Watch over 70 free animations online. The collection features some classics, plus some modern gems. You’ll find a number of animations of literary classics in the mix too. For more great films, please visit our complete collection, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, Documentaries & More.
- 66 Oscar-Nominated-and-Award-Winning Animated Shorts Online, Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada – Free – A big collection of prize-winning animated short films.
- 6 Animations of Stories & Poems by Shel Silverstein – Free – Includes “Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too” from Where the Sidewalk Ends.
- 13 Experimental Short Films by Tezuka Osamu – Free – Early animations by Tezuka Osamau, often called the Walt Disney of Japan.
- 30 Films from the 1970s by Computer Animation Pioneer Lillian F. Schwartz – Free – Watch films by one of the first women artists notable for basing almost her entire body of work on computational media.
- A Country Doctor – Free – A Franz Kaka story retold in an award-winning animation by Japanese animator Koji Yamamura. (2007)
- A Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Double Feature – Free – A precursor to modern music videos, this Oscar-winning animated film by John & Faith Hubley is set to the music of two popular songs recorded by Herb Alpert. (1966)
- A Short Vision – Free – Animated film directed by Peter and Joan Foldes depicts the complete annihilation of the Earth and all life on it, presumably after an atomic blast. The film became a sensation after it was aired on The Ed Sullivan Show. (1956)
- Ah Pook is Here – Free – A stop motion animation based on audio recordings by William S. Burroughs, with music by John Cale. (1994)
- Allergy to Originality – Free – In the short, animated New York Times Op-Doc by Drew Christie, an official Sundance selection in 2014, “two men discuss whether anything is truly original — especially in movies and books.”
- American History – Free – An off-kilter student film from South Park creator Trey Parker. (1992)
- Anémic Cinéma – Free – Marcel Duchamp’s avant-garde film combines whirling optical illusions, known as Rotoreliefs, with spiraling puns and complex word play. (1926)
- Astro Boy: Birth of Astro Boy – Free – The first episode of the animated series, Astro Boy, created by famed Japanese animator Osamu Tezuka. (1963)
- Battle – Free – Soviet animated adaptation of Stephen King’s short story, “Battleground.” (1986)
- Breathdeath – Free – Cutout animation film that inspired Terry Gilliam and ended up on his list of The 10 Best Animated Films of All Time. (1963)
- Cinderella – Free – One of the first films by the silhouette animator Lotte Reiniger (1922).
- Cold War Pro-Capitalism Animations – Free – A series of Cold War animations that explain why American capitalism is the best way to go. Films were funded by the CEO of General Motors.
- Confidence – Free – Classic animation from the Great Depression shows how animators tried to get America through a dark time. (1933)
- Crime and Punishment – Free – Dostoevsky’s classic work wonderfully animated by Piotr Dumala (2000)
- Curious Alice – Free – In this film intended for young kids, Alice falls asleep while reading a book. She encounters cigarettes, liquor, and medicines, and realizes that they are all types of drugs. (1971)
- De Artificiali Perspectiva, or Anamorphosis – Free – In this dazzling short animation by the Brothers Quay, learn about the Renaissance illusionistic technique known as anamorphosis, in which a hidden image only becomes visible when viewed from a different angle or in a curved mirror. (1991)
- Der Erlking – Free – A visual representation of Goethe’s poem, The ErlKing, that uses sand-on-glass animation set to the music of Franz Schubert. (2002)
- Der Fuehrer’s Face – Free – Disney’s anti-Nazi propaganda movie featuring Donald Duck. Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. (1942)
- Destino – Free – Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí began working together in 1946 on a project that was tabled, then finally revived and finished in 2003.
- Dimensions of Dialogue – Free – Jan Svankmajer, a surrealist Czech animator, influenced Tim Burton, The Brothers Quay, and Terry Gilliam himself. Gilliam puts this claymation short on his list of The Ten Best Animated Films. (1982)
- Drums West – Free – Cut-paper animation by Jim Henson. It is one of several experimental shorts inspired by the music of jazz great Chico Hamilton. (1961)
- Dumbland – Free – A series of crude, Beavis and Butthead-style animations by David Lynch (2002)
- Early Japanese Animations – Free – A collection of early Japanese animations that show where the Japanese anime tradition began. (1917 to 1931)
- Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi – Free – Disney’s WW II propaganda film looks at how the Nazi machine corrupts youth. (1943)
- Every Child – Free – Eugene Fedorenko’s animated short about an unwanted baby cared for by homeless men. 1979 Oscar-winner for Best Animated Short Film.
- Fantasmagorie – Free – The first fully animated film ever made. 700 drawings in 2 minutes by Emile Cohl. (1908)
- Father and Daughter – Free – Michaël Dudok De Wit’s heartbreaking short won the 2000 Academy Award for Animated Short Film.
- Franz Kafka – Free – Piotr Dumala’s wonderful 16 minute animated film based on Kafka’s diaries. (1992)
- Freedom River – Free – A short animated film narrated by Orson Welles. A parable about mankind getting along. Alternate version here. (1971)
- Glass Harmonica – Free – The only animated film ever banned by Soviet censors. (1968)
- Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty– Free – 6 minute animated black comedy. Shortlisted for the 2010 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
- Gulliver’s Travels – Free – American cel-animated Technicolor feature film, directed by Dave Fleischer. (1939)
- Gumbasia – Free – First clay animation produced by Art Clokey, who went on to create the classic series, Gumby. (1955)
- Here There be Tygers – Free – A Soviet animation of a short story by Ray Bradbury. Directed by Vladimir Samsonov (1989).
- How a Mosquito Operates – Free – One of the surviving works by famed animator Winsor McCay. (1912)
- How Animated Cartoons Are Made – Free – One of the earliest, truest looks at how cartoons were made in the earliest 20th century. Features animation pioneer Wallace Carlson. (1919)
- Humorous Phases of Funny Faces – Free – Made by James Stuart Blackton, this short film is considered the first animation ever made. (1906)
- Hunger – Free – Directed by Peter Foldes, Hunger is one of the first computer animation films. It won a Special Jury Prize at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. (1974)
- I Touch a Red Button Man – Free – A short film by David Lynch and Interpol. Originally shown at the Coachella 2011 Festival.
- Is It Right to Be Always Right? – Free – Narrated by Orson Welles, this Oscar-winning film directed by Lee Mishkin is a parable that comments on divisions in the United States. (1970)
- Jazzmosphere – Free – An animated film on the relationship between images and sound, created by Michel Gondry and Jean-Louis Bompoint. (1988)
- King and Octopus – Free – Tim Burton’s short animation made during film school at CalArts. (1978)
- Lichtspiel Opus 1 – Free – The first avant garde animation shown in public, by German artist Walter Ruttmann. (1921)
- Logorama – Free – François Alaux and Herve de Crecy’s 17 minute film, Logorama, won the Oscar for Short Film (Animated) in 2009.
- Madame Tutli-Putli – Free – Oscar-nominated animated short film by Montreal filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. (2010)
- Malice in Wonderland – Free – An acid trip adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Vince Collins did the animation with graphic design by Miwako. (1982)
- Mathmagic Land – Free – A 27-minute educational featurette by Disney was nominated for an Oscar and widely shown in American schools. “We have recently explained mathematics in a film,” said Walt Disney “and in that way excited public interest in this very important subject. (1959)
- Mickey Mouse in Vietnam – Free – An underground, anti-war animation co-created by Milton Glaser. (1968)
- Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase – Free – Joan Gratz’ 1992 Oscar-winning animation provides a chronological trip through the history of modern art, beginning with Impressionism and passing through Cubism and Surrealism en route to Pop art and hyper-realism. (1992)
- Mourir Auprès de Toi (To Die By Your Side) – Free – Spike Jonze collaborates with Olivia Le-Tan and Simon Cahn to produce stop motion film set in Shakespeare and Company in Paris (2011)
- Neighbors – Free – Norman McLaren animates live actors with techniques normally used to put drawings/puppets into motion. Oscar winner. (1952)
- Night on Bald Mountain – Free – An eery, avant-garde pinscreen animation by Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker, based on Mussorgsky’s masterpiece. (1933)
- Optical Poems – Free – Avant-garde short animation by Oskar Fischinger. Features handmade shapes, suspended by fishing line, moving in sync with Franz Liszt’s “2nd Hungarian Rhapsody.”
- Princess Iron Fan – Free – The first animated Chinese feature film. Made during WW II, when China was under Japanese occupation. (1941)
- Private Snafu – Free – World War II propaganda cartoons created by Dr. Seuss, Frank Capra & Mel Blanc. (1943)
- Purl – Free – Directed by Kristen Lester, this Pixar short features an earnest ball of yarn named Purl who gets a job in a fast-paced, high energy, bro-tastic start-up. (2019)
- Quasi at the Quackadero – Free – A trippy animated film by Sally Cruikshank. Voted one of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time. (1975)
- Reason and Emotion – Free – Walt Disney uses some neuroscience to explain the forces behind World War II. (1943)
- Red Hot Riding Hood – Free – A rebellious version of Little Red Riding Hood created by Tex Avery. Ranked 7th on list of The 50 Greatest Cartoons. (1943)
- Ryan – Free – Oscar-winning animated short from Chris Landreth based on the life of Ryan Larkin, the influential Canadian animator. (2004)
- Seder Masochism – Free – Directed by Nina Paley, and loosely following a traditional Passover Seder, the events of Exodus are retold by Moses, Aharon, the Angel of Death, Jesus, and the director’s own father. But there’s another side to this story: that of the Goddess, humankind’s original deity. (2018)
- Sherlock Hound – Free – Hayao Miyazaki directed six episodes of the animated series that featured a corgi Sherlock Hound and terrier Doctor Watson going on adventures across a steampunk London. (1984)
- Sisyphus – Free – An Oscar-nominated Hungarian short film directed by Marcell Jankovics, based on the myth of Sisyphus. (1974)
- Sita Sings the Blues – Free – New prize-winning animated film by Nina Paley. (2008)
- Snow White – Free – Snow-White, also known as Betty Boop in Snow-White, comes from Max Fleischer’s Fleischer Studios. An innovative film that features scenes rotoscoped over footage by Cab Calloway, it was voted #19 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. (1933)
- So Much for So Little – Free – Legendary animator Chuck Jones creates a cartoon touting the virtues of universal healthcare. (1949)
- Soviet Toys – Free – Dziga Vertov, best known for his landmark film A Man with a Movie Camera, also made the Soviet Union’s first ever animated movie. (1924)
- Special Delivery – Free – Hilarious story won 1978 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
- Stalk of the Celery Monster – Free – A short animation Tim Burton made while in film school at CalArts. (1979)
- Steamboat Willie – Free – The first Disney cartoon that introduced sound animation and Mickey Mouse to the larger world. (1928)
- Story of One Crime – Free – The directorial debut of Fyodor Khitruk, the animator of some of the greatest animation ever produced in Russia. (1962)
- Storytime – Free – The debut animation film by Monty Python legend Terry Gilliam. (1968)
- Street Musique – Free – Influential animated film by Ryan Larkin. (1972)
- Superman – Free – Max Fleischer’s short animated movie. Nominated for the 1942 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. Other shorts that followed can be viewed here. (1941)
- Superman: The Mechanical Monsters – Free – Film captures the era’s characteristic ambivalence in reconciling the need for progress with the fear of technology. Find more episodes in this series at Toonami Digital Arsenal. (1941)
- Thank You, Mask Man – Free – Lenny Bruce comedy routine about the Lone Ranger gets turned into an outlandish animated film. (1968)
- The Ant and the Grasshopper – Free – Early stop animation film by the great Russian animator Ladislas Starevich. (1911)
- The Cameraman’s Revenge – Free – This very early silent era stop-motion film was made by Ladislas Starevich in imperial Russia in 1912. He used real insects to create the story. (1912)
- The Cathedral – Free – “The Cathedral” is the title of a sci fi short story by Jacek Dukaj. It was turned into a short animated movie by Tomasz Bagiński and nominated in 2002 for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film. (2002)
- The Cave – Free – A short claymation film animating the famous cave allegory in Plato’s Republic. (2008)
- The Centaurs – Free – An incomplete work by Winsor McCay. (1921)
- The Critic – Free – Mel Brooks 1963 animation features an old Yiddish watching abstract animations. Hilarious film won Oscar. (1963)
- The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird – Free – A low budget release of the influential animated film The King and the Mockingbird, created by Paul Grimault and Jaques Prévert. This version was narrated by Peter Ustinov. (1952)
- The Danish Poet – Free – Animated short film written, directed, and animated by Torill Kove and narrated by Liv Ullmann, won the Academy Award in 2006.
- The Dot and the Line – Free – Chuck Jones’ animated film celebrates geometry and hard work. (1965)
- The Dream of a Ridiculous – Free – Wonderful animation of Dostoevsky’s story by Oscar-winning Russian animator Alexander Petrov. (1992)
- The Employment – Free – A prize winning commentary on why we’re disenchanted by work today. (2011)
- The Family That Dwelt Apart – Free – Based on a short story published by E.B. White in The New Yorker in 1937. (1983)
- The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore – Free – Oscar-winning film by Moonbot Studios pays homage to a bygone era when elegantly printed books inhabited our world. (2011)
- The Happy Prince – Free – A faithful rendering of an Oscar Wilde children’s story. Features the voices of Christopher Plummer and Glynis Johns. (1974)
- The Hobbit – Free – This short animation by Prague-based animator Gene Deitch was the first film adaptation of Tolkien’s classic. (1966)
- The Hole – Free – A 15-minute animated film by John Hubley and Faith Hubley that won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1962. Features the voice of Dizzy Gillespie. (1962)
- The Idea – Free – Created by Czech filmmaker Berthold Bartosch, The Idea has been called “the first animated film created as an artwork with serious, even tragic, social and philosophical themes.” (1932)
- The Giving Tree – Free – An animated adaptation of Shel Silverstein’s wonderful children’s book. (1973)
- The John Lennon Sketchbook – Free – Oscar-winning animator John Canemaker brings to life the drawings and doodles of John Lennon. (1986)
- The Junky’s Christmas – Free – Short claymation film starring (and written by) William S. Burroughs. Danny the Carwiper spends Christmas Day trying to score a fix, but finds the Christmas spirit instead. Produced by Coppola. (1993)
- The Legend of Robert Johnson – Free – Animation of the famous bluesman’s fabled deal with the devil. (2011)
- The Mascot – Free – This 1934 film by the Russian animator Wladyslaw Starewicz pioneered a number of stop animation techniques, making it a seminal film in the history of animation. (1934)
- The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa – Free – A wonderful sand animation of the classic Kafka story, The Metamorphosis. Made by Caroline Leaf. (1977)
- The Miracle of Flight – Free – A cutout animation by Terry Gilliam. Made in the style of (but separately from) Monty Python. (1974)
- The Nightmare Before Christmas – Free – Christopher Lee narrates a beautiful animation of Tim Burton’s poem, Nightmare Before Christmas.
- The Nose – Free – Created by Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker, this animation uses an amazing pinscreen technique to adapt Nikolai Gogol’s classic story. (1963)
- The Old Man and the Sea – Free – Aleksandr Petrov won the Academy Award for Short Film for this film that follows the plot of Ernest Hemingway’s classic 1952 novella. Made of 29,000 images painted on glass. (1999)
- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Free – Experimental film created by Larry Jordan, an independent filmmaker who tried to marry “the classic engravings of Gustave Doré to the classic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge through a classic narrator: Orson Welles. (1977)
- The Romance of Transportation in Canada – Free – Created by influential Canadian filmmaker Colin Low, this animation won a Short Film Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. (1952)
- The Sand Castle – Free – Short animated film about the sandman and the creatures he sculpts out of sand. 1977 Oscar-winner for Best Animated Short Film.
- The Selfish Giant – Free – An Oscar-nominated animated version of Oscar Wilde’s children’s story by the same title. (1971)
- The Single Life – Free – A short Oscar nominated animation about how music–particularly vinyl records–can transport us to magical places. (2015)
- The Sinking of the Lusitania – Free – Early animator Winsor McCay documents in 12 minutes the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. (1918)
- The Skeleton Dance – Free – A Silly Symphony animated short subject produced and directed by Walt Disney and animated by Ub Iwerks. It was voted #18 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. (1929)
- The Spirit of ’43 – Free – Disney propaganda film made for the American government. Features Donald Duck. (1943)
- The Star of Bethlehem – Free – Made by legendary German animator Lotte Reiniger, this short uses silhouette animation to tell the Christmas story. (1956)
- The Story Of Menstruation – Free – Walt Disney’s sex ed film was shown to millions of American students from the 1940s to the 1960s. (1946)
- The Story of Stuff – Free – Animated fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. (2007)
- The Tale and the Fox – Free – Ladislas Starevich’s classic animation of a German folktale adapted by Goethe. (1937)
- The Tell-Tale Heart – Free – Animated version of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic from 1953. Narrated by James Mason.
- There Will Come Soft Rain – Free – A Ray Bradbury story adapted by Uzbek director Nazim Tyuhladziev. Second video down. (1984)
- The World of Stainboy – Free – A series of flash animation shorts created by Tim Burton and animated by Flinch Studio. (2000)
- Tin Toy – Free – John Lasseter created this Oscar-winning short film in 1988 at Pixar. It was the beginning of the company’s transition into being a premier animation studio.
- Tom Waits for No One – Free – A Tom Waits music video made with pioneering animation. Made with 5,500 rotoscoped frames, the film help John Lamb win an Oscar for Scientific & Technical Achievement. (1979)
- Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom – Free – Disney’s music education film. First cartoon released in widescreen CinemaScope. Wins 1954 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons). (1953)
- UCLA Silent Animation Archive – Free – Collection of the earliest animations from the silent era.
- Vincent – Free – Tim Burton’s early animated film honoring Vincent Price, actor in American horror films. (1982)
- Voyage to Next – Free – Directed by John Hubley and Faith Hubley, this short animated film features the voices of Dizzy Gillespie and Maureen Stapleton, and the characters wonder whether the world can avoid annihilation.(1974)
- Vinni-Pukh – Free – Soviet animations of Winnie the Pooh, created by the innovative animator Fyodor Khitruk. (1969-1972)
- Walking – Free – Oscar-nominated animated short film by Ryan Larkin. (1969)
- Why Man Creates – Free – Saul Bass’ Oscar-winning animation on the nature of creativity. (1963)
For a full lineup of great movies, please visit our complete collection of Free Movies Online.
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