Animated plasticine. Talking chickens. Dancing Cossacks. Plus old favourites bro'Town, Hairy Maclary and Footrot Flats. From Len Lye to Gollum, feast on the talents of Kiwi animators. In his backgrounder to the Animation Collection, NZ On Screen's Ian Pryor provides handy pathways through the frogs, dogs and stop motion shenanigans. 

NZ On Screen’s Top 10 most viewed titles of 2015 features two All Blacks, a pair of animated favourites, a number of guitars, the debut episode of Outrageous Fortune, and a documentary about moko. Check out the top 10 list below, and find out more about the top 10 here.   

Low-tech legend Chris Knox is an accomplished musician, cartoonist, critic, filmmaker, and jandal wearer. As this collection demonstrates, his genius takes flight in the DIY aesthetic of his music videos. As Flying Nun founder Roger Shepherd says in his backgrounder, “this is a unique and important collection of work perfectly illustrating what is possible with the barest of resources and a free-wheeling imagination”. Russell Brown adds his view here. Alongside music videos, the collection also includes interviews with Knox and profiles of bands Toy Love and Tall Dwarfs.

As the trailer makes clear, this award-winning animated short film has a key ingredient for a pulp movie: cardboard. It also features car chases, explosions and a fire brigade fighting to save Cardboard City (including The Beehive and Sky Tower). Director Phil Brough collaborated on the script with fellow Back of the Y alumnus Matt Heath. Leigh Hart and Jeremy Wells are among the voices in the film, which was six years in the making. Fire in Cardboard City was selected for the 2018 Berlin and Tribeca film festivals, and won Best New Zealand Film at the 2017 Show Me Shorts Film Festival.

Wellington rockers Paselode certainly weren’t the first band to conquer, argue, then combust; but this film offers an unusual view on the group’s internal dynamics. Inspired by the legendary Creature Comforts films by Aardman Animation, The Paselode Story takes real-life interviews with bandmembers, and animates the results. Expect possibly tongue-in-cheek revelations of how singer Gerome Mills charmed — or bribed — his way into his brother’s band with his Dad’s help, before revealing his true colours. There are also live action scenes of Paselode in action.

Made for TV2, The Adventures of Massey Ferguson aims to show children what life is like outside the big cities. In this episode the little farm near Kumara Cove — to a red tractor named Massey Ferguson, and his farm vehicle friends —has dried up in the summer heat. It is up to Massey to track down some water, with a little help from Gracie the quad bike and Beaut the Ute. Despite suggestions that it might be worth trying a Native American rain dance or water divining, Massey opts to set out and find the water himself. The fate of the farm rests on his wheels.

Screening on TVNZ, this animated series for young kids follows the adventures of Massey the farm tractor and his machine mates on Murray and Heather’s farm. In this episode from the first series Massey gets distracted en route to fencing by Slo Mo, an uppity mobility scooter who doesn’t like collecting eggs. When the chicks follow Slo Mo to the shed — where no animals are allowed — the gang come up with a plan, and a cunning disguise for Slo Mo. The series is narrated by broadcaster Jim Mora (Mucking In), who created it with Brent Chambers of Flux Animation.

This Simmonds Brothers short zips through five generations of their family history, from Croatia to the Kapiti Coast, plus a shipwreck near Auckland. Described as a 'documation', the voices of yarning family members are married to their cartoon likenesses, to comic and ultimately moving effect. The film opens with Mariano and Elizabeth Vella's great great granddaughter and moves to a dramatic re-enactment of the Dalmatian settlers' so-called "very nice honeymoon" on the steamer SS Wairarapa, when it was wrecked off Great Barrier Island in 1894 (131 people died).

This family-friendly series from company Flux Animation follows the adventures of Tamatoa, a young Māori boy and his friends Moana, Manu (the moa), Moko (the tuatara) and Kereru (the kereru). Making clear director Brent Chambers’ lifelong love of American animation, the ten-minute episodes feature visual gags aplenty, most of them sold with a Kiwi twist. Set in pre-European times, the series features the voice talents of comedian Cal Wilson, Jason Hoyte (Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby) and Stephanie Tauevihi (Shortland Street).

This cheese-themed episode from the second series of the animated show is musically narrated by Kiwi cartoon icons Ches And Dale (both voiced by Outrageous Fortune’s Frank Whitten). The duo join Stanley and Mary-Jane on a pipe into Drainworld, where they battle Dr Drain’s plans to use cheese to convert an army of rats to his evil plans. Created by Jim Mora (Mucking In) and Brent Chambers of Flux Animation, the first series marked New Zealand TV’s first international animation co-production; the second season of Staines Down Drains was produced by Flux for TVNZ.