La Maison en Petits Cubes
2008 Japanese animated short subject film directed by Kunio Katō
La Maison en Petits Cubes (つみきのいえ, Tsumiki no ie; "The House of Small Cubes") is a 2008 Japanese animated drama short film created by Kunio Katō, with music by Kenji Kondo and produced by Robot Communications and animated by Oh! Production.
It won several prizes, including The Annecy Cristal at the 32nd Annecy International Animated Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 81st Academy Awards. It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2008.
Plot
As his town is flooded by water, an aged widower is forced to add additional levels on to his home in order to stay dry. But when he accidentally drops his favourite smoking pipe into the lower submerged levels of his home, his search for the pipe eventually makes him relive scenes from his eventful life (including his time before the flooding began).
Production
The concept for the film originated when Kunio Katō was studying at Tama Art University in Tokyo. It initially took the form of a painting featuring box-shaped houses arranged in stacks. During this time, Kunio was introduced to the world of animation when he watched Mark Baker's 1989 debut short film, The Hill Farm. This experience significantly influenced Kunio's creative direction.
The public source identifies “La Maison en Petits Cubes” as 2008 Japanese animated short subject film directed by Kunio Katō. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Maison, Petits and Cubes.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1236589. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008 and 1989.
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This entry incorporates text from “La Maison en Petits Cubes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.