Don’t Go
Awesome, thumpy, electronic disco music propels this non-stop chase scene of a movie — as a cute, pink-bellied, one-eyed CGI bunny gets chased around an apartment by a live action black cat.
Age Range: 5
Johnny
Colorful stop motion, goofy live action, surreal homemade sets, and a ridiculous pigeon costume come together to humorous effect in the story of Johnny — a hilariously narrated, tongue-in-cheek fable about what happens to little boys who don’t drink their milk!
Snowflakes and Carrots
A little girl steals the carrot noses from all the snowmen she can find. But why?
Pl.ink!
A hyper-imaginative little toddler forces his artist father to lighten up as he takes him on a color-splattered roller-coaster ride inside his own paintings.
Who is not Sleeping?
Rabbit is sleeping over at Teddy Pig’s house. It’s going to be lots of fun! They are playing and drinking hot chocolate, but when the lights go out something doesn’t feel quite right.
Mi’au Myau
In this lovely hand-drawn short animation, a group of birds sit together on a branch, chirping away each in their own native tongue. But when an unexpected visitor comes along, his words are universally understood.
Diversity
This instructive cartoon teaches important lessons of life, like how to do the happy dance.
Gravity
Falling objects are synchronized to produce rhythms and patterns.
The Deep
Metallic objects come to life in the depths of the sea, in the newest film from New York’s brilliant stop-motion artist PES — whose past NYICFF selections include Western Spaghetti, Dogs of War, and Game Over.
Gulp
Aardman Animations and Sumo Science follow up last year’s wonderful diminutive Dot (which set the world record for smallest animated character) by notching it up a few orders of magnitude. Shot on an expansive seaside location, they set a new record for the world’s largest stop motion set, in this story of a fisherman who gets swallowed by a whale.
Hello, I Like You
Created by Brooklyn’s Mixtape Club, this quick-cut musical montage plays with texture, shape, pattern, and movement — with rope, leaves, nuts and bolts, and eye hooks twisting, dancing and popping to a soothing electronica beat.
Fluffy McCloud
A short film about man’s mixed relationship with Mother Nature. Fluffy McCloud uses his powers of precipitation mostly to annoy. But when one of his pranks causes near calamity, he decides to use his meteorological skills to make people happy.
Notebook Babies
From NYICFF alumnus Tony Dusko, a series of short, humorous meditations on life calibrated for the self-actualized preschooler.
Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants
Humorously bug-eyed animated insects battle it out within lush live action backgrounds in this enormously inventive comic adventure from award-winning animators Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud. The unique combination of real life landscapes — a micro-world shot in extreme and stunning close-up — and wonderfully animated creepy-crawlies engaging in playful antics, will leave the viewer both dazzled and amused. As the film opens, a montage of breathtaking forest landscapes zooms in on an abandoned picnic just as a gang of black ants is moving in to steal a coveted treasure: a tin box filled with sugar cubes. But before they can get away with the loot, a newly-born ladybug gets trapped inside the box, and is soon spirited away as the ants try to transport their prize across the woods toward their colony. When a rival clan of powerful red warrior ants appears on the scene, the resourceful ladybug comes to the aid of the black ants, and a furious chase ensues where everyday objects become creative tools in the battle. The audience is treated to Q-tips javelins, dollar bill paper airplanes, and a high-speed river race on an old soda can…along with humorous references to Star Wars, Close Encounters and even a shot-for-shot recreation of a scene from Hitchcock’s Psycho (not scary, we promise!). Based on the popular short animated series, Minuscule opened #1 at the French box office and is making its North American premiere at NYICFF.
Rio 2
Fly to Brazil ahead of the flock, with this special pre-release screening of Rio 2, the latest from Oscar-winning Blue Sky Animation Studio. It’s a jungle out there for Blu, Jewel, and their three kids, after they’re hurtled from the magical city of Rio de Janeiro to the wilds of the Amazon. As Blu tries to fit in, he goes beak-to-beak with the vengeful Nigel and meets the most fearsome adversary of all — his long-lost father-in-law, who has been hiding out with a group of other Macaws. The Rio characters are joined by Oscar® nominee Andy Garcia, Grammy® winner Bruno Mars, Tony® winner Kristin Chenoweth, and Oscar®/Emmy®/Tony® winner Rita Moreno — plus new Brazilian artists and original music by Janelle Monae and Wondaland.
Ernest & Celestine
Director Benjamin Renner is our guest for the theatrical premiere of the new English language version, featuring Forest Whitaker, Mackenzie Foy, Lauren Bacall, Paul Giamatti, William H. Macy, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, and Jeffrey Wright. Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets, tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer—and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for ursine troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn’t long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities. Ernest & Celestine joyfully leaps across genres and influences to capture the kinetic, limitless possibilities of animated storytelling. Like a gorgeous watercolor painting brought to life, a constantly shifting pastel color palette bursts and drips across the screen, while wonderful storytelling and brilliant comic timing draw up influences as varied as Buster Keaton, Bugs Bunny, and the outlaw romanticism of Bonnie and Clyde.
Boy and the World
Brazilian artist Alê Abreu brings to screen a strikingly unique visual style to show the world through the eyes of a young boy. A child, Cuca, lives a life of quiet wonder, exploring all that the countryside has to offer. His cozy life is shattered when his father leaves for the city, prompting him to embark on a quest to reunite his family. The young boy’s journey unfolds like a tapestry, the animation taking on greater complexity and variety as his small world expands. Simple line drawings of the village give way to broad brushstrokes forming giant bushels of cotton lining country roads, and sweeps of pastel churned into roaring waves. Approaching civilization, industrial landscapes are inhabited by animal-machines and strange beings, with barrios of decoupage streets and shop windows, and flashing neon advertisements that illuminate the night like a giant Lite Brite. The story depicts a clash between village and city, indigenous and imperial, hand crafted and mechanized, rich and poor — and throughout the tumult, the heart and soul of the people beats on as a song, a simple plaintive refrain played on recorder. The film’s music is on equal footing with the stunning visuals, a soundscape of pan-flute, samba, and Brazilian hip-hop mixing with the whirling carnival colors and exploding fireworks.
Amazonia 3D
Get ready to meet the cutest animal in the entire known universe — a baby capuchin monkey with impossibly huge eyes and impossibly human expressions — on a stunningly photographed 3D adventure into the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Meticulously captured over two years of filming, Amazonia reveals the deep mystery and beauty of the Amazon and features more exotic animals per minute of running time than any film we can recall. This is not a documentary, it is an adventure story about a monkey named Sai, born in captivity, who finds himself stranded in the jungle and must fend for himself. As he explores his new world, so do we — and his every step (and tumble, and fall) exposes the immense beauty and danger of his new environment. Amazonia follows a long line of French nature films, from Jacques Cousteau to Winged Migrations to March of the Penguins, but never before has an animal conveyed such incredible human-like expressiveness and emotions on the big screen. It is impossible not to get caught up in the ride as we respond to his curiosity, fear, hope, and affection, his shrinking shyness, or his wide-eyed wonder.
A Town Called Panic: The Christmas Log
Prepare for more zany stop-motion mayhem as Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar follow-up their award-winning 2009 debut feature the misadventures of Indian and Cowboy, who become over excited in anticipation of their Christmas gifts and have difficulty not being naughty.
Meet the Small Potatoes
Meet the Small Potatoes — a rockin’ quartet consisting of the cutest spuds to ever rule the radio waves. This musical mockumentary traces the group from humble beginnings on an Idaho potato farm to their meteoric rise to international pop stardom. Unfortunately, while singing spuds may be something completely new, the perils of celebrity are all too familiar — and at the height of their fame, the lovable diva Ruby decides that she’s the real star and branches out on her own, leaving Nate, the jazzy poet, Chip, the sweetheart, and Olaf the chubby intellectual, to pick up the pieces. Fret you not — this story has a happy ending, because no rock saga would be complete without the eventual reunion concert! The film has an authentic and almost gritty feel, with the adorably animated characters placed in live action archival settings (1960’s era Coney Island in particular is a real treat), and true to the rock-doc form, musical numbers are punctuated with interviews with fans, a former manager, and the southern DJ who helped them to early success. Initially created as a This is Spinal Tap for the pre-school set, the Potatoes have picked up an even larger fan base of older kids and ‘tweens — come see what all the excitement is about!
Pinocchio
Enzo D’Aló’s colorful and musical re-telling of this classic tale hews much closer to both the spirit and plot of Carlo Collodi’s original story than the Disney version, with Pinocchio remaining for most of the picture a rambunctious, easily-distracted, and unrepentant little scamp, who dances and trips from one strange adventure to the next in a surreal, Alice in Wonderland-like ride that never quite takes a pause. Mere moments after Geppetto has whittled a talking log into the son he never had, his newborn marionette offspring is already causing him grief. And though Cricket, Blue Fairy, and others point him on the right path, our anti-hero prefers to play hooky, and finds himself at the mercy of a host of outlandish — and strikingly animated — characters almost too numerous to recount: an evil marionette master and a lurid-green fishmonger, cat and fox con-artists, a pair of bowler-hatted bobby officers who look like something out of Yellow Submarine – landing at last in a phantasmagoric amusement park-turned-factory camp, where little boys are turned into donkeys and made to work from morning to night. In the end, after escaping from these and other predicaments, Pinocchio finds himself in the belly of a giant shark, where he is reunited with his dear papa and seems finally to have learned what it means to be good.
I’m Going to Mum’s
Poor Jacob. His newly divorced parents insist on dressing him in ridiculous clothes to spite each other — and the continual changing of outfits becomes a parade of absurdity. With his parents’ feuding getting worse by the day, Jacob resorts to desperate fashion measures to assert his identity.
I Want my Hat Back
Bear’s hat is gone and none of the animals have seen it. He is starting to become despondent, until his memory is sparked by a deer who asks just the right question.
Ashton’s Presents
Impatient for his birthday, Aston whiles away the hours gift wrapping everything he can lay his hands on. When the big day arrives, he discovers that the “real” present is not always the best one.
The Centipede and the Toad
In a faraway forest, the gracious, lissome Centipede is admired by all the other creatures. Except for the old Toad, haughty and jealous, who hates him. Based on the 19th century poem “The Centipede’s Dilemma,” this deliciously devious animated fable illustrates how our unconscious actions can be disrupted by conscious reflection.
Goat Herder and His Lots and Lots and Lots of Goats
Beneath a fuchsia sky, a goat herder leads his flock of goats up and down the mountains of Spain. Inspired by the filmmaker’s daughter, this multi-award winning film uses a lovely muted color palette, beautiful design and subtle humor to excellent effect.
Marvin
Marvin was born with a hole in his head and one day something important falls out. His brain. However after some searching about, he realizes he has more fun without it.
The Fox and the Chickadee
Mr. Fox thinks he has Chickadee right where he wants her: trapped and ready to be eaten. But the cunning little Chickadee knows where the farmer hides the key to the chicken coop. If only Mr. Fox will cooperate, the two can work together to steal that much larger and more delicious feast.
Macropolis
On a conveyor belt in a toy factory, a rejected rubber kitty is thrown into a trash bin. Outside, he meets up with a similarly rejected rubber dog — and together they set out on a journey to try to catch up with their comrades already packed up in the delivery van and on their way to the toy store.
Day of the Dead
With sugar skulls, sweet-smelling marigold petals, and joyful songs, a family welcomes back its ancestors in this spirited and colorful tribute to a unique holiday.