Today I rejoice in my Canadian-ness: the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has opened its Internet doors to anyone who wants to peek at their library. Granted, this is only a tiny fraction of their short films (about 700 of them), but you can view them all for free by visiting
nfb.ca. I've already found some favourites:
If you've never watched an NFB short, I urge you to do so now (The Big Snit is really a hoot, and long ago permanently introduced into my lexicon the phrase "Okay, teens: begin to saw"). And if you're an NFB fan like myself, set aside a big chunk of your day and get trawling. So far my only sorrow is the absence of another classic animated short from my childhood, "Evolution" (in which the little monster born with tank-treads outlives his parents because he can drive over the surface of the snow while they are buried beneath it).
EDIT: Ooh! I just found 1952's
Neighbours, the very first stop-motion film I ever saw (although I saw it in the 70s), and the very film that inspired my elder brother and myself to begin experimenting with stop motion ourselves. Awesome.