Dog racing is used as a metaphor for the futility of human existence.
A solitary man works in a tall office building. The only moment in his drab life that's out of the ordinary each year seems to be opening the birthday card and gift from his mother. Usually it's a tie, but one year it's an accordion. It goes into the closet with his many ties. A year or two later, he discovers what happens to the papers he processes every day. His discovery sends him first to the building's top floor, then to his closet.
Mahonri, the brother of Jared, is a righteous man in wicked Babel. After the tower of Babel is destroyed and the language of the people is confused, the Lord shows Mahonri how to build barges to carry the righteous across the sea to the Promised Land. When the brother of Jared asks the Lord to touch stones to light the barges, his faith is so strong that he receives a great revelation.
More than a dozen shots, some less than a second, of people wearing roller skates in various settings: a young man in skates sits on a low guardrail next to a city sidewalk reading, a woman with a child shoots by, a constable skates gingerly, a man skates by in suit and vest, another cleans front steps, children skate into a room where papa and siblings sit, someone slips at the base of stairs, a man in a cowboy hat moves fast, two jovial chubby women shake hands, our man in the hat trips over a wheelbarrow, then falls again as he rounds a corner, then down goes the constable. It's a crazy day on the city sidewalks.
Max is a stage struck youth, and because of a deep-seated desire to go on the stage, refuses to consent to a marriage his father has planned for him. The girl, whom Max has never met, is also stage struck, and entertains no wish of marrying him, though her mother is anxious to see her make the alliance. The parents finally manage to bring the young people together, and they, in turn, exert all their skill in an attempt to disgust each other. An accidental meeting between the two when they are off guard causes them to change their minds.
African animals, including a lookout monkey, await with trepidation the arrival of big-game hunter Theodore Roosevelt.
A young caterpillar yearns to fly like the butterflies and birds, but cannot launch himself high enough to do so ... until a couple start playing badminton nearby.
Monsterlike cranes reign over an inhospitable harbour as prehistorical reptiles. The only human being they accept is a lonesome fisherman. He is to witness a strange encounter between a ship's mate and a mermaid. Imagination or reality?
Daniel's father died yesterday. He seems to be totally fine. Luckily his friends can teach him to be miserable.
Mathematics teacher Bernd comes to the conclusion that the youth's morals, values and thoughts (sexuality) are quite different than he thought they were.
Mr. Hurry-Up gets dressed in a rush, and then races down to breakfast. After a few quick bites and a couple gulps of coffee, he races out the door and heads to work. While working at his desk, he begins to suffer from a painful toothache. Though he wants to get it dealt with as quickly as possible, Mr. Hurry-Up soon learns that some things should not be done hastily.
A husband sneezes inconsiderately all over the place, until his wife has had enough and leaves him.
A cook and his assistant are seen preparing dinner. While cook leaves the room he cautions his assistant to watch the pot so that it will not boil over. The assistant proceeds to pick the feathers from a chicken. Meanwhile the pot boils over and Satan appears, surrounded by a cloud of steam.
A very good as a faithful husband, whose wife is looking for proof that more than his eyes have been roving. She hires a private detective to provide it.
In this silent Mutt and Jeff cartoon, Jeff puts some pep liquid instead of the usual syrup in the sodas that Mutt serves to the customers in the malt shop.
A drunk staggers into his apartment and falls asleep. He dreams he climbs to the top of a building and flies to the moon, then falls back to earth. When he wakes, still drunk, he is in his apartment.
Made in 1905 when short films were still being done in just one shot (for the Kinetoscope peep-show machines) and lasted about 2 minutes, this depicts a Mormon man trying to get his wives and children settled down for the night on a Pullman car in a train. The children wear him out wanting piggy-back rides, he and the wives put the children in their beds, but of course they need a drink. The poor mans takes a lip lashing from his wives and hurries out, returning shortly with a large milk can with several straws attached.
A couple steals food from a grocery store. To stop them from repeating their crime, the cunning salesman electrifies his shop.
A scientist concocts a potion that can turn people invisible for short periods of time. Two crooks steal the potion and go on a crime spree.
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.