
Abstronic
1952-07-01 · 6 min · ★ 7.0
A pioneer of visual music and electronic art, Mary Ellen Bute produced over a dozen short abstract animations between the 1930s and the 1950s. Set to classical music by the likes of Bach, Saint-Saëns, and Shoshtakovich, and replete with rapidly mutating geometries, Bute’s filmmaking is at once formally rigorous and energetically high-spirited, like a marriage of high modernism and Merrie Melodies. In the late 1940s, Lewis Jacobs observed that Bute’s films were “composed upon mathematical formulae depicting in ever-changing lights and shadows, growing lines and forms, deepening colors and tones, the tumbling, racing impressions evoked by the musical accompaniment.” Bute herself wrote that she sought to “bring to the eyes a combination of visual forms unfolding along with the thematic development and rhythmic cadences of music.”
Trailers are previews, not full movies.
No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.
Production details
- Directors
- Ted Nemeth, Mary Ellen Bute
- Production companies
- Ted Nemeth Studio
- Countries
- United States of America
- Status
- Released
Top Cast
Cast unavailable.
Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.
Where to watch
Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.
Availability not listed for this country.
Seasons & episodes
Recommendations

During a chicken picnic, Yellow Guy gets upset after Green Bird kills a butterfly. Yellow Guy then meets a butterfly that takes him on a journey to discover his concept of love.

Step back into the imaginative and frankly terrifying world of Becky & Joe with Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared. In this episode: Some things change over Time.

In this anime visual album, a mysterious driver heads deep into a postapocalyptic hellscape toward a ferocious showdown with two monstrous opponents.

A disturbing puppet short exploring the concept of creativity.

All alone, Yellow Guy tries to stop a lamp from teaching him about dreams. While Red Guy finds out the truth about the puppets' existence.

Buster Moon dreams up a star-studded spectacle set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in this animated short featuring characters from the hit "Sing" films.

Short film to a song of love lost and rediscovered, a woman sees and undergoes surreal transformations. Her lover's face melts off, she dons a dress from the shadow of a bell and becomes a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and become Frenchmen riding bicycles. Not to mention the turtles with faces on their backs that collide to form a ballerina, or the bizarre baseball game.

A unique cinematic experience that invites audiences on a vibrant journey through the life of cultural icon Pharrell Williams. Told through the lens of LEGO® animation, turn up the volume on your imagination and witness the evolution of one of music's most innovative minds.

I made this film especially for you. I needed to check in with you. I needed to tell you how I feel.

A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.

A curious girl investigates the cries she hears coming from a forbidden house across the street.

Professor Owl gives a lecture on the evolution of Western musical instruments, starting with the advent of rudimentary brass, woodwind, string and percussion instruments by ancient cave dwellers at the dawn of history.

Mickey, Minnie, Horace Horsecollar, and Clarabelle Cow go on a musical wagon ride until Peg-Leg Pete tries to run them off the road.

The fourth instalment in the surreal Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared videos in which the three returning characters enter a sinister digital world through their computer.

In this animated short, a composer realizes that incorporating a discordant tone instead of fighting it creates an unexpectedly beautiful harmony. This short was inspired by writer Sunita Balsara's experience with tinnitus.

Mater finds a small UFO called Mator and they have a night out. Later, when Mator is captured by military forces, Mater sneaks up and saves him with the help of Lightning McQueen and the UFO's mother.

Across different eras, a poor family, an anxious developer and a fed-up landlady become tied to the same mysterious house in this animated dark comedy.

Wirt and Gregory are brothers who get tired of walking, so, they borrow a car from a romantic songster made of vegetables.

A strange creature races against time to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life.

The people of Hamelin, overrun with rats, offer a bag of gold to anyone who can get rid of the rats. A piper offers to do the job, and successfully lures the rats into a mirage of cheese, which disappears. The citizens, disappointed that all he did was play a tune, offer only pocket change. The piper, angered, plays a new tune that has all the children of the city follow him, even the new twins the stork is preparing to deliver.
Similar titles
An animation film about a clarinet and a trumpet that meet, clash, compete, compromise and harmonize.

The patriarch of a family dies, leaving his seven sons to fight for the inheritance.
Good Grief is a short stop motion animated documentary that explores the lessons we learn from dealing with grief and loss. Five real people share their true stories of losing something precious and what it has taught them about living.

Super ancient creatures, tempting devils, greedy human, women's fixed fate. A fairy tale or a prophecy? Wake up. It's your time.

On a sunlit afternoon, a boy heads to the pond. He is hoping for some quiet time alone fishing for carp, but is joined by a puppy, ready to befriend anyone in his path. Even in the most peaceful moments, the pup can’t resist having a chat with the local frog and duck! When the puppy gets up to a bit of mischief, the boy is surprised by the outcome of his fishing adventure…

One summer afternoon in 1907, Abel and his wife (both mice) are picnicking, when they become separated during a violent rainstorm. After flying some distance, Abel discovers himself alone on a river island, unable to swim due to the powerful current. Abel periodically attempts to leave the island by various means: flying on a leaf, rowing a crudely fashioned boat, etc. Meanwhile, he tries to create a normal life of sorts, even learning to enjoy a new hobby: sculpture. Still, Abel's goal is to escape the island and rejoin his wife in the city.

Hykade's third and final part of The Country Trilogy. The once dead father of "We Lived in Grass" returns. "I give you the runt," he says. "But you take care of it and you kill it next year."

Legacy takes the audience on a rapid-fire journey through the evolution of the world, starting with a cosmic bang, evolving through billions of years of plants, animals and the creation of natural resources, ending with man and his bounty – “sitting on his world contemplating his coconut”. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

It’s the Little Things that frustrate us all. Everyday sketches of a dysfunctional world in which nothing quite works and everybody has their foibles. Can the repetition of mundanity endure under extreme circumstances?

Your first date becomes your worst nightmare...

A pretty female cat gets into trouble. What's gonna happen?


In a post-apocalyptic future where humanity has fallen apart, a group of scientists and an animated sign complete the construction of a new human race and meet a groundhog climatologist who prepares them for their mission to restore balance to the decimated Earth.

A darkly hilarious tale following The Woman's adventure upon accepting an invitation to a "Clothespin Tarot" reading.

An mutoscope motion picture installation commissioned for the 86th anniversary of the Guggenheim museum. Later preserved and turned into a short film. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.

Using Baseball as a metaphor, this film explores the world of William Blake.

A wooden puppet who desperately wants to fit in makes an ill-fated wish upon a star, sparking a journey of self-discovery.

In this musical short, a man tries to woo the manager of a dance troupe.

A cinematic experiment inspired by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s music.
Short by the creator of "The Cramp Twins"