Visionary Animation

It began as a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between two of the greatest icons of the fantasy genre: Controversial animator Ralph Bakshi (director of Fritz the Cat and the original The Lord of the Rings) and legendary illustrator Frank Frazetta (creator of the iconic Conan The Barbarian, and countless Edgar Rice Burroughs book covers). It became - and remains - on...Read More

"There's nothing else that's ever been made that's like The Wolf House." — Ari Aster (Hereditary). A fraught fever dream of a fairy tale from Chile inspired in part by the nightmarish goings-on at the Pinochet regime's "Colonia Dignidad," The Wolf House is something like a Little Red Riding Hood narrated by the wolf. The Wolf House is a film of constant disorienting...Read More

The infamous reimagining of Alice in Wonderland by surrealist animator Vince Collins. Restored by Mark Toscano at the Academy® Film Archive. NOTE: This video contains flashing images. Viewer Discretion is advised.

Director Jiří Barta’s stop-motion animated masterpiece, based on The Pied Piper of Hamelin, is set in a dark and twisted medieval village of narrow streets and weird Gothic arches, half-CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and half-Jan van Eyck. The money-obsessed citizens, carved out of wood blocks and speaking in an onomatopoeic babble, are like George Grosz caricatures, liter...Read More

Unflappable and unstoppable mouse secret agent Nick Grabovsky (László Sinkó) with his deadpan voice, baggy pants and a big "G" on his shirt, goes up against the criminal cat gang run by the sinister, metal-pawed Mr. Teufel (Miklós Benedek), in Hungarian director Béla Ternovszky's surreal, animated sci-fi treasure. Set in the year 80 AMM ("After Mickey Mouse") on Pla...Read More

THE ULTIMATE VIRTUAL REALITY TRIP! Something strange is happening in Tokyo and it's up to Shogo to unravel the mystery! When the young rebel stumbles upon a top secret weapon, he can't possibly know what dangers await him. Determined to learn the truth behind this bizarre war machine -and avenge his friend's murder- Shogo is thrust into a complex web of political in...Read More

“There have been enough post-holocaust nuclear winter films to constitute a genre” says Time Out, “but there has never been anything quite like this.” When the Wind Blows is Director Jimmy T. Murakami's animated classic about an elderly couple – voiced by Academy Award® winners Sir John Mills and Dame Peggy Ashcroft – attempting to survive the aftermath of a nuclear...Read More

Hungarian director György Kovásznai’s wildly idiosyncratic animated musical is one of the most indescribably strange, personal and totally irresistible cartoon features ever made. A truly insane mash-up of styles, from 1920s Art Deco to 1960s Psychedelia to late 1970s louche Roxy Music decadence, BUBBLE BATH is incredibly restless and creative, the bohemian love-chi...Read More

One of the great psychedelic masterpieces of world animation, Son of the White Mare is a swirling, color-mad maelstrom of mythic monsters and Scythian heroes, part-Nibelungenlied, part-Yellow Submarine, lit by jagged bolts of lightning and drenched in rivers of blue, red, gold and green. A massive cosmic oak stands at the gates of the Underworld, holding seventy-sev...Read More

Directed by Academy Award-winner Fred Wolf, "The Point" tells the story of Oblio, a round-headed boy living in the land of "Point," where everything and everybody has one. Oblio, along with his trusty dog, Arrow, is banished to the Pointless Forest. The tale is narrated by Ringo Starr and includes songs written and sung by Grammy Award-winner Harry Nilsson.

Long-lost 1980s Romanian animated sci-fi film DELTA SPACE MISSION in incredibly strange and beautiful work of galactic eye candy that defies all rules of perspective and logic; like M.C. Escher and Moebius teaming up on a Romanian Saturday morning cartoon. In the year 3084, a Modigliani-esque alien journalist with blue-green skin, Alma, boards a state-of-the-art...Read More

This special Night Flight compilation looks back at Gumby and Pokey's best experiments and adventures from the lab. Sub-atomic Inventions, pianos on the moon, microscopic civilizations and more... Laff it up.

"Why search the sand for answers? It has told us everything," whispers Roseline, the 173-year old desert nomad narrator of French director Jean-François Laguionie's hauntingly poetic animated feature of life after the apocalypse. Into this desolate science-fiction landscape (part-Dune, part-Fury Road) emerges the story's teenage heroine, Gwen, who refuses to hide in...Read More

A visually sumptuous adaptation of Sándor Petőfi’s famed 1845 poem, and the first-ever feature length animated film produced in Hungary, János Vitéz recounts the exploits of strapping young solider Johnny Corncob and his mythic quest to be reunited with Iluska, the great love of his life. Directed by legendary Hungarian animator Marcell Jankovics’ (Son of the White ...Read More

Populated by singing (and barely dressed) Mermaids, a funky hepcat Octopus and whiskey-drinking Skeleton Pirates, the underwater kingdom is the grooviest scene this side of Yellow Submarine, with helpings of Dr. Seuss, Sid & Marty Krofft and Harry Nilsson's The Point thrown in. (Danish kids' entertainment in the early 1970s was truly outtasite!) In addition to the c...Read More

A combination feline detective story, Gothic mystery and occult horror, Felidae follows green-eyed protagonist Francis and his grizzled, one-eyed companion Blaubart as they unravel the killings stretching back decades, involving death cults, genetic experimentation and a mysterious martyr religion. One of the most sought-after titles among world animation fans a...Read More

This cult cartoon follows two ducks, Quasi and Anita, and a pet robot at an amusement park in the future where time travel is exploited. Hugely popular in the 1970s, it was named to the National Film Registry in 2009.

Arguably the only anime ever made inspired by both Hello Kitty and Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, TAMALA 2010 is a futuristic techno fever dream that flows back and forth in time, following the adorable wide-eyed kitty Tamala. Escaping into space, she’s waylaid by the God of Death and crash-lands near Hate City on the Planet Q, where she meets a new boyfrien...Read More

“A crime is a crime, even if committed by kings,” intones the narrator of director József Gémes’s animated portrait of the supposedly “heroic” age of medieval knights and kings, a sprawling and bloody tapestry of ruthless combat. Based on an epic narrative poem by 19th century Hungarian writer János Arany, Heroic Times has a unique visual style combining gorgeous oi...Read More

"Take Off To Animation" takes a colorful look at the use of animation in music video over the previous few years in styles ranging from experimental camera technique to 'Saturday morning cartoon'. Many of the videos compiled for this episode first became well-known due to their repeat exposure on Night Flight. Bona fide Night Flight classics here include Tom Tom Clu...Read More

Now available for streaming on Night Flight Plus is the influential 1977 "Fantastic Animation Festival," the first widely-released collection of animated films, which became a hit with midnight movie lovers, was the first exposure for dozens of respected animators, and spawned like-minded follow-up compilations for decades to follow. It premiered on television as on...Read More

One of the more popular animated short films that aired during Night Flight’s '80s heyday was Wes Archer’s cult fave Jac Mac & Rad Boy, Go!, a wonderfully frenetic cartoon about two party-bound teens who inadvertently destroy a city on their way to hell, which Archer admits he may have also been inspired by his own wayward youth in Houston, Texas. Note: Wes went on ...Read More

Twenty years after their last feature, the Quay Brothers return to the work of Polish author and visual artist Bruno Schulz (The Street of Crocodiles) for inspiration. A son's visit to his dying father begins with a phantom train ride to a decaying, otherworldly sanatorium, where he experiences seven fragmented "manifestations" of a parental entity. Presented by Aca...Read More