Best Finnish animation movies

The Moomins along with Little My and Snorkmaiden had a sea journey that after storms and desert island dangers leads the family to Riviera, the place that takes their unity to the test.

A few days before Christmas Eve the last sack of letters arrives to Santa. At the bottom is a letter that is a bit older than the others, it's a drawing. While the curious Santa tries to figure out what the drawing looks like, strange things begin to happen.

One day Moomintroll wakes to notice that grey dust is covering everything in the Moominvalley. He runs to ask the philosophical Muskrat if he knows what is happening, who advises him that things tend to look like this before an awful fate coming from the sky hits the Earth. With the help of his father, Moominpappa, Moomintroll and his close friends Sniff and Snufkin build a raft and head out on a challenging journey to the observatory in the Lonely Mountains hoping to find out more from the wise professors there. The friends have to overcome several adversities in order to make it there. When they arrive, they find the professors deep in calculations. They reveal that a comet will reach the Earth in four days, four hours, four minutes and 44 seconds.

When the most mischievous resident of Rolli Village befriends a beautiful elf girl, the hopelessly mismatched pair embarks on a magical adventure to save the Forest of Elves by traveling to the Land of Winter and recovering the mythical magical heart in this animated tale of wonder for the entire family.

A magic crystal causes double the number of gifts Santa can deliver all over the world and this makes for many happy gezinnetjes. His criminal assistant Basil however has a diabolical plan: he wants to steal the crystal so as to gain control over the minds of the children. The brave boy Yotan act to prevent and concocts a plan.

This winter is extraordinary; Moomintroll decides to stay awake to explore the winter instead of hibernating as usually. And winters are certainly totally different than he had imagined. Strangest creatures wander amidst the snowdrifts; midwinter darkness surrounds the Moominvalley, and on top of that, an eccentric guest is soon to appear. This guest requires many measures, and is called Christmas, Hemulen tells to a surprised Moomintroll.

The museum-like calm of historical clay figures and vessels from different epochs is over, as voices from the present begin to drive them. The dictate of efficiency results in an oppressive endless loop of busy standstill.

Moomintroll, Sniff, and Little My set out to investigate a comet heading for Moominvalley. Along the way, they meet Snufkin, the Snorkmaiden, and other friends, facing various challenges. As they rush to prevent disaster, they uncover unexpected surprises and work together to stay safe before the comet’s arrival.

A woman’s life is difficult, because her head is a cat.

A short film utilising an Axidraw pen plotter to produce all the visual material.

This is a story about the eternal miracle of life and death. The unfortunate death of a wild hare turns into a remarkable experience for children who find his body and bury it in a sand box. Now buried, the hare’s life fades away and dozens of magical creatures that lived inside him leave his body in search for a new home. The hare’s life ends by merging with nature, but is reborn in the plants and animals around it. This fairy-tale for children encourages us to think about what death is.

Kid's sing along animation with songs by a somewhat popular kid rap duo Ella & Aleksi

Piper concocts a recipe she bakes and bombs, with the cupcakes turning out to be hand grenades, one of the weapons available in the franchise game that the film promotes.

A man lives alone in a block of flats. He may not be able to put a finger on it, but he is lonely. All this changes, though, when the odd growth he has been ignoring on his side turns out to be something alive and becomes conscious.

On one rainy evening, Muskrat arrives to peaceful Moominvalley to predict the end of the world. Moomintroll, Sniff and Little My set out towards the Observatory on the Lonely Mountains to find out if the end of the world is really coming.

The opening of an annual flower show sets the stage for this elusive, hand-drawn animation that explores the underlying fabric of our society. While little girls are dressed up for the occasion, the older women are dealing with a completely different set of expectations. Seemingly stuck between sensual plays and discomforting gazes, will any of these girls ever find an escape from this yearly ritual?

A nun digs a man up from the ground and loses her grip on everyday life. Can secrets and harmony coexist?

After a volcanic eruption causes floods, members of the moomin family find refuge inside a floating theater.

The supermarket is nearing its closing time, and the last customers are queuing for their turn at the fish counter. The agonizing wait offers a chance for existential reflection and a little song.

Finnish animation film.

Fireworks popping, lanterns glowing, red envelopes bursting with money - it's Chinese New Year! This holiday is China's biggest and longest festival, a time for feasting with family and friends, setting off fireworks, and having fun. The Angry Birds are celebrating the start of the Year of the Dragon, but the piggies are trying to scare them away from their eggs! Luckily the Angry Birds have some help -- the Mighty Eagle has transformed into the fearsome Mighty Dragon!

When knitting becomes an obsession...

When a curious child falls into a long-forgotten cave, she is confronted by a mysterious spirit and must decide whether the being is kindhearted or something more perilous.

An optician comes face to face with a collection of curious clients during her workday.

Head back to school with Angry Birds Seasons and the all new Pink Bird!

It's the most wonderful time of the year, but the pigs are up to their usual tricks. They try to get away with the Birds' Christmas presents! After bickering with each other, Red and Bomb bird mount a bold gift rescue down the steep mountain slopes.

In a lifeless urban landscape where time itself has stopped its crawl, a mad ballet is commencing and a newly hatched butterfly is about to die.

For 18-year-old Finnish–Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he’s wearing makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai, a young woman on the spectrum of autism, is there to ferociously support him through the voyage.

A documentary puppet animation about Iiti’s (28) moving in day. As if a sign from the universe for her poor life choices, there seems to be a nightmarish mouse lurking in the shadows of her new home. Iiti has to get rid of the mouse by whatever means necessary. She arms herself with mouse traps, lethal spray and even an ultrasonic repellant. But the nasty mouse problem just escalates and ultimately leads Iiti to a strange coincidence. Could Iiti be a mouse herself?

A farmer finds out that a wolf's bite has turned him into a voracious beast. Worse still, his only son seems to have swapped brains with one of his sheep.

The year is 1936, and shoemakers in a Finnish industrial town are sending shoes to Spain as humanitarian aid. Young Arvo wants to do more, so he joins as a volunteer in the International Brigades and disappears.

This town is too small for the both of them. And for their moustache.

This animation tells a story about the cicle of life. It is based on found footage and photograps from the director’s family album.

The lonely Toffle learns to overcome his fears when he needs to rescue the Miffle from the Groke.

In a bold and original approach to memory, this Lettrist-inspired film maps an anxiety-ridden plane journey from Tokyo to Helsinki without the aid of photographic images. A variety of interventions on the film strip are combined with an atmospheric sound design to create a subjective story of displacement and containment. In an age when experience is increasingly mediated through digital technologies, Taanila seeks out an alternative language in the sensuous surfaces of the celluloid material.

Three guys share their thoughts and surviving methods in a strange but warm-hearted forest trip.

A small mole is looking for a fallen star in the night forest where everyone else seem to have already found their own treasures.

A little boy has a tiger as a pet, but it's a secret. The widemouth of the apartment building is Miss Kotilainen, who is always complaining about everything. Other people in the building have their own secrets too. After a lot of those secrets are uncovered, a party is held that melts the heart of Miss Kotilainen. After that, Kalle the Tiger won't have to be hidden no more.

Combining the animation aesthetics of tacky kids’ TV shows of the 70s with striking horror imagery and pairing it all with an appropriate soundtrack makes SleepyBear the kind of an assault on the senses that nightmares are made of.

The first Star Wreck animation was inspired by the classic computer game Star Control 2. Star Wreck I was drawn frame by frame using Deluxe Paint Animation, so the visuals are just as crude as the dialogue. Then again, this was one of Samuli's animations to have dialogue. The only thing Star Wreck I has in common with the later episodes are the characters' names. The so called plot is simple: Plingons are attacking Earth and the CPP Kickstart must fight them off. The story is bad, the graphics are bad and the acting is really bad. This is a classic!

She keeps finding small socks. Now, whose feet are feeling cold?

The 1977 animation Legokaupunki is the earliest known brickfilm filmed in Finland and one of the earliest known brickfilms in general. The brickfilm was shot on 8mm film using a French camera called a CAMEX 8 Cellule Reflex.

Young fathers tell how they try to achieve contact with their unborn child. As it is impossible to have any visual connection, the only thing left is everything audible. Since talking to the belly feels quite awkward, playing carefully selected music might feel a bit less awkward. Carefully curated playlist is the best way to tell something about yourself as a father, and also as a human being.

What is there for a chest to do when a little mischievous guest messes up her drawers?

A beautiful summer day in Moomin Valley. Suddenly, a wasp stings Moomintroll, who falls ill and has to stay in bed. To cheer him up, Moominpappa recounts his youthful adventures; his misunderstood childhood, escape from an orphanage and his historic meeting with the inventor Hodgkins.

Katariina Lillqvist's puppet animation is a ballad about 18th century St. Petersburg, Catherine the Great's magnificent courtyard and the dim taverns of the suburbs.

The birds receive a postcard from their friends in Rio, but getting to Brazil isn't as easy as you'd think. Get your party gear on and celebrate the samba carnival with those fun-loving Angry Birds!

A story of a man and a robot who share the same body. Under the dominating robots' lead, they enter the territory of the shaman, the protector of the cosmic network. Conflicting interests force the man to choose sides.

A man without arms wants an apple up in a tree. A man without legs wants to ride a bike. Can they help each other?

Samuli returns to the crime scene in Star Wreck II: The Old Shit, this time with Rudi Airisto, who joins as a writer and the voice for the Vulgar, Mr. Spook. The second film is a huge improvement over the first in every way. This time the space battles and the bridge were rendered in 3D and more sounds and music were added. The acting was much improves and the crew come across as actual personalities. The film is full of slapstick humor and it actually works very well at times. This time, Pirk's mission is to go to the Fibula sector and destroy all enemies. But before getting to fire a single shot, the crew of the Kickstart must solve some serious problems on their own ship...

On Utö, the southernmost inhabited island in Finland, an unusual love triangle is taking shape. What's the difference between dance moves sparked by joy and wild movements driven by rage?

An unsuspecting servant faces unforeseen challenges in upstairs and downstairs.

A short avant-garde film from Finnish director Eino Ruutsalo.

Pirk's fumbling voyages continue in Star Wreck III - Wrath of the Romuclans. There were improvements in the graphics, a more complicated storyline, and lots of new, tasteless humour. Many consider this to be the funniest of the old episodes, although Pirk's excessive swearing did raise a few eyebrows back int he day... Star Wreck III saw the first of the now traditional red-shirted security guard jokes. Having wrecked his ship in the previous episode, Pirk now commands a brand new starship, and is sent to investigate a Romuclan attack plan on a backwater space station. It all ends with the most massive space battle in the history of the P-fleet, and it's lead by Pirk... With odds like that, does humanity stand a chance?

AIDS information campaign aimed at young people. The animated film tells how to protect yourself from AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The visage of decomposition playing out in unreal time.

In Star Wreck IV: The Kilpailu ("kilpailu" is Finnish for "competition"), several new characters were introduced, now drawn by Rudi Airisto. He would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the silly-looking Ferret graphics - the palette simply ran out of colours. The Kickstart is sent to take part in a competition organised by a powerful alien race, the Zarquons. Further complicating Pirk's already impossible mission, Mr Spook, unable to bear Pirk's incompetence, resigns and returns to his home planet of Vulgarus. His replacement is Mr Info. Being a robot, Info is immune to Pirk's insults, but is at least as irritating as good old Spook.

WANTED is based on the archival materials of the Uppsala Institute for racial biology (Uppsala University, Sweden). Today – in this very building – research into genetic manipulation is being conducted by dissecting DNA. WANTED animation deals with people’s classification based on outward appearance. The subject matter is indeed a timely one, nowadays masked behind the cover of technology as it is. Does modern genetic manipulation justify the previous century’s racial research? Wanted was one of the five nominees for the European Short Film Academy Award 1999.

When 12-year-old Lauri tries too hard to get his older siblings’ attention he falls badly and loses his ability to walk. Now Lauri is stuck at home, lonelier than he ever was. Just then a helpful furry creature from another dimension appears and takes him on a fantasy adventure. In the other dimension Lauri trades his shadow for being able to walk again, but the shadow becomes a goofy, all-eating monster who follows Lauri back to his world. To beat the monster Lauri needs to team up with his siblings and give up his ability to walk. However, Lauri is now determined to learn to walk again and he has his siblings beside him - and that’s what really matters.

Able to turn abandoned items into useful tools, two eccentric bugs embark on an odd adventure in search of food and resources.

The film stars the familiar characters from the Finnish TV show The Autocrats (a political satire of Finnish politics) in a fairy tale where the inhabitants of a small Finnish village have to defend themselves against a despotic emperor.

Mire bala kale hin, (which means the girl with the long black hair in Romanes) was the first TV programme ever produced as a childrens program about the Roma minority in Czech Republic. It is a co-production between Finnish/ Czech/Netherlands television. The story is about a Roma girl, who is told Roma stories, legends, dreams, fairy-tales and true stories. Beside the Czech and Finnish also an english version had been produced.

The loneliest man in the suburbs opens his door to a stranger and gets caught up in the merry-go-round of love.

An animation based on a short story by Franz Kafka about a country doctor interrupted by an alarm clock on a quiet home evening. In a bomb-ravaged room are waiting a dying child and a group of black market traders playing cards.

A story about two women who find a suspicious shampoo bottle in the public showers. After learning that there is nothing questionable about the shampoo, they decide to play a practical joke that has unexpected consequenses.

A story of a pig that dreams about the moon. This macabre tango will reach its top eventually, but does anything remain in the end?