune, the cat relentlessly pursues the goldfish, and even the parrot gets into the act. But who is predator and who is prey? Everyone ends up down someone's gullet. Isabelle Favez's colourful and humorous film is a tasteful reminder that we're all links in the food chain.
Catuor
Judith Klein 1970 3 min
This film is about cats--actually, one very clever cat. The title is a play on the French quatuor, meaning quartet, but the chorus is not the usual alley-cat variety. The cat in this film is talented indeed. He is both pianist and piano, trumpet and trumpeter and, if need be, even becomes the music--a pulsing rock and roll--or a whole swarm of alley cats.
A Cow's Tale
John Tanasiciuk 2006 5 min
Does technology make our lives easier?

Audrey works away at her computer and she encounters a problem. Nothing seems to help: neither a co-worker's advice, nor the user manual, nor the help line. Stuck on hold, Audrey dreams of how simple life must have been before the age of technology.

This animated tale, with a real animal soundtrack, makes for a funny and witty dig at how little we've really evolved. A film without words.
Woolly Mammoth
Bill Maylone 1979 1 min
This very short animated film from the Canada Vignettes series depicts a large animal that lived on the Canadian tundra over 10,000 years ago: the woolly mammoth.
The Cat Came Back
Cordell Barker 1988 7 min
This hilarious animated short is based on the century-old folk song of the same name. Old Mr. Johnson makes increasingly manic attempts to rid himself of a little yellow cat that just won't stay away...
Cosmic Zoom

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Robert Verrall 1968 8 min
This short animation transports us from the farthest conceivable point of the universe to the tiniest particle of existence, an atom of a living human cell. The art of animation and animation camera achieve this exhilarating journey with a freshness and clarity. Without words.
Dinner for Two

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Janet Perlman 1996 7 min
When it comes to conflict, even chameleons won't change! Peace in the rain forest is disrupted when two chameleons literally get stuck in a conflict, with catastrophic results. Relationships are severed, opportunities are lost, innocent bystanders are harmed and violence seems imminent. Luckily for the lizards, a frog observing the fracas turns into exactly what they need - no, not a prince - a mediator.

Dinner for Two tackles conflict in a lively, humorous and provocative way. It shows that amidst the chaos that differences create, there are still paths to reconciliation.
The Dingles

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Les Drew 1988 7 min
Created by award-winning animator/director Les Drew, this animated short features Doris Dingle and her family of three cats. Sure to appeal to children of all ages, The Dingles shows what happens when an unexpected violent wind disrupts the family's idyllic life. The film is based on the book The Dingles, written by Helen Levchuk and illustrated by John Bianchi.
The End of the World in Four Seasons
Paul Driessen 1995 12 min
Animator Paul Driessen sets eight interlocking tales to the music of Vivaldi's Four Seasons in this animated short. Toying with traditional storytelling structures, Driessen allows his stories to unfold simultaneously in eight different windows on screen. Like Vivaldi, he uses the seasons to delineate the work.
The Teddy Bear
Francis Papillon 2022 3 min
It won’t come as a shock to you to learn that Iris’s and Cathon’s teddy bears are polar opposites! But who created this perennially popular stuffed toy? And did you know that a woman in the US has a collection of over 8,000 of them?
From the Big Bang to Tuesday Morning
Claude Cloutier 2000 5 min
Propelled by Claude Cloutier’s signature drawing style and absurdist humour, this animated short offers an overview of the evolution of life on Earth from rock to human, with some surprising twists in between.
Frank the Wrabbit
John Weldon 1998 9 min
In this animated short, Frank proves he’s no ordinary rabbit. He's a highly intelligent "wrabbit" with a philosophical world view that affords him great comfort. Unfortunately, his outlook is challenged when the farmer's carrots disappear. His quick wit allows him to survive and prosper. In Frank the Wrabbit, filmmaker John Weldon tells a deceptively simple tale with a subversive twist.
Fine Feathers
Evelyn Lambart 1968 5 min
In this short cut-out animation by Evelyn Lambart, two duelling birds get the urge to change their plumage. A blue jay wants to be decked out in the green of cedar, and a loon dons the burnished red of oak leaves, but neither bird foresees the consequences of vanity. A strong gust of wind teaches both birds that their natural, well-anchored feathers provided better protection than their costumes.
The Garden of Ecos
Co Hoedeman 1997 10 min
In this animated short, animals and plants are living peacefully together in a large garden until predators attack and ravage their habitat, stealing food and destroying plants. This creates an imbalance that leads to war. A fable that poetically describes how conflicts between 2 different groups in the same community can upset the natural balance of an ecosystem.
The Great Toy Robbery
Jeff Hale 1963 6 min
This short animation stars the world's most-wanted good guy: Santa Claus. In this spoof of the Wild West, good triumphs over evil, but not before the evil robbers and their innocent victims have romped through some odd situations.
The Hoarder
Evelyn Lambart 1969 7 min
In this short animation by Evelyn Lambart, a greedy little blue jay carries away whatever his beak can grasp. Berries, birds' eggs (nests and all), and even the sun in the sky go into his secret cache. Nothing is safe from his consuming avarice. But, as in Lambart’s film Fine Feathers, there is a moral tucked away. The blue jay learns a lesson about the importance of sharing, and he and his friends are all the merrier for it.
How Dinosaurs Learned to Fly
Munro Ferguson 1995 5 min
The dinosaurs were headed for trouble. They ate nothing but junk food. They never brushed their teeth. They stayed up all night. And though they loved jumping off cliffs, they didn't like the landings much. The early mammals tried to warn them. "Keep that up and you'll all be extinct!" they said. But the dinosaurs just laughed... and over time, they evolved into birds.
Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life

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Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski 2010 23 min
Once Jennie had everything. The terrier had two food bowls, two pillows, and for cold weather, a red wool sweater. She even had a master who loved her. But Jennie didn't care. In the middle of the night she packed everything she had in a black leather bag with gold buckles and looked out of her favourite window for the last time...

Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life follows Jennie's suspenseful and unexpectedly moving journey to gain new experiences and realize her dream of becoming the star of the World Mother Goose Theatre.

The National Film Board of Canada and Warner Home Video present this live-action/animated adaptation of Maurice Sendak's book from filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Oscar® nominee and Genie Award winner for Madame Tutli-Putli), featuring the voices of Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker.
Hen Hop
Norman McLaren 1942 3 min
This joyful short animation features a dancing hen that transforms into an egg. The film was made without a camera by Norman McLaren, who drew directly onto 35 mm movie stock with ordinary pen and ink. Colour was added optically.
It's a Dog's Life

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Julie Rembauville & Nicolas Bianco-Levrin 2012 7 min
This short animation features Fifi the dog, who fantasizes about interstellar travel as an escape from his day-to-day existence as the family scapegoat. While doing whatever it takes to please Mom, Dad and the kids, Fifi tries to make off with some newspaper articles about the latest scientific developments in space travel. Fifi would like nothing better than to be left alone in his basket, his nose buried in a feature story on space travel, but the lively family around him blames him for their own bad behaviour. This animated short is the tale of a dog’s life on a human scale—what results is an urban fable about learning to live together.
I Want a Dog
Sheldon Cohen 2003 10 min
In this animated short by Sheldon Cohen, young May wants a dog more than anything else in the world. She thinks about dogs all the time; she talks about them, reads about them and covers the walls of her bedroom with dog pictures. But every time she asks her parents for a puppy, they tell her to wait till she's older. But sticking to her motto of "If at first you don’t succeed, try again," May comes up with an ingenious idea to change her parents' minds. Based on the book by Dayal Kaur Khalsa.
Invasion of the Space Lobsters
Janet Perlman 2005 6 min
When an advanced race of giant lobsters from outer space land on Earth, no one can figure out why they've come. A complete failure to communicate on both ends leads to panic and pandemonium. Why are they here? What do they want? In this clever throwback to the ‘50s B-movie, a small neighbourhood learns the value of clear communication.
Juke-Bar
Martin Barry 1989 10 min
This animated short introduces a juke box into a greasy spoon diner overrun with cockroaches. The cockroaches get caught up in the music as their lives are transformed by the arrival of this new machine. But the restaurant's owner has a plan: will he be able to outsmart his uninvited guests?
Loon Dreaming
Iriz Pääbo 2002 7 min
This animated short makes us see the world through the eyes of a loon. We dive down deep into the waters in pursuit of fish, launch skyward from the water and fly high over the busy highways and sprawling subdivisions that scar the natural world--before gently splashing down on a secluded lake.
The Lion and the Mouse
Evelyn Lambart 1976 4 min
This animated short by Evelyn Lambart is a visual adaptation of the famous Aesop fable "The Lion and the Mouse," in which a mouse proves to a lion that the weak and small may be of help to those much mightier than themselves.
Léon in Wintertime

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Pierre-Luc Granjon & Pascal Le Nôtre 2007 27 min
In this short puppet animation we meet Léon, an 8-year-old adopted bear suffering from an identity crisis. The distraught cub runs away from home in wintertime and embarks on many adventures. He stands up to an ogre and saves a princess from ending up in a pea stew. His courage eventually leads him back to his parents, who work as beekeepers. Pure, tender and as sweet as honey, this is a delightful tale.
Le merle
Norman McLaren 1958 4 min
In this animation film, Norman McLaren imparts unusual activity to an old French-Canadian nonsense song. Simple white cut-outs on pastel backgrounds, many by Evelyn Lambart, provide lively illustrations. The folksong "Mon Merle" is sung in French by the Trio Lyrique of Montreal.
The Magic Lion
Charles Githinji 2004 6 min
This animated short is about a Kenyan boy who goes on a quest to save the life of his sick grandfather. In his search for healers in a mysterious village, he encounters a strange lion caught in a trap. Upon being freed, the lion gratefully takes the boy on an adventure.
Monsieur Pug
Janet Perlman 2014 9 min
Who is Monsieur Pug? Why, a dog with bad cholesterol and high blood pressure! And a dog who loves his pie and ice cream. Who relaxes by making origami. In other words, definitely not your ordinary pooch! For he’s also a paranoiac, convinced he’s the target in a vast conspiracy, and pretending to be a pet, the better to hide from his pursuers. Schizoid, perhaps? Hmm… but is Monsieur Pug even a real dog to begin with?

A delirious fable about a particular brand of modern madness—that brought on by the omnipresence of smartphones in our lives—Monsieur Pug is directed with verve by Janet Perlman, whose The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Animated Short in 1982.

Monsieur Pug is one strange film about the life of one strange dog!
My Friend the Green Horse
Alanis Obomsawin 2024 11 min
Often feeling alone in her waking life, the young Alanis Obomsawin found friendship with the Green Horse, a benevolent being she visited regularly in her dreams. Together with other animal spirits, the Green Horse guided Alanis to realize the immensity of the gift of life and the power of kindness.
The Owl and the Lemming: An Eskimo Legend
Co Hoedeman 1971 5 min
Using life-like seal fur puppets, this animated short by Co Hoedeman tells the traditional Inuit tale of the owl and the lemming.
The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend
Caroline Leaf 1974 7 min
In this short animation based on an Inuit legend, a goose captures the fancy of an owl, a weakness for which he will pay dearly. The sound effects and voices are Inuktitut, but the animation leaves no doubt as to the unfolding action. A story with the wry humor characteristic of many Inuit tales.
Paradise

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Ishu Patel 1984 15 min
In this short animation film, 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.
The Phoenix
Gayle Thomas 1990 10 min
The ancient myth of the phoenix, the legendary bird with the amazing power of self-regeneration, is reborn with a modern twist. In this animated adaptation of a story by Sylvia Townsend Warner, we follow Lord Strawberry's search for the fabled bird. He finds it in the deserts of Arabia and brings it home to his aviary. Upon Lord Stawberry's death, however, the phoenix ends up as a sideshow in a fairground. This spirited satire of human foibles, with its timely message about our treatment of nature's creatures, will appeal to young people and adults alike.
The Pony
Lawrence Cherry 1955 37 min
This short film tells the heart-warming Christmas story of two Saskatchewan farm children and a pony named Pancho. There’s no real place for a horse on a fully mechanized wheat farm, but with will and heart they prove that one can be found.
The Peep Show
Kaj Pindal 1962 8 min
This short cartoon film for young kids tells the adventures of a little chick from the time he falls from an egg basket and breaks out of his shell. Together with a duck who waddles along, he goes to explore the world and discovers there is much to learn, even in his own farmyard. (The Peep Show is an early version of the acclaimed cartoon Peep and the Big Wide World.)
Peep and the Big Wide World
Kaj Pindal 1988 34 min
This series of three 10-minute films features Peep the chicken, Chirp the robin and Quack the duck. On their travels, they meet a cat, a ladybug, a turtle and a frog who speaks from both sides of his mouth. Narrated by Peter Ustinov, these films are great for young children aged 3–5.
The Sparky Book
Mary Lewis 2006 13 min
In this live action/animated short, a talking goldfish recounts the story of Sparky the dog and his owner, a young girl named Brigitte who suffers from a serious illness. This moving film explores the bond between human and animal, and more importantly, the bond between friends.
The Squirrel Next Door
Carla Coma 2007 1 min
This stop-motion animation is about a spider who professes its love for a squirrel. An interspecies courtship unfolds between the two doe-eyed neighbours. This short film is a testament to the fact that there is truly someone for everyone and that love is species blind.

Produced as part of the fourth edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
The Sniffing Bear
Co Hoedeman 1992 7 min
This animated film uses the Arctic landscape and the traditional Inuit characters of the Bear, the Seal and the Owl to raise young people's awareness about the harmful effects of substance abuse. A polar bear experiences hallucinations after inhaling fumes from an abandoned gas can. A nearby owl and seal help to show the bear the error of his ways, thus preventing him from falling further into addiction. This film was an initiative of the Natives of the Institution La Macaza to warn children of the dangers of inhaling toxic chemicals.
Snow Cat
Sheldon Cohen 1998 22 min
A grandmother tells her young grandchild the moving tale of a lonely girl and an unforgettable magical cat in this animated short narrated by Oscar®, Emmy and Tony award winner Maureen Stapleton. The film is based on a short story written by Dayal Kaur Khalsa and adapted by two-time Governor General's award recipient Tim Wynne-Jones.
Time Out
Priit Pärn 1984 9 min
This short animation stars a small cat with a long striped tail who just can't seem to get organized. He bustles about the room doing morning house chores, but gets preoccupied with the next one before he has properly completed the previous one. Eventually, his day turns into a much stranger, more surreal, and more sadistic adventure than he ever could have anticipated. From award-winning Estonian filmmaker Priit Pärn comes another playfully absurd and whimsical film that challenges traditional animation techniques, with the hand of the animator entering the image and spinning the screen itself.
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
Evelyn Lambart 1980 5 min
In this animated short, Evelyn Lambart uses her well-known style of animation – paper figures and brightly colored backgrounds – to revisit Aesop’s tale of 2 mice with vastly different lifestyles. Ultimately, the film suggests it is far better to live simply and in peace than to live in luxury amidst danger.
That Mouse
Michael Rubbo 1967 14 min
In this children’s film, a white mouse cavorts about the forest, mostly on the back of a bumbling black bear, creating such a stir that other forest creatures (a deer, a tortoise, a hawk and a hound) have to put a stop to it. Animals speak with human voices and “act” out their parts.
The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin
Janet Perlman 1981 9 min
This short animation is a zany version of the classic fairy tale, with the leading role played by a mistreated, romantic penguin, with hilarious results. Cinderella Penguin loses her magic flipper as she runs to meet her midnight deadline, but all ends well when Prince Charming finds the right webbed foot and the nasty step-family is brought to heel.
When the Dust Settles

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Louise Johnson 1997 7 min
This animated short features 2 neighbouring gophers with very un-neighbourly appetites for anger and revenge. By sundown, they have destroyed everything... even theirhomes. Will they be able to put the pieces back together?

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