Weekly Top 5: LEGO Hobbit And Pacific Rim Highlight Animated Videos

The renowned Spike & Mike’s Festival of Animation is underway this weekend, so we’ll draw our attention to the wild, weird and dazzling world of animated web videos. Some are complex computer-generated graphics created by big animation studios, others are simple stop-motion videos shot by one person goofing off with an iPhone. Either way, the results are amusing, awe-inspiring and unforgettable as we look at this week’s best animated videos.

RealPlayer Daily Videos collects and highlights the most popular web videos on all of your favorite topics – Comedy, Gaming, Music and a whole lot more. Each of these topics has its own channel, and these channels display a constantly updated list of the most watched, most shared, and most talked about videos on the web right now. In the Film & Animation channel, we find this week’s top five animation videos.

5. “RWBY EPISODE 5: THE FIRST STEP, PT. 2”

Anime and manga fans will enjoy the heck out RWBY Episode 5, the latest episode of a weekly anime web series about four young ladies attending a monster-fighting academy. The stunning visual style and sublime humor of the RWBY series will impress even those who don’t care for the Japanese comic book style of animation. You can find a new RWBY episode every week at the Rooster Teeth animation studio YouTube channel, and the whole series will be released on DVD in November 2013.

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4. “MAGIC BEARD”

Never underestimate what can be accomplished by one man with iPhone video skills and a whole bunch of time on his hands. In Magic Beard, incredibly talented photographer Ben “Flash” Garvin gets tricky with his giant beard that magically grooms itself and performs amazing tricks. The “magic” is actually stop motion animation, and this video will certainly do the trick the next time you need a good laugh on a bad day.

3. “LEGO THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG – TEASER TRAILER”

In LEGO Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” trailer, some smart aleck stop motion animators have created a precise, shot-by-shot remake of the trailer for the new “Hobbit” sequel using nothing but LEGO toys to recreate the sets and the actors. Their attention to detail is phenomenal – with finely crafted LEGO recreations of the actors’ appearances, and every mountain, castle, and dragon built of LEGOs. The Brotherhood Workshop YouTube channel has more of their hysterical LEGO reenactments, including the LEGO Harlem Shake video you’ve been waiting for.

2. “FITTING IN CARDBOARD”

We’ve got another brilliant do-it-yourself stop motion animation video with Fitting in Cardboard. The only “serious one” in this week’s top animation offerings, this video uses visual tricks with sheets of cardboard to enhance a poetic meditation on human insecurity. It’s more interesting than it sounds.

1. “HOW PACIFIC RIM SHOULD HAVE ENDED”

The robots are big and the laughs are even bigger in How Pacific Rim Should Have Ended. I haven’t even seen “Pacific Rim,” and I was still in stitches at this animated parody of the monsters vs. robots blockbuster. Check out the How It Should Have Ended YouTube channel for more hilarious parodies of the movies.

Got any more great animated videos to recommend? Did the guy pulling celery from his beard entertain you or gross you out? What other Hollywood movies deserve the “How it should have ended” treatment? Tell us how things should have ended in the comments section below.