This is absolutely why I love the National Film Board of Canada.  I hope that when global warming happens we all get to move to Canada so we can be around the creative makers of NFB films.  And also to reclaim victory from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Hockey Game. (all those guys were in the NHL anyway) 

A bit of and ADVISORY for the 7:00 mark, it gets a little NSFW.

The ErlKing is one of the more beautiful animations I've seen in a while.  The video was inspired by Goethe's peom the ErlKing. The animation uses sand-on-glass set to the music of Franz Schubert. "The moving images, resembling woodcuts, capture the haunting, nightmarish quality of the tale of the ErlKing who steals and kills a little boy." says NFC

The Erl-King

WHO rides there so late through the night dark and drear?
The father it is, with his infant so dear;
He holdeth the boy tightly clasp'd in his arm,
He holdeth him safely, he keepeth him warm.

"My son, wherefore seek'st thou thy face thus to hide?"
"Look, father, the Erl-King is close by our side!
Dost see not the Erl-King, with crown and with train?"
"My son, 'tis the mist rising over the plain."

"Oh, come, thou dear infant! oh come thou with me!
Full many a game I will play there with thee;
On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold,
My mother shall grace thee with garments of gold."

"My father, my father, and dost thou not hear
The words that the Erl-King now breathes in mine ear?"
"Be calm, dearest child, 'tis thy fancy deceives;
'Tis the sad wind that sighs through the withering leaves."

"Wilt go, then, dear infant, wilt go with me there?
My daughters shall tend thee with sisterly care
My daughters by night their glad festival keep,
They'll dance thee, and rock thee, and sing thee to sleep."

"My father, my father, and dost thou not see,
How the Erl-King his daughters has brought here for me?"
"My darling, my darling, I see it aright,
'Tis the aged grey willows deceiving thy sight."

"I love thee, I'm charm'd by thy beauty, dear boy!
And if thou'rt unwilling, then force I'll employ."
"My father, my father, he seizes me fast,
Full sorely the Erl-King has hurt me at last."

The father now gallops, with terror half wild,
He grasps in his arms the poor shuddering child;
He reaches his courtyard with toil and with dread,--
The child in his arms finds he motionless, dead.

MTV HD Crow from mate on Vimeo.

MTV HD Crow
A spot by PSYOP

I tend to stray away from commercial work, not because I have anything against design, in fact, I like really good design. However, a much more common animation featured on miles of smiles would be something geared toward art or entertainment.  But sometimes design blurs the line between art and itself and makes you want to go to it again and again.  And I believe this video is right there.

Here is another video by one of the designers in the above video his name is Mate, and he's got a lot of other great commercials he's been apart of on his website.

Funkstorung Dirt Empire from mate on Vimeo.

The track Dirt Empire somewhat breathes the air of 1960s psychedelic music and so the images in the video too quote the 60s psychedelic art. From a vague anticipation of blurry haze in the beginning graphical patterns evolve into more and more concrete forms. In the course of the video these shapes form parts of contemporary architecture. The buldings and houses zoom out to show a city´s skyline. The tranformation from organic form to square shaped buildings symbolizes the distance to our origins in today´s first world culture. Made of dirt are our cities, for we are the Dirt Empire.

“And Then There Was Salsa” from Frito Lay Dips on Vimeo.

Welcome to the world of Tostitos Restaurant Style Salsa

A land of luscious tomato trees, spicy jalapeño cacti and canopies
of fresh cilantro where anything is possible.

There are two ways to watch this.  You can full screen it from my site or (and I recommend this one) you can watch it directly on vimeo. Do this and there is a special prize. Free Chips and Salsa! (you just have to come to my house and see if I am stocked up.)

TheHead / hand-drawn animated short from podoboo on Vimeo.

"i'm dante and i like old school cartoons and grove rhythms" says dante at the podoboo website. (the site is a little kitschy, but the video is real cool)