Where to start with the National Film Board of Canada?

March 12, 2025 8:21 PM

Leonard Maltin’s Animation Faborites from the National Film Board of Canada! The National Film Board of Canada is such an amazing wealth of riches! This movie has 9 short animations that start with a brief description by Leonard Maltin, and they are all amazing. Some of them have been staples of Canadian school curriculums for half a century and many Canadians will watch these, as I did, with the realization that they have seen them before but forgotten. With a runtime of 1:34, it’s well worth the time either all at once or in little snippets.

A compilation of National Film Board of Canada films presented by on-camera host Leonard Maltin.

Begone Dull Care: A lively and colourful interpretation of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio. Animator: Norman McLaren.

Mindscape: The pinscreen animation technique is used in this film about an artist who steps inside his painting and wanders about in a strange landscape. Animator: Jacques Drouin.

Canada Vignettes: Log Driver's Waltz: Based on the folksong written by Wade Hemsworth, this tale is of a young girl who chooses a log driver over his more well-to-do, land-loving competition. Sung by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Animator: John Weldon.

The Cat Came Back: Old Mr. Johnson makes manic attempts to rid himself of a little yellow cat that just won't stay away. Animator: Cordell Barker. OSCAR® nominee.

Getting Started: The procrastinating hero attempts to practise a piece of music on the piano. Animator: Richard Condie.

The Sweater: A small boy in rural Quebec receives a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey sweater by mistake. Animator: Sheldon Cohen.

The Street: Mordecai Richler's story of a family's reactions to their dying grandmother. Animator: Caroline Leaf. OSCAR® nominee.

Pas de deux: By exposing the same frames as many as ten times, the animators create a multiple image of ballerina Margaret Mercier and her partner, Vincent Warren. Animators: Norman McLaren, Evelyn Lambart. OSCAR® nominee.

Anniversary/L'Anniversaire: A computer-animated film to celebrate the National Film Board of Canada's 50th anniversary. Animators: Marc Aubry, Michel Hébert.

posted by ashbury (27 comments total)

Great post! STOP READING NOW if you can’t bear misty boomer recollections: They used to show them in regular theatres and drive-ins too, along with something like a Roadrunner Coyote cartoon. I can remember watching Pas de Deux and What on Earth! (National Film Board of Mars). Libraries used to have 16mm copies and you rented a projector. It seems like they phased that out by the mid 90s, which is too bad because there's no substitute for mechanical projection, especially for something like Begone Dull Care. These all affected me pretty deeply as a kid. I'll have worked in animation for 40 years this July, having started at Nelvana. Time flies. Now I want to buy an old projector.
posted by brachiopod at 8:50 PM on March 12 [9 favorites]

Ha! I remember checking out a projector and a bunch of McLaren films. Good old NFB. (Edit: sorry for the derail; I got caught up in misty boomer recollections. Carry on.)
posted by mpark at 10:00 PM on March 12

My Southern Ontario birthday parties were often a projector and films from the local library (skateboard films, Laurel and Hardy, Hardware Wars, and various NFB classics like What on Earth!)
posted by stevil at 10:12 PM on March 12

There are some darn good selections in that list! Norm McLaren was an animation genius.

Let me add Bob’s Birthday, by Alison Snow and David Fine, which made me laugh until my stomach hurt. Still one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

Also: Walking by Ryan Larkin. (Caution, some strobing effects.)

And one of my favourites, Bretislav Pojar’s Balablok, which won the Animation Grand Prix at Cannes in 1973 and is still very relevant.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:15 PM on March 12 [1 favorite]

No love for Hinterland Who’s Who?
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:34 PM on March 12 [4 favorites]

These used to turn up randomly on UK television when they needed to fill 5 minutes, and I always loved them.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 11:39 PM on March 12 [3 favorites]

Also… Oscar nods for the NFB
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:40 PM on March 12

The Big Snit
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 11:55 PM on March 12 [10 favorites]

I love the NFB! My amazing Canadian spouse more or less gave me a A Very Canadian Education in a lot of stuff. We lived in the Eastern Townships when I moved here so being about a 90 minute drive from Montreal, we'd often go on the weekends to visit the museums and of course, NFB. And on a hot ass day in July, let me tell you that being inside the NFB building watching film shorts in the dark in ice cold AC was refreshing.
posted by Kitteh at 3:41 AM on March 13

My parents took me to watch these at the St. Louis Art Museum every year. I still watch all of them, and I still look for new ones, and I like the one about igloos.

And I still wonder at how much you can do with a little pooled money, and how much better this stuff is than nearly anything America produces intentionally.
posted by Rat Spatula at 4:54 AM on March 13

One of the things that Canada does really really well is support artists. A lot of our music, art, literature is supported at the federal and provinical level.
posted by Kitteh at 5:07 AM on March 13

Hard to believe Special Delivery didn’t make his cut. That was my intro to NFC.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:38 AM on March 13 [2 favorites]

There's an NFB app for Roku, which is a great way to make your "smart TV" even smarter...
posted by gimonca at 5:39 AM on March 13 [2 favorites]

I always get hit with the nostalgia feels when I see these films but I'm worried these lists have ossified. Yeah its got The Cat Came Back and The Sweater and Log Driver's Waltz and those are all great but....

The NFB still finances and supports Canadian animation. Take a look at these modern releases.
posted by thecjm at 6:54 AM on March 13 [2 favorites]

One of the things that Canada does really really well is support artists.

Especially in comparison to the US. These numbers are a bit out of date, but Canada is up there near European levels of support.

Per capita arts spending
Finland €59.2
Germany €56.5
France €37.8
Sweden €37.5
Netherlands £30.3
Canada £29.9
UK £16.6
Australia £16.4
Ireland £5.6
US £3.8

posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:01 AM on March 13 [3 favorites]

If it's happened, I have likely not seen it, but does Canada ever get the kind of backlash for grant-funded art like the US does?
posted by Kitteh at 7:06 AM on March 13

Count me as another Canadian who grew up with birthday parties featuring NFB reels of animated films. In addition to many of the ones already mentioned, I remember The Sand Castle, Blackfly (feat. the Wade Hemsworth song), and Blowhard. The Big Snit was a particular fave.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:47 AM on March 13

The NFB still finances and supports Canadian animation. Take a look at these modern releases.

thecjm, I have signed up to kitteh’s cause of promoting Canadian content on the blue. The NFB is an endless source, feel free to join the cause as well and post some stuff!
posted by ashbury at 7:49 AM on March 13 [2 favorites]

The Big Snit really captures the gestalt us X kids lived under. And Boomer parents.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:34 AM on March 13 [2 favorites]

John Weldon and Richard Condie are two of the most creative animation humorists of the late 20th century. Works like Condie's The Big Snit and Pig Bird, or Weldon's Spinnolio, No Apple for Johnny and To Be, might feel ordinary today, but were pretty left field at the time.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:18 AM on March 13

Kitteh, there's a typo in your link. It should be Fabourites.
posted by fundip at 9:45 AM on March 13 [3 favorites]

Do we count Neighbours (Youtube) as animation, or is it disqualified due to using live actors? Either way it's a banger.
posted by Pitachu at 10:57 AM on March 13

NFB has a couple of animated shorts done by a friend of mine, who I shall now proceed to shamelessly promote.

She did the animation for the NFB/APTN collaboration The Visit: “This animated short tells the true story of a Cree family's strange encounter one winter night, which results in a conversation beyond words.”

She also directed and animated the banjo and fiddle playing creatures of Lost Monster Hop.
posted by house-goblin at 11:09 AM on March 13 [2 favorites]

Fantastic post, this Canadian thanks you!
posted by jokeefe at 1:33 PM on March 14

Since no one else has mentioned it, I recommend my favorite from their collection, What on Earth!
posted by cheshyre at 5:34 PM on March 14

I was about to go into a big snit but then I saw that someone had indeed posted a link to The Big Snit

CARROST FOREVER

This is charming (not animation: Gone Curling)
posted by ginger.beef at 7:33 AM on March 15

I discovered the National Film Board of Canada back when O Canada was on Cartoon Network. To Be still lives rent-free in my head (and I think it's been the subject of a couple of 'what was that cartoon' questions on AskMe over the years!), and just the other week a friend and I were reminiscing about The Cat Came Back.

The NFBC has contributed to my life-long love of animation.
posted by DingoMutt at 9:06 PM on March 15