National Film Board

My last semester ever in university, I took Canadian Animation. I was excited to take this class since watching cartoons for marks sounded good to me. It was even better when I found out marks were only based on three exams throughout the semester. Thanks to this class, I got my only A+ which some what illegitimate since it's based on watching cartoons.

To my delight, the NFB has just posted many of their fantastic, superlative-eluding films online.

So if you're bored at work, you could probably plow through many of these. You'll find old favourites that you watched years ago and new ones that are incredible.

There are a few I highly recommend.

Neighbours. Done by Norman McLaren who is the father of Canadian animation. McLaren was always pushing the boundaries of animation weather it was drawing on film, stop-motion or printing overlapping images. George Lucas, among others, lists McLaren as an influence on his style, so take that as you will. This won an Academy Award.

The Sweater. It's a classic based on the eponymous story by Roch Carrier. It's charming especially since its narrator is Carrier himself.

The Cat Came Back. Oddly I only saw this for the first time in class while everyone had seen it before.

Two Sisters. Done by Carolyn Leaf. This film owes its interesting style to Leaf scratching layers of IMAX film to reveal different colour layers.

There's a few I wish were on there like Getting Started, Log Driver's Waltz (remember it from YTV?) and Begone Dull Care. Begone Dull Care was the first film we saw in class. It was done by McLaren where he scratched and painted on film. It was set to fantastic piano jazz music by Oscar Peterson. I was blown away by the energy and mood created by such a simple technique. Unfortunately, some people were turned off by the abstract nature of the film

What I find fascinating about the NFB was their hands-off approach. When McLaren joined the NFB during WWII, he was told to make propaganda films. He agreed if only he could do it whatever style he wanted. You got some crazy films as a result and it also paved the way for other artists. There are many films about a pedestrian topic such as food safety but the artists went to town on the presentation.

In large part to the NFB, Canada has gained a worldwide reuptation for animation. So I guess the ultimate Canadian would be a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic hockey playing, Tim Hortons coffee swilling, funny and drunk animator.