Movies: Grant Munro

In this Oscar-winning short film, Norman McLaren employs the principles normally used to put drawings or puppets into motion to animate live actors. The story is a parable about two people who come to blows over the possession of a flower....

An animated cartoon to help children explore why and how animals move as they do. A little boy discovers that he cannot compete with a monkey, a snake or a horse by imitating the way they move. He can only outdistance them when he climbs into a vehic...

Perhaps the only film whose content is totally based on the musical form known as canon. The first sequence is a simple demonstration of the canon "Frere Jacques" where four cubes dance and combine with one another on a checkerboard. The second seque...

In this short animation film, Norman McLaren presents the first 3 of the 5 categories of motion: constant, accelerated and decelerated. Various types of acceleration and deceleration are demonstrated, and examples are shown of how these types of moti...

A chain-smoking woman has an encounter with a vampire....

Window shopping children watch as toy soldiers come to life and fight a war with all its unvarnished ferocity and horror....

A cemetery in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada is seen through the eyes of its former superintendent....

Three separate sequences related to Christmas, animated in different styles: cutout animation of children dancing in the snow to "Jingle Bells," stop-motion animation of toys come to life, and cel animation of a man who seeks the ideal star to top hi...

The first part of this series by Norman McLaren deals only with tempo. It starts by showing the disc travelling in one move (1/24 of a second) from A to B, and progressively demonstrates slower and slower tempos....

Features clips from 21 documentary and animation film classics, interviews with NFB filmmakers past and present, and incisive commentary from film critics and historians on the role and influence of the NFB during its first half century of existence....

Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows....

Based on the short story by Stephen Leacock, this is a satirical camera-animated story about Christmas expectations and the loss of innocence. Young Hoodoo has bought his parents cigars and a brooch for Christmas. As he opens his presents expectantly...

A selection of publicity clips mounted together in one film to show the techniques of NFB animators. As in Hors-d'oeuvre, these "quickie" films were produced originally for government agencies, to carry messages to the public....

Grant Munro dances to New Orleans jazz music....

This short puppet animation from the fifties tells the story of Magic Bow, a First Nations boy endowed with magic gifts. Magic Bow is in the big city for the first time, thrilling audiences with his tricks at the Wild West Rodeo. Outside the arena, c...

An opening address, a tribute and highlights of a long and productive career--McLaren on McLaren is Norman McLaren on camera. The occasion is the opening of a prestigious festival in Arnhem, the Netherlands, in November, 1983, marking the tenth anniv...

A compilation of satirical anti-smoking clips....

An enthusiastic but naive campaign worker causes trouble for his candidate due to his unorthodox campaign tactics, which turn out to violate the election law....

The career of Scots-Canadian animation innovator, Norman McLaren....

An unconventional version of The Christmas Carol....