Norman McLaren Movies

An ordinary-looking chair refuses to be sat upon.

An unfinished animated short from the late 1950s.

In this short animation film, Norman McLaren presents the first 3 of the 5 categories of motion: constant, accelerated and decelerated. Various types...

This short animation of linear symbols made from paper cutouts was created as a Canadian tourism publicity clip. Projected in New York's Times...

An hand drawn animation merged of abstract.

This joyful short animation features a dancing hen that transforms into an egg. The film was made without a camera by Norman McLaren, who drew...

This animated short from Norman McLaren features a human skull cautioning Canadians to “keep their mouths shut” in an effort to end...

"Là-haut sur ces montagnes" sung by Madeleine Lachance is illustrated with drawings and in "C'est l'aviron" a boat sails to the rhythm of the...

This animated short by Norman McLaren serves as a wartime savings campaign. Symbolic figures, drawn directly on 35mm film stock, move and dance...

One of a series of French-Canadian folk songs, this film was illustrated by Norman McLaren for the Chants populaires series. White gouache drawings...

Taking "Isle of the Dead," a work by the Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin as his starting point, Norman McLaren creates a deeply...

This cinematic travelogue consists of three parts. In the first part, texts and small maps are our guides through Madrid in 1936. We see pictures of...

Mixes with still images, 1940s. A large collection of McLaren's surrealist illustrations. Silent film.

An animated film in which colored shapes dance to calliope music. The visuals were drawn by Norman McLaren directly upon the film with pen and ink....

Early abstract 3d stereoscopic animation by Norman McLaren collaborator Gretta Ekman.

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...

This animated short co-animated by René Jodoin and Norman McLaren was produced for inclusion in the Let's All Sing Together sing-along series....

An abstract animation by Norman McLaren, who was born in Scotland in 1914. His interest in filmmaking began early in life after he became acquainted...

A Norman McLaren Animated Film