Research Guides: Animation: Film

Films at Mt. SAC Library

Watching films is one of the most direct ways to study the techniques and execution of computer animation, special effects, and digital art. The examples below are some of our favorite DVDs in the library collection. They can be checked out for 7 days, or viewed in the library. Ask a librarian if you require headphones.

You can also search our DVD, BlueRay, and online film screening collection suing OneSearch.

Computer Animated Films

Finding Dory
When Dory, the forgetful blue tang, suddenly remembers she has a family who may be looking for her, she, Marlin, and Nemo take off on a life-changing quest to find them, with help from Hank, a cantankerous octopus; Bailey, a beluga whale who's convinced his biological sonar skills are on the fritz; and Destiny, a nearsighted whale shark!
Shrek 2
Right after Shrek and Princess Fiona's honeymoon, the newly wed couple goes to Princess Fiona's parents for dinner. When a Fairy Godmother discovers Fiona and Shrek are married she reminds the king about a deal they agreed on years ago, that Fiona should have married her son, who happens to be Prince Charming. The King then hires a cat named Puss-in-Boots, a sword fighting cat and ogre slayer, to kill Shrek
Ferdinand
A kind and peaceful bull is chosen to fight an egotistical and ambitious matador.
The Peanuts Movie
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, and the rest of the beloved Peanuts gang make their big-screen debut, like they've never been seen before, in state-of-the-art 3D animation. Charlie Brown, the world's most beloved underdog, embarks upon an epic and heroic quest, while his best pal, the lovable beagle Snoopy, takes to the skies to pursue his arch-nemesis, the Red Baron.
Toy Story
An astonishing world where toys play while their owners are away. Woody is a pull-string cowboy doll and is the leader of the toys until the latest, greatest action figure, Buzz Lightyear, enters the picture. When the toy rivals are separated from their owner, they learn to put aside their differences and work as a team to get back home to the boy they love.

Films with Special Effects and Digital Art

Documentaries

Life, Animated
Life, Animated tells the remarkable story of how Owen Suskind found a pathway to language and a framework for making sense of the world through Disney animated films.

Sample of Available Streaming Animated Films (from Kanopy)

Alice
Czech animator Jan Svankmajer has created a masterpiece of cinema, a strikingly original interpretation of Lewis Carroll's classic tale. Svankmajer's ALICE remains true to the absurdity of Carroll's original, but bears the stamp of his own distinctive style and obsessions. Combining techniques of animation and live action, he gives a new and fascinating dimension to the classic tale of childhood fantasies.
Tower
TOWER combines archival footage with rotoscopic animation of the dramatic day, based entirely on first person testimonies from witnesses, heroes and survivors, in a seamless and suspenseful retelling of the unfolding tragedy. The film highlights the fear, confusion, and visceral realities that changed the lives of those present, and the rest of us, forever - a day when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others.
Tehran Taboo
In this gorgeously animated drama, the lives of several strong-willed women and a young musician intersect. Their stories reveal the hypocrisies of modern Iranian society, where sex, drugs, and corruption coexist with strict religious law.
Louise by the Shore
An imaginative, reflective animated film from France about an old woman and her adventures in a small abandoned seaside resort town when the weather takes a turn for the worse.
Watership Down
With this passion project, screenwriter-producer-director Martin Rosen brilliantly achieved what had been thought nearly impossible: a faithful big-screen adaptation of Richard Adams's classic British dystopian novel about a community of rabbits under terrible threat from modern forces.