Good Animated Films & Shows

An animated feature which begins, ends and occasionally combines with, live-action filmed on location. A white dropout struggles to create comics and animated films, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his run-down apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nut-case of a Jewish mother, he is ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. This cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, destroyed by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God. Complications ensue when the cartoonist's parents react in irrational ways to his various involvements.

Slaves and masters dominate the narrative of the faraway world of Ygam. Set around the lifespan of Terr, a minute human shaped Om slave, and pet, of the giant blue alien Draags. Escaping into the wilderness and with a device used for intellectual advancement of the Draags, Terr finds refuge and support from fellow Oms and using the learning tool, he finds that knowledge is power and then sets to use the new found knowledge to revolt against the Draag masters...

A memorably bizarre screen version of Lewis Carroll's novel 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', mixing one live actor (Alice) with a large variety of stop-motion animated creatures, ranging from the complex (the White Rabbit) to the incredibly simple (the Caterpillar, consisting of a sock, a couple of glass eyes and a pair of false teeth). The original story is followed reasonably faithfully, though those familiar with this director's other films won't be the least bit surprised by the numerous digressions into Svankmajer territory, living slabs of meat and all. As the opening narration says, it's a film made for children... perhaps?

Angel, a member of a punk rock band in the apocalyptic future, is kidnapped by Mok, a legendary superocker. Obsessed with a dark experiment, Mok plans to use Angel's voice to summon a demon from another dimension. The rest of the band follows Mok to Nuke York in an attempt to get her back.

In a post apocalyptic future that appears as a blend of World War II Europe and J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, a pint-size wizard named Avatar must save the world from a band of fascist mutants controlled by his evil twin brother, Blackwolf, who likes to confuse enemy armies by projecting films of Adolf Hitler speeches during attacks. Painted live-action footage of advancing Nazi armies contrasts with Saturday-morning-cartoon-style animation of fairies and elves as Avatar travels through various magical and radioactive realms on his quest. Aiding him are the beautiful Fairy princess Elinore, hot-blooded warrior elf Weehawk, and Peace, a misunderstood robot rebelling against his Blackwolf-controlled programming. A bizarre and psychedelic meditation on magic vs. technology, this ultimate futuristic fantastic epic cult film still finds an audience on college campuses and will prove quite rewarding to viewers in the right frame of mind.

In a future where energy is made from fecal matter, the government rewards defecation with "juicybars". Small-time hustlers try to get rich while fending off the mutated Diaper Gang.

"American Pop" is the animated story of a very talented and troubled family starting with 19th century Russia and moving through several generations of musicians. The film covers American popular music from the pre-jazz age through rhythm and blues, 1950s rock 'n' roll, drug-laden psychedelia, and punk rock, finally ending with the onset of New Wave in the early 1980s.

Rei is a young inventor living in the U.K. in the middle of the nineteenth century. Shortly before the first World Expo, a marvelous invention called the "Steam Ball", behind which a menacing power is hidden, arrives at his door from his grandfather Roid in the U.S. Meanwhile, the nefarious O'Hara Foundation has sent men to acquire the Steam Ball, so that they can use its power towards their own illicit ends.

In Treasure Town, life can be both peaceful and violent. This is never truer than for our heroes, Black and White - two street kids who claim to traverse the urban city as if it were their own. But in this town, an undercurrent of evil exists and has its sights set on the pair of brothers, forcing them to engage in battle with an array of old-world Yakuza as well as dangerous assassins vying to rule the decaying metropolis, Treasure Town.

The 1960s. Fed up with the monotonous college life and police repression, free-spirited Fritz, an impenitent seducer and unrestrained party-animal, decides to explore the world. And just like that, as he flees New York City, heading to San Francisco, Fritz embarks on an endless adventure of illumination. Now, immersed in a world surrounded by drugs and sex, Fritz takes part in mad orgies, brings about a revolution, incites mass urban riots, and crosses paths with drug-addled Nazi bikers. Will Fritz ever find what he's looking for?

Psiconautas, los Niños Olvidados ("Psychonauts: The Forgotten Children") is an obscure, disturbing and dismal story about Dinki and her friends and school partners Sandra and Zorrito, three children who live in an isolated island in the middle of the sea, ruined after a disaster in the nuclear power plant that devastated the most part of the island. Looking for a better life faraway of the suffocating atmosphere where they live, the three ones escape from their homes with all money they have reunited, trying to arrive to the coast to pay a ship that take them to the nearest continent. At the same time, Birdboy, another child and a junkie prosecuted by the police, tries to evade his capture at the same time that he tries contain the inner demons using drugs to relax him, trapped by horrible nightmares and delusions about black bird monsters. Meanwhile Dinki, Sara and Zorrito travel through the island facing all kind the dangers and discovering the impoverishment of the island and their inhabitants, Birdboy remembers the life with his father (island's lightkeeper) and cares of the last nature resort that he created in secret. Will can Birdboy defeat his inner demons and restore the prosperity of the island with his resort? And will can Dinki, Sara, and Zorrito leave the island before they be too late for them?

For Piel, a little boy stranded on Perdide--a desert planet where giant killer hornets live--the only thing that connects him to the rest of the world is Mike: a state-of-the-art interstellar transceiver handed to him by his father, Claude. As Mike manages to send a distress signal, Piel must do everything in his power to get in touch with Claude's friend, Jaffar, an intrepid space adventurer, to stand a fighting chance in the inhospitable celestial body. However, will Jaffar make it in time?

A story about the most popular racing event in the galaxy, the Redline, and the various racers who compete in it.

Metropolis is a visually stunning, rich, and memorable pleasure. It's contributors have brought us other classics such as Astroboy and Akira. The story takes place in the muti-leveled, fascinating, megalopolis called Metropolis. Metropolis is loosely ruled by Duke Red, who is close to presenting his ultimate work, an advanced AI robot girl named Tima. His son; however, is an opponent of AI and resents Tima. Tima finds herself deep within the labyrinth of Meteoplolis. She befriends the kind son of a police officer and begins exploring her new world. When Duke Red's son separates this new friendship, he puts much more at risk than anyone thought possible.

"Memories" is made up of three separate science-fiction stories. In the first, "Magnetic Rose," four space travelers are drawn into an abandoned spaceship that contains a world created by one woman's memories. In "Stink Bomb," a young lab assistant accidentally transforms himself into a human biological weapon set on a direct course for Tôkyô. The final episode, "Cannon Fodder," depicts a day in the life of a city whose entire purpose is the firing of cannons at an unseen enemy.

Gandahar is a utopian world of rare beauty and tranquility, the result of extensive mutation and genetic experimentation. But the perfect peace is shattered when a mysterious evil force invades this idyllic serenity, turning people into stone with petrifying rays. The Council of Women hold court and decide to send Sylvain, son of Queen Ambisextra, on a mission to destroy the enemy. Together with the beautiful and adventurous Arielle, the enemy that Sylvain eventually discovers very far from his home is the ultimate failure of Gandaharian scientific experimentation. It is a giant brain known as the Metamorphis, which has created an indestructible army of metal men to destroy Gandahar. Sylvain must battle the Metamorphis, but not until 1000 years in the future.

An astronaut brings home a glowing green orb for his daughter. However, the green orb wipes him out and corners the girl for its purposes. Claiming to embody ultimate evil, the malevolent sphere, known as the Loc-Nar, terrorizes the little girl by showing a series of bizarre and fantastic stories it has influenced. The first is "Harry Canyon", a cynical taxi driver in a squalid futuristic New York who finds himself involved with a damsel in distress who is relentlessly pursued by murderous thugs who desire the Loc-Nar her archaeologist father found. The second is "Den", which chronicles the adventures of a nerdish teenager who is thrown into the fantasy world of Neverwhere, where he is transformed into a handsome muscleman, desired by beautiful women, who must get involved in a conflict revolving around possession of the Loc-Nar. The third is "Captain Sternn", where the title character is a handsome but irredeemable scoundrel who stands accused in a trial that the Loc-Nar throws into chaos. The fourth is "B-17", where a World War II bomber plane limps home after a bombing run, only to have the Loc-Nar ram into it and revive the dead crew members as murderous zombies. The next is "So Beautiful, So Dangerous", where a voluptuous secretary at the Pentagon is abducted by stoned alien wastrels and an oversexed robot. The final story is "Taarna", where the Loc-Nar has to come to a future Earth and changes a peaceful people into a horde of murderous barbarians who rampage with genocidal zeal. Only the last Tarrakian, a silent warrior woman known as Taarna, can avenge the victims and stop the Loc-Nar.

With the help of government-issued pamphlets, an elderly British couple build a shelter and prepare for an impending nuclear attack, unaware that times and the nature of war have changed from their romantic memories of World War II.