Best Short Movies of 2016

The story of a boy who would rather spend his time indoors playing video games instead of discovering what's waiting outside the front door. One day his mother decides to get a little surprise for her son.

In a park, an old man is playing a game of chess against himself; he's physically moving from side to side as he plays from white to black. As the game progresses, the two sides of himself become individual and distinct players, "white" being the pensive and thoughtful side, "black" being the aggressive hard hitting side. But as the game looks to be coming to a conclusion, white makes a surprisingly aggressive move which could change what looked to be the obvious outcome of the game.

A story set in the bonny blue highlands of Scotland, and centered on Nessie, the friendly Loch Ness monster, her best friend MacQuack the rubber duck, and how the duo came to live in the moor they call home. Problems arrive in the form of a land developer named MacFroogle, who wants to build a mini-golf empire on top of Nessie's home.

Tome Of The Unknown is an animated short about Wirt and Gregory who get tired of walking so they borrow a car from a romantic songster made of vegetables. This film was produced by Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, CA and stars Elijah Wood as Wirt.

In a dark room, Agent Rick Dicker interrogates Kari, a young girl with braces. He asks what happened. Kari explains that she was babysitting for an infant, Jack-Jack, who seems able to levitate, float, pass through walls, catch fire, and cause havoc. Kari stays nimble but barely holds on until an odd young man with orange hair and an "S" on his shirt rings the bell.

With Po's status as the Dragon Warrior proven to all, Master Shifu has a new challenge for him; teaching Introduction to Kung Fu class to a bunch of a rambunctious bunny children. After getting the class to come to order, Po teaches them that fighting is only part of kung fu, while its true meaning is "Excellence of Self." To explain this philosophy, Po tells stories of each of his comrades, The Furious Five, and how they faced formative challenges in their youth that helped define them as true masters of kung fu.

One by one, a flock of small birds perches on a telephone wire. Sitting close together has problems enough, and then comes along a large dopey bird who tries to join them. The birds of a feather can't help but make fun of him -- and the clique mentality proves embarrassing in the end.

Scrat is putting one last acorn into a huge and very neatly arranged stash, but it keeps popping up. He jumps on it -- once too often, and the whole stockpile falls through a knothole in the tree stump. The acorns and Scrat fall a very long way; on the way down, Scrat collects them into a huge ball. Everything hits the ground, and Scrat must pull out of the snow quickly to avoid one last acorn, which is becoming red-hot from the reentry force. It hits the Earth, with a major impact. But at least Scrat has that acorn - or does he?

When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other's unique qualities--and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world-the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.

Riley, now 12, who is hanging out with her parents at home when potential trouble comes knocking. Mom's and Dad's Emotions find themselves forced to deal with Riley going on her first date.

Set in the Australian outback, 'Bilby' follows the desert-dwelling marsupial Perry through the trials and tribulations of "parenthood" after he saves a defenseless chick from predators and inadvertently becomes her protector.

Every day, a melancholy old bear takes a mechanical diorama that he has created out to his street corner. For a coin, passersby can look into the peephole of his invention, which tells the story of a circus bear who longs to escape and return to the family from which he was taken.

In a busy life, Copi is a father who tries to teach the right way to his son, Paste. But - What is the correct path?

Po breaks into the Hall of Heroes with Tigress and Mantis to see the new exhibits, especially for the ones featuring Masters Thundering Rhino, Storming Ox and Croc. Once there, Po tells the story of how that trio began as small time street fighters until the villainous Wu Sisters escape with plans to conquer China. Against this threat, Master Oogway convinces the selfish trio to accompany him on a quest to stop the sisters. In the challenges that follow, those masters find that the grandiose promises of riches they heard are fading as they learn that there are things far more worthy to fight for.

A short 2D animated film set in a swamp about a seemingly cute heron obsessively waiting for the perfect prey, a mystical red glowing fish, to jump out. Once it finally catches it, the heron's true predatory nature is revealed, for which it faces karmic judgment.

Amidst an old London clock shop, a small, quirky mantle clock comes to the aide of the store's more expensive clocks when a thief breaks in and threatens to steal them away.

As his town is flooded by water, an old man is forced to add additional levels onto his home with bricks (cubes) in order to stay dry. But when he accidentally drops his favorite smoking pipe into the lower levels of his home, his search for the pipe eventually makes him relive scenes from his eventful life.

A married cat-dog couple of cupcake bakers dream of opening their own bakery. One day their oven breaks and they have to postpone their dream in order to earn money and replace it. Somewhere down the line, they drift apart from their dream and from themselves.