Best Animation Movies of 1973

Turkey, cranberries, pumpkin pie... and the Peanuts gang to share them with. This is going to be the greatest Thanksgiving ever! The fun begins when Peppermint Patty invites herself and her pals to Charlie Brown's house for a REALLY big turkey party. Good grief! All our hero can cook is cold cereal and maybe toast. Is Charlie Brown doomed? Not when Linus, Snoopy and Woodstock chip in to save the (Thanksgiving) Day. With such good friends, Charlie Brown - and all of us - have so many reasons to be thankful.

Wilbur the pig is scared of the end of the season, because he knows that come that time, he will end up on the dinner table. He hatches a plan with Charlotte, a spider that lives in his pen, to ensure that this will never happen.

An "underground" cartoonist contends with life in the inner city, where various unsavory characters serve as inspiration for his artwork.

The pressure to conform, the inevitability of change, and the resistance to trying something new form the basis for the usual madcap adventures associated with the creative mind of Dr. Seuss. "Dr. Seuss on the Loose" builds upon three short stories - "The Sneetches," "The Zax" and "Green Eggs and Ham" - to create a thematic trio that explores the often fickle and flexible world of attitudes.

"The tape is one of the seminal works in video. In three short exercises, Campus uses basic techniques of video technology and his own image to create succinct, almost philosophical metaphors for the psychology of the self. In these concise performances, he employs video's inherent properties as a metaphorical vehicle for articulating transformations of internal and external selves, illusion and reality."

Music: Carl Stone. Colored pen-and-ink drawings, like topological maps of biomorphic objects, grow and evolve from the red star. Once the master image is formed, this continuously throbbing, pulsating sight is used to ring changes based on years of optical work. Music and picture work together to create a mood of ecstatic tranquility. The bright colors, beautiful music, surprise at the end, etc. make this a good film for young children. Awards: Sinking Creek Film & Video Festival, 1973; Washington National Student Film Festival, 1974; Brooklyn Independent Filmmakers Exposition, 1974; Vanguard Int'l Competition of Electronic Music for Film, 1974; Humboldt Film Festival, 1974.

A family of seven lives on a New England island with nobody else. One winter, they got stranded because the bay froze over. This didn't much matter to them, but someone on the mainland remembered them and launched an aerial rescue mission; an unfounded story that one boy had appendicitis results in a larger rescue mission, with the situation rapidly escalating into a major catastrophe all because of the rescue mission.

Animated short film by Piotr Kamler

This experimental animated short takes a critical look at consumerism in a material world. Thousands of cut-out ads are presented in increasingly fragmented, rapid succession. The film's disorienting and hectic pace seeks to interrogate the extent to which seductive advertising is a shockingly strong force in shaping our desires, needs, and lives in contemporary capitalism.

While the rest of the world is getting ready for Christmas, all the bears in Bearbank are getting ready to sleep… except for Ted E. Bear. Ted gets curious about the holiday, and sets out to learn the meaning of it from Santa Claus himself.

Most of the Peanuts gang is having trouble at school, but none more than Charlie Brown. In fact, he is told that he needs an "A" on a field trip report on an art museum or he will fail his grade. Unfortunately, Peppermint Patty, over-tired by Marcie waking her up at 4:00 in the morning, inadvertently distracts Charlie Brown and his sister from their group and they all mistake a neighbouring supermarket for the Art Museum. Even as they try to understand why all the displays are for sale so cheaply, Patty's weariness and her own ambivalent feelings about Chuck causes her to blurt out some hurtful comments about him. Now, Charlie Brown is going to have to realize his basic mistake in his report, while Marcie and Peppermint Patty search for a way of making amends to the boy they both secretly like in their own way.

A partially-animated ABC Afterschool Special about two youngsters who are miniaturized, then travel through their Uncle's body to understand more about his health.

Hoot Kloot tries to arrest Crazywolf for selling medicine without a license. However, Hoot gets a deal on his medicine which makes his strong, though only problem is it wears off quick.

Professor Arronax and Ned Land meet Captain Nemo, who reveals that the so-called sea monster they've been told about is actually his submarine The Nautilus.

The Blue Racer snake hunts for food. After failing to nab an egg from Crazylegs Crane, he decided to try catching a bee, but even that fails.

A compilation of images co-creator Frank Mouris had collected from magazines interwoven with two narrations, one giving a mostly linear autobiography and the other stating words having to do with the images, the story the first voice is relating, or neither.

A singing bee gives Blue Racer suggestions on how to win back his girlfriend.

A sequel to "A Cricket in Times Square," in this feature a musical cricket returns to his New York City home and his friends, a cat and a mouse, to discover the meaning of Christmas.

"The Three Musketeers" is 1973 animated TV movie from Hanna Barbera that is a remake of their own 1968 cartoon of the same name. In this film, the queen consort of France is falsely accused by Cardinal Richelieu of being involved in a plot to overthrow her husband, the king of France. The king's musketeers, Athos, Porthos, Aramis and a new recruit named D'Artagnan, attempt to solve the situation.

Crazylegs Crane and Blue Racer fights to get the honey bee for a meal.

The further adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise, as they explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets.

A farmer accidentally creates a self-procreating iron Pegasus.

It's winter and The Blue Racer is looking for a place to stay. He comes across a cabin that's perfect except for a bear that wants it for himself.

A shepherdess loses her sheep and Hoot thinks Crazywolf stole them, so he's off to get him. Unfortunaty, Crazywolf is a practical joker and catching him is harder that he thought. First "Hoot Kloot" cartoon.

Blue Racer is forced to play with a rooster's son, so Racer tries to play games with him, which usually involve Blue Racer trying to get rid of the little bird. Unfortunatly for the snake, the rooster is keeping an eye on them all the time.

While looking for a thousand year egg in a Japanese contest, Blue Racer stumbles upon a dragon who hatches in one of it, and the dragon thinks he is his mother. After many misfortunes raising him, Blue Racer sends the dragon to Tokyo to become a movie star. In the end, Blue Racer reads in a newspaper that the dragon did became an actor.

Feeling down about his reptilian appearance, Blue Racer wonders what it would be like to instead be a bird. Just then, a wizard appears out of thin air in need of some snake sweat for a magical potion. Blue Racer refuses to help, but the wizard entices him by offering to grant him three wishes. Intrigued, Blue Racer wishes he had wings. The wizard obliges, but a little courting escapade, an encounter with Crazylegs Crane, and the rescue of a small chick make Blue Racer realize that life as a winged blue snake isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The shipwrecked Blue Racer spots an island and also spots two mischievous leprechauns giving the fast blue snake hard time.

Somewhat based on Desmond Morris's fascinating book of pop anthropology, this partially animated satirical docudrama produced by Playboy Magazine publisher Hugh Hefner, traces the evolution of human kind and offers insight into the reasons why we behave the way we do. Though often dealing with sexuality, nothing in the film is terribly offensive or graphic. A prime example of mainstream experimental film-making from the early 70's featuring a young and breathtakingly lovely Victoria Principal.

Hoot, thinking it's impossible to catch Crazywolf on his horse Fester, he replaces him with a police-car. Crazywolf of course makes it impossible for him to catch him even with his car.

An animated version of the Allegory of the Cave taken from Plato's Republic, book VII.

An animated retelling of a Pueblo tale, in which a mysterious boy seeks his father.

The Emperor of Japan is scheduled to visit the small fishing village of Titipu for the annual cherry blossom festival. Unfortunately, during the ceremony the town tailor, Koko, winks at the pretty Kataisha, who is to be the wife of the Emperor's son Nanki Poo. Koko is promptly arrested and thrown in a dark, dank dungeon and sentenced to death for disrespecting the Emperor. Things look bleak for Koko until Nanki Poo falls in love with the lovely Yum Yum, and Koko gets caught up in a scheme to deceive the Emperor.

Carried by a rich narration from Orson Welles, this rarely seen 1973 animated adaptation of Plato’s 'allegory of the cave' populates the tale with haunting human figures, bringing retro-surreal life to the parable.

A boy and a tree grow old together.

Using life-like seal fur puppets, this animated short by Co Hoedeman tells the traditional Inuit tale of the owl and the raven.

Two kids are running through a futuristic city, hurrying to see the only miracle left.

Animated adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic.

A compact, full-color cut-out animation as ephemeral as the colors swimming on the surface of a soap bubble. The eternal round shape, the orb (sun, moon, symbol of the whole self) balloons its inimitable and joyous course through scene after scene of celestial delight, fixing at last as the mystical globe encasing the lovers whose course it has paralleled throughout the film.

Commissioned by David Bienstock, creator of the New American Film Series at the Whitney Museum of Art to raise funds for the second season of the series. The film was projected at the end of each program and a box to receive donations was placed at the exit of the theater. Whitney Commercial ran for two or three years until the Museum agreed to sponsor the series on its own which has continued to the present season.

An animated version of the much loved 1960's TV series. This time the Jupiter 2 is a space shuttle on its way from Earth to Saturn, commanded by Commander Craig Robinson and crewed by Robon the robot. The passengers are Linc Robinson, Craig's brother, Geologist Deanna Carmichael and Professor of Biology, Dr. Zachary Smith, who is not a stowaway this time. During the flight they are caught in a meteor storm sending them through a space warp, causing them to be "lost in space". Nearing an inhabited planet they come under attack forcing them to make a crash landing where they find two alien races, but are they friendly?

The first sequence of the Hearst Castle was rotoscoped from Steven Lisberger's film and animated in Cosmic Cartoon. Lisberger did much of the matte painting, figure rotoscoping and airbrush painting, and Eric Ladd did the Earth rotation animation.

In this animated film a black line becomes a magic cord to serve a small child's fancy. In Nébule's hands it becomes whatever he wills--a hoop to roll, a spring to jump on, a tight-rope, a dog, or a bird. The metamorphoses, played out against soft, pastel-coloured backgrounds, encompass all the world of a child's fears and fancies.

Cartoon adaptation of the classic of world literature by Alexandre Dumas, which tells the dramatic odyssey of Edmond Dantes since he's unjustly accused and sentenced for life.

Created as a demonstration of multi-disciplinary thinking, this film was produced in association with UCLA Mathematics professor, Ray Redheffer. With the exclusive use of storytelling through animation this lively and exuberant presentation of the “architecture of algebra,” the film explains the behavior of specific exponents and concludes with the general laws that all exponential expressions obey – all achieved without the use of narration. Council on International Non-Theatrical Events (C.I.N.E.) Gold Eagle Award, 1975. Columbus International Film Festival Bronze Chris Plaque Award-C, 1975. New York International Animation Festival Bronze Praexinoscope Award, 1975. Melbourne Film Festival Selected for Participation, 1976.

A richly illustrated cartoon film that enlarges on man's capacity to foul his own nest, and to ignore it. Made by a joint team of Canadian and Yugoslav animation artists, the film transmits its warning with unflagging humor, imagination, movement and design. In between animated sequences Dr. Fred H. Knelman, Professor of Science and Human Affairs at Concordia University in Montréal, comments on the import of what is shown and on what lies in store if more responsibility is not taken on a global scale to conserve what is left of our vital resources and usable environment.

Tondo introduces the cosmic formalism that was the primary theme of Al Jarnow's independent films. An infinite gridscape alternates with vibrating etchings, spirograms and other surreal realities.

Marcello, I'm So Bored is a 1966 short animated film co-directed by John Milius and John Strawbridge. An intentionally crude cartoon with a live action epilogue in which Milius appears with Gayle Hunnicutt. The film was made when Milius was a student at the University of Southern California and was a parody of Italian cinema. The film was edited by George Lucas. Milius' first film is important because it was the beginning point for his contribution of a style emphasizing depth and meaning in American popular films.

Background is a 1973 American short documentary film directed by Carmen D'Avino. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.