Homesteading on the Prairies

W.O. Mitchell recounts Newton's Law of Falling Backhouses, a story based on the youthful pranks of his prairie childhood.

The vibrant images of this beautifully illustrated animation film will captivate all audiences, and will be particularly useful in the classroom to teachers of art and language arts. In this original fable the world loses its colours when a trout, obsessed by the beauty of the rainbow, steals it from the sky.

The "local boogeyman" tells stories of Halloween as it used to be in rural Ontario.

After a long, hard ocean voyage across the Atlantic, twelve-year-old Henry and his mother arrive in Upper Canada. Uncle Ned meets them and takes them to rest up. Homesick, Henry takes a turn around the village and discovers what village life is like in a well-established farming community. He soon settles in and brings some good news to his mother.

When the celebration of Mother's Day was introduced around 1910, Stephen Leacock observed the quaint idea with a short story. The family in Leacock's version turns the idea to their advantage, taking a splendid holiday in the country, leaving Mother behind to enjoy her special day in peace.

This animated short tells a humourous Hebrew folk tale about a man's venture to introduce onions to a far away kingdom and a disreputable man's attempt to exploit that.

There's a "silver lining in every cloud" as Donald O'Neary turns every misfortune his two neighbours can engineer into gold coins. Against the background of the Irish countryside, the customary "rich but dumb" characters meet their match in the "poor but crafty" hero. The story introduces the student to our rich multicultural background through the exploration of folklore of one of the peoples that make up Canada's cultural mosaic.

The story of a prince who leaves school after his grade one graduation thinking he knows all there is to be happy. When he has grown up he meets Cinderella at his birthday party ball, but when she loses her glass slipper he cannot read her name on it. Thinking her name is "Umbrella" he searches far and wide shouting "Has anybody seen my Umbrella". After timely intervention of the prince's fairy godmother they are united. They get married and spend their honeymoon in grade two. Based on the popular children's book Has Anybody Seen My Umbrella by Max Ferguson.

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 on Christmas morning, he keeps his hopes up until the end--will the next gift from Santa Claus be a pair of skates, a puppy dog, Noah's Ark, a sleigh or a drum...? When none of the gifts meets his expectations, he decides to do things differently next year.

Face of the Earth explores the origin of our planet's outer layer, the why-and-how of its mobility. Through the use of well-designed diagrams, the earth's cyclical activity is clearly explained. Some unusual footage on volcanoes gives added punch to an already absorbing subject.

When humankind is wiped out by a cosmic disaster, Raven sets out to right this wrong by finding out from the other animals how to re-create the human race. After a lot of song and dance, Raven and Coyote manage to bring to life a nice batch of people. Unfortunately, in the crowded moment of re-creation, there is an outbreak of hostilities. But Raven and Coyote haven't gone to all this trouble only to see things go wrong, and they succeed in repopulating the four corners of the Earth. An animated film based on native legends.

An unconventional version of The Christmas Carol.

This short animation transports us from the farthest conceivable point of the universe to the tiniest particle of existence, an atom of a living human cell. The art of animation and animation camera achieve this exhilarating journey with a freshness and clarity. Without words.

A charming children's story about three birds--one is being served for Thanksgiving dinner by Grandma. The other birds are featured in two improbable situations which show the extremes that people go to in order to get a turkey on the table for Thanksgiving.

This animated short depicts a family celebration of Passover as seen through the eyes of two little girls. They identify the traditional symbolic dishes and are treated to a special story by their grandfather that brings to life the meaning of this important Jewish holiday.

A pioneer's life may be a hard one, but there's no doubt that a little optimism goes a long way. Confused by advice on what to avoid when buying a horse, our gullible settler is fooled into buying a "mare's egg"--to hatch his own colt! After weeks without success, he tosses the "egg" into the bushes--with hare-raising results! But as he chases after the "hatched colt," he remembers the advice: big ears--stubborn; big teeth--a biter; low in the hindquarters--a runaway for sure. Well, maybe he's better off without this one, and off he goes on his optimistic way--with plans to save up and buy another egg! Adapted from a story by Carole Spray.