The Best Short Movies and TV Shows

What it's about: Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon aboard a rocket propelled by a giant cannon. Once on the lunar surface, the bold explorers face the many perils hidden in the caves of the mysterious satellite.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (The Criterion Channel) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: A young boy makes a snowman one Christmas Eve, which comes to life at midnight and takes the boy on a magical adventure to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Ameba) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: As daily airstrikes pound civilian targets in Syria, a group of indomitable first responders risk their lives to rescue victims from the rubble.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: During a post-Christmas play date, the gang find themselves in uncharted territory when the coolest set of action figures ever turn out to be dangerously delusional. It's all up to Trixie, the triceratops, if the gang hopes to return to Bonnie's room in this Toy Story That Time Forgot.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $9.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: An aging Chinese mom suffering from empty nest syndrome gets another chance at motherhood when one of her dumplings springs to life as a lively, giggly dumpling boy.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: What starts out as a fun road trip for the Toy Story gang takes an unexpected turn for the worse when the trip detours to a roadside motel. After one of the toys goes missing, the others find themselves caught up in a mysterious sequence of events that must be solved before they all suffer the same fate in this Toy Story of Terror.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $9.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: In an effort to improve feminine hygiene, a machine that creates low-cost biodegradable sanitary pads is installed in a rural village in Northern India. Using the machine, a group of local women is employed to produce and sell pads, offering them newfound independence and helping to destigmatize menstruation for all.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: The clerk at the train station is assaulted and left tied by four men, then they rob the train threatening the operator. (They) take all the money and shoot a passenger when trying to run away. A little girl discovers the clerk tied and gives notice to the sheriff, who at once goes along with his men hunting the bandits.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Fandor & Kanopy).

What it's about: Pure fantasia, a race to save the world from a fatal heart attack, juxtaposed against a love rivalry between two brothers - a mortician and an actor playing Christ - for the heart of a scientist studying the earth's core.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Fandor).

What it's about: Born to Be Wild observes various orphaned jungle animals and their day-to-day behavioural interactions with the individuals who rescue them and raise them to adulthood. The film unfurls in two separate geographic spheres. Half of it takes place in the rain forests of Borneo, where celebrated primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas assists baby orangutans; the other half takes place on the arid savannahs of Kenya, where zoologist Dame Daphne Sheldrick works with baby elephant calves.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Hulu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: It takes two or three generations for the monarch butterfly to reach the Canadian breeding grounds, but it is one "supergeneration" that makes the 2,000 mile return trip back south into central Mexico. The documentary film covers Dr Fred Urquhart's interest in monarch butterflies, with perspectives of Urquhart as a child wondering where the butterflies went, his years of research and study into their life and migration, to his time decades-later as a senior scientist looking back at his investigations and discoveries about the insect's life pattern.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Shout Factory TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A deaf 4-year-old girl named Libby lives in a world of silence until a caring social worker teaches her to use sign language to communicate.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (Google Play).

What it's about: Five thought-provoking shorts imagine what Hong Kong will be like ten years from now. In Extras, two genial low-level gangsters are hired to stage an attack, but they’re mere sacrificial lambs in a political conspiracy. Rebels strive to preserve destroyed homes and objects as specimens in the mesmerizing Season of the End. In Dialect, a taxi driver struggles to adjust after Putonghua displaces Cantonese as Hong Kong’s only official language. Following the death of a leading independence activist, an act of self-immolation outside the British consulate triggers questions and protests in the searing yet moving Self-Immolator. In Local Egg, a grocery shop owner worries about his son’s youth guard activities and where to buy eggs after Hong Kong’s last chicken farm closes down.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & Prime Video) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & YouTube).

What it's about: Armed with an arcane knowledge of the dark arts and a wicked wit, John Constantine fights the good fight. With his soul already damned to hell, he’ll do whatever it takes to protect the innocent. With the balance of good and evil on the line, Constantine uses his skills to face the supernatural terrors that threaten our world and send them back where they belong. After that, who knows…maybe there’s hope for him and his soul after all.

Where to Watch: 3 episodes (50%) are available to watch free online (CW Seed).

What it's about: SANJAY'S SUPER TEAM follows the daydream of a young Indian boy, bored with his father's religious meditation, who imagines "a kind of ancient, Hindu version of The Avengers," with the gods appearing like superheros.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: An urban office worker finds that paper airplanes are instrumental in meeting a girl in ways he never expected.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: During an unfortunate series of events, a friend of Kung Fury is assassinated by the most dangerous kung fu master criminal of all time, Adolf Hitler, a.k.a Kung Führer. Kung Fury decides to travel back in time to Nazi Germany in order to kill Hitler and end the Nazi empire once and for all.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $4.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: A mother bird tries to teach her little one how to find food by herself. In the process, she encounters a traumatic experience that she must overcome in order to survive.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other's unique qualities--and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world-the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: John Cazale was in only five films - The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather, Part Two, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter - each was nominated for Best Picture. Yet today most people don't even know his name. I KNEW IT WAS YOU is a fresh tour through movies that defined a generation.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Far From the Tree is the story of a strained relationship between a mother and her teenaged son, as she struggles to come to terms with a sexual assault from her past and how she ultimately finds the courage to confront it.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Hulu) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Heavy Metal Parking Lot documents heavy metal music fans tailgating in the parking lot outside the Capital Centre (since demolished) in Landover, Maryland, on May 31, 1986, before a Judas Priest concert (with opening act Dokken).

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (SnagFilms & Tubi) & stream on a subscription service (Fandor).

What it's about: Dignity. Poise. Mystery. We expect nothing less from the great turn-of-the-century magician, Presto. But when Presto neglects to feed his rabbit one too many times, the magician finds he isn't the only one with a few tricks up his sleeve!

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Sea life in a whole new way. Deep Sea 3D, an underwater adventure from the filmmakers behind the successful IMAX® 3D film Into the Deep, transports audiences deep below the ocean surface. Through the magic of IMAX®; and IMAX 3D, moviegoers will swim with some of the planets most unique, dangerous and colorful creatures, and understand this inspiring underworld.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: One by one, a flock of small birds perches on a telephone wire. Sitting close together has problems enough, and then comes along a large dopey bird that tries to join them. The birds of a feather can't help but make fun of him - and their clique mentality proves embarrassing in the end.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Originally from Africa, Mari McGabe's parents were killed by local greed, corruption and wanton violence.But the orphaned Marl refuses to succumb to the terrors surrounding her.Inheriting her family's Tantu Totem, Mari can access the powers of animals - anything from the super-strength of a gorilla to the speed of a cheetah. As Vixen she fights valiantly to protect the world from threats like those that claimed her family.

Where to Watch: 3 episodes (25%) are available to watch free online (CW Seed).

What it's about: A young boy comes of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very first time his Papa and Grandpa are taking him to work. In an old wooden boat they row far out to sea, and with no land in sight, they stop and wait. A big surprise awaits the boy as he discovers his family's most unusual line of work. Should he follow the example of his Papa, or his Grandpa? Will he be able to find his own way in the midst of their conflicting opinions and timeworn traditions?

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: Olaf is on a mission to harness the best holiday traditions for Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Disney+) & rent or buy from $9.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: An aging codger named Geri plays a daylong game of chess in the park against himself. Somehow, he begins losing to his livelier opponent. But just when the game's nearly over, Geri manages to turn the tables.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (Google Play, Prime Video & 2 others).

What it's about: Mysteries of the Unseen World transports audiences to places on this planet that they have never been before, to see things that are beyond their normal vision, yet literally right in front of their eyes. Mysteries of the Unseen World reveals phenomena that can't be seen with the naked eye, taking audiences into earthly worlds secreted away in different dimensions of time and scale. Viewers experience events that unfold too slowly for human perception

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: On Anna's birthday, Elsa and Kristoff are determined to give her the best celebration ever, but Elsa's icy powers may put more than just the party at risk.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: In a locked down train station, a homicide detective conducts an interview with a tormented monkey who is suspected of murder.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix).

What it's about: A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Fandor & Kanopy).

What it's about: What lengths will a robot undergo to do his job? BURN·E is a dedicated hard working robot who finds himself locked out of his ship. BURN·E quickly learns that completing a simple task can often be a very difficult endeavor.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 2 services (Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: The magical tale of a mouse who takes a walk though the woods in search of a nut.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: The Parrs' baby Jack-Jack is thought to be normal, not having any super-powers like his parents or siblings. But when an outsider is hired to watch him, Jack-Jack shows his true potential.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: "Rakka" is the story of broken humanity following the invasion of a technologically superior alien species. Bleak harrowing and unrelenting, the humans we meet must find enough courage to go on fighting.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: Join the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity for an awe-inspiring journey to the surface of the mysterious red planet.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Disney+) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The Once-ler, a ruined industrialist, tells the tale of his rise to wealth and subsequent fall, as he disregarded the warnings of a wise old forest creature called the Lorax about the environmental destruction caused by his greed.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Hulu) & rent or buy from $9.99 on 3 services (Google Play, Microsoft & YouTube).

What it's about: A baby lamp finds a ball to play with and it's all fun and games until the ball bursts. Just when the elder Luxo thinks his kid will settle down for a bit, Luxo Jr. finds a ball ten times bigger.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Disney+) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Animated film based on the wonderful children's picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The story of a kind witch who invites a surprising collection of animals to join her on her broom, much to the frustration of her cat. The gang ultimately saves the witch from a fearsome dragon, and in gratitude she rewards them with a magnificent new broom which has room for everyone. A magical tale about friendship and family from Magic Light Pictures, the producers of the hugely successful The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix & Prime Video) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: 220 million years ago dinosaurs were beginning their domination of Earth. But another group of reptiles was about to make an extraordinary leap: pterosaurs were taking control of the skies. The story of how and why these mysterious creatures took to the air is more fantastical than any fiction. In Flying Monsters 3D, Sir David Attenborough the world’s leading naturalist, sets out to uncover the truth about the enigmatic pterosaurs, whose wingspans of up to 40 feet were equal to that of a modern day jet plane.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Smithsonian Earth & fuboTV).

What it's about: Yamishibai is a picture-story style of animation whose motif is surrounded and based off the rumors, and urban legends throughout the history of Japan.

Where to Watch: 91 episodes (100%) are available to watch free online (Crunchyroll).

What it's about: The Tramp and his dog companion struggle to survive in the inner city.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (SnagFilms), stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX, The Criterion Channel & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: With one coin to make a wish at the piazza fountain, a peasant girl encounters two competing street performers who'd prefer the coin find its way into their tip jars. The little girl, Tippy, is caught in the middle as a musical duel ensues between the one-man-bands.

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: Everyone knows that the stork delivers babies, but where do the storks get the babies from? The answer lies up in the stratosphere, where cloud people sculpt babies from clouds and bring them to life. Gus, a lonely and insecure grey cloud, is a master at creating "dangerous" babies. Crocodiles, porcupines, rams and more - Gus's beloved creations are works of art, but more than a handful for his loyal delivery stork partner, Peck. As Gus's creations become more and more rambunctious, Peck's job gets harder and harder. How will Peck manage to handle both his hazardous cargo and his friend's fiery temperament?

Where to Watch: Available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: This film, shot in pixilation (a kind of stop-motion animation with actors), is about two neighbours who come to barbaric blows over a flower that straddles the property line.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Fandor, The Criterion Channel & 1 other) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).