Great Canadiana, Animated

As my friend Jason pointed out in his blog, the2scoops, the National Film Board has released 50 of their most beloved animated shorts on their website. While Jay highlighted one they missed (the CBC late-afternoon classic , The Logjammer's Dance), I found two absolute classics on the NFB site.

The first is the Roch Carrier's classic, The Sweater. Narrated in a rich Quebecois accent, the film tells the story of young Montrealer who, along with all of his friends, lives and dies for the Montreal Canadians. Each of the boys dresses as a miniature Maurice Richard on the ice. When his jersey grows tattered, the boy's mother writes to monsieur Eaton to order a new one. Tragically, when it arrives, the jersey is not a beautiful red, white and blue Montreal jersey, but a horrible blue and white jersey from a team just west of Montreal. Despite his horror at having to wearing the sweater of a team that always loses to Montreal, his mother makes him wear the jersey. Misadventures ensue. Delightful.

The second is The Big Snit. Beginning innocuously with a game of Scrabble, the film progresses to a frenzy of furniture sawing, eyeball shaking, nuclear war and, well, you just have to see it.