Best Dutch animation movies

Love on the Range (1939)

Animated cinema advertisement produced for Horlick's by George Pal.

Bird of Prey (2015)

In a desolate desert, two desperados prepare for a duel in classic western style under the blazing sun. The stake is a bag with valuable contents. Eyes leer, foreheads are beaded with sweat. Who will be the fastest shooter?

Herring (2014)

Haring tells the short tale of a guy who has to get rid of the herring stench coming from his mouth, before meeting his date at the cinema. While running through the streets of Amsterdam, we see the terrible effects of what that stench does to everyone around him. Made in collaboration with the Netherlands Film Fund, Pathé and SNS Reaal Fonds.

The Bedroom (1990)

In an empty room, a chair and an easel appear. One by one, paintings and drawings are composed on the easel, slip off, and slide up the walls. Coats and a coat rack appear. Then a bed comes up from the floor. A mattress materializes, a bedspread and pillows, too. Other features of the room appear. By the end, it's a bedroom at Arles, as painted by Vincent Van Gogh.

Human Nature (2019)

A stop-motion spoof that targets the foibles of creatures of all kinds, this animation reverses the usual hierarchy of the animal kingdom with very memorable and hilarious results.

Sand Wanderer (2017)

So young he can barely carry his spear, a young boy lagging behind the other warriors is dragged into a bizarre world of shifting sands.

Portrait of a Wind-up Maker (2015)

Chema is an expat architect from Spain who lives in Amsterdam. He has built up a new life there as a wind-up toy maker. He creates small pieces of art from recycle items.

Elephants Dream (2006)

Elephants Dream is the story of two strange characters exploring a capricious and seemingly infinite machine. The elder, Proog, acts as a tour-guide and protector, happily showing off the sights and dangers of the machine to his initially curious but increasingly skeptical protege Emo. As their journey unfolds we discover signs that the machine is not all Proog thinks it is, and his guiding takes on a more desperate aspect. Elephants Dream is a story about communication and fiction, made purposefully open-ended as the world’s first 3D animated “Open movie”. The film itself is released under the Creative Commons license, along with the entirety of the production files used to make it (roughly 7 Gigabytes of data). The software used to make the movie is the free/open source animation suite Blender along with other open source software, thus allowing the movie to be remade, remixed and re-purposed with only a computer and the data on the DVD or download.

New Babylon (2022)

An impossible city is built up out of enormous rotating rings, steering the lives of its lonely inhabitants. New Babylon is a visual trip through an oppressive night in which contemporary, individualistic life is reflected in a circular metropole.

Stardust (2013)

Stardust is a story about Voyager 1 (the unmanned spacecraft launched in 1977 to explore the outer solar system). The probe is the furthest man-made object from the sun and witnesses unimaginable beauty and destruction. The film was triggered by the death of Dutch graphic designer Arjan Groot, who died aged 39 on 16th July 2011 from cancer.

Ambient Trip Commander (2022)

AMBIENT TRIP COMMANDER is the story of Samantha Tapferstern, a geeky young woman who lives a rather dull life in a medium-sized European city. She works a mundane job at a synthesizer store and spends her lonely evenings playing RPG games. One day she receives a cryptic email from a hacker group inviting her to Lonetal, a village secluded somewhere deep in the European Alps. As we follow her journey to Lonetal, things become more sinister and a grand mystery starts to unfold…

Blik (2010)

A young boy moves to a new neighborhood and falls in love, for the first time, with the much older girl next door.

The Stroke (2020)

The Stroke is a hand-drawn animation film that reverses the roles of audio and visuals for a music video. Improvised on its very first viewing, the music for The Stroke was the immediate response of the musicians to the artistic and emotional visual journey.

AREA21: Live on Planet Earth (2023)

After gracing earth with a streak of releases that ultimately led to their debut Greatest Hits Vol. 1 album, it is time for the first full live performance of AREA21. Creating live renditions of their songs with a full band, including Martin Garrix on guitar, this 46-minute special will also dive into the true story behind AREA21’s journey here.

Fallin' Floyd (2013)

A humoristic turbo drama. Floyd, after being dumped by his girlfriend, suffers from psychological problems manifested as a little demon who disrupts his everyday life. Floyd has to go through great depths before he can continue his life.

8.1 (2005)

An abstract film on the music 'Unfinished' 8th Symphony, part 1, by Franz Schubert by Oerd van Cuijlenborg

The Great Philips Review (1938)

Puppet animation of Bert Ambrose and His Orchestra performing. A Puppetoon animated short film.

Vision of the Dark Tower (2007)

Vision of the Dark Tower is a dream within a dream. Based on the Dark Tower novels by Stephen King, this animated short describes the call of the Dark Tower to one of the main characters.

Cosmos Laundromat (2015)

On a desolate island, a suicidal sheep named Franck meets his fate…in the form of a quirky salesman named Victor, who offers him the gift of a lifetime. The gift is many lifetimes, actually, in many different worlds – each lasting just a few minutes. In the sequel to the pilot, Franck will find a new reason to live…in the form of a bewitching female adventurer named Tara, who awakens his long-lost lust for life. But can Franck keep up with her?

Now You Know It Anyway (2011)

At a sunny flea market, Robin tries to sell her own made-up stories. As she tells one of her stories with increasing confidence to a potential customer, all the main characters come alive and anxiously listen to her.

Big Buck Bunny (2008)

Follow a day of the life of Big Buck Bunny when he meets three bullying rodents: Frank, Rinky, and Gamera. The rodents amuse themselves by harassing helpless creatures by throwing fruits, nuts and rocks at them. After the deaths of two of Bunny's favorite butterflies, and an offensive attack on Bunny himself, Bunny sets aside his gentle nature and orchestrates a complex plan for revenge.

Oink (2022)

A young girl sets out to prove to her disapproving mother she can house-train the endearing but unruly little piglet she gets as a birthday gift from her estranged oddball grandfather.

Miffy the Movie (2013)

Miffy, her friends Melanie and Grunty and her dog Snuffy set out on a treasure hunt through the zoo. Father and Mother Bunny give them five riddles through a Treasure Hunt Song, about a color, a shape, a movement, a number and a sound. While discovering animals that answer to the riddles, Miffy and her friends learn how to work together, find creative ways to collaborate and to reward each other for a job well done. And in the end, they are rewarded with a big surprise.

Caminandes: Llama Drama (2013)

Koro wants to get to the other side of the road.

Caminandes: Llamigos (2016)

In this episode of the Caminandes cartoon series we learn to know our hero Koro even better! It's winter in Patagonia, food is getting scarce. Koro the Llama engages with Oti the pesky penguin in an epic fight over that last tasty berry. This short animation film was made with Blender and funded by the subscribers of the Blender Cloud platform. Already since 2007, Blender Institute successfully combines film and media production with improving a free and open source 3D creation pipeline.

Woozle and Pip in Search of the Scallywagger! (2016)

With the help of their animal friends, puppies Woozle and Pip go on a search for the mysterious thief who stole Wise Fern's birthday present.

Pim & Pom: The Big Adventure (2014)

The friendship between the impulsive and adventurous Pim and the more cautious Pom is put to the test when they are faced with trying to find their way home.

Dikkie Dik 2: Een nieuwe vriend voor Dikkie Dik (2024)

Heads Together (2016)

Three friends with different cultural origins find an abandoned washing machine while playing. To their shock, they find out that the washing machine has strange powers: their heads are swapped by sticking them in the washing machine. When it turns out their heads can't be swapped back, they must go back home with each other's heads. Because their households have very different habits and traditions, they end up in awkard situations. Through these situations, they learn a lot of new things about each other.

Jonas and the Sea (2015)

A boy casts aside everything in pursuit of his dream, a quest we all share: the quest to find a place he can call home, even if it's underwater. He loves to swim with fishes and builds an ingenious machine to be able to dive.