AniSnatch

How AniSnatch looks

AniSnatch takes its look from the anime site whose name it shares, a sleek, dark design in deep navy with soft pink highlights. A slim top bar holds small back and home icons, the AniSnatch wordmark with Ani in white and Snatch in pink, a dark search field in the centre and a row of short links, with a little EN and JP switch at the far right just as on the original site.

The home page opens with a wide featured card. A softly faded picture fills its right side, and on the left a pink title, a short story and a meta line with small gold icons for the type, the running time and the release date introduce a favourite documentary. Below the card, Latest, Popular and Top rated tabs sit on a thin line, with the active tab marked in pink, over a grid of posters eight to a row on wide screens.

Each poster carries a small type tag at the top right, TV for a series or Film for a single documentary, and tiny badges at the bottom right show the year and the episode count or running time. Beneath the poster comes the title in soft white and a small grey line with the rating and the studio. A right-hand panel shows the AniSnatch mascot badge, a gold Your panel heading over a grid of icon tiles for My List, the guides and the A to Z list, and a gold Shelf panel heading over tiles for every shelf, in the same tidy three-column grid the original site used for its User Panel and Anime Panel.

Using the site

There are several ways into the catalogue. The search field finds any title as you type: try Pixar, Nintendo, Muppets or LEGO. The links in the top bar open the whole catalogue, the animation shelf, the games shelf, the comics shelf and the A to Z list, and the tiles in the right panel open every other shelf. On a phone, the links fold behind a menu button, the right panel moves below the posters and the grid shrinks to three or two posters per row.

Every title page shows the poster, the story, the year, the running time or the full list of seasons and episodes, the people who appear or made the film where TMDB lists them, and the studio. The Watch now button sits near the top of every page, and Add to My List keeps the title in your browser for later.

Studio Ghibli

Few animation studios are as loved as Studio Ghibli, and three documentaries go inside its world. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, made by Mami Sunada in 2013, spends a year at the studio in Tokyo as Hayao Miyazaki makes The Wind Rises, the producer Toshio Suzuki keeps the company running and the co-founder Isao Takahata works on his own film. It is a calm, beautiful portrait of a studio where every frame is drawn by hand and a cat wanders the corridors, and it is one of the most popular titles on AniSnatch.

Isao Takahata and His Tale of The Princess Kaguya follows Takahata through the long making of his final film, a watercolour fairy tale that took eight years, and 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki, a four-part series from Japanese television, follows Miyazaki over a decade of work, from short films for the Ghibli Museum to his return to feature films. Together they show how two very different artists built one of the great studios in film history.

Pixar and computer animation

The Pixar Story, made by Leslie Iwerks in 2007, tells how a small group of computer scientists and animators, led by John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs, spent years experimenting with short films before making Toy Story, the first feature film animated entirely by computer, in 1995. The documentary follows the studio through A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, and it is an inspiring story of patience and teamwork.

More recent Pixar films have their own making-of documentaries. Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red follows the director Domee Shi and the team of women who led the film, and Beyond Infinity: Buzz and the Journey to Lightyear traces the evolution of Buzz Lightyear from toy to space ranger. Jurassic Punk tells the story of Steve Williams, one of the pioneers of computer animation, whose digital dinosaurs for Jurassic Park helped change the film industry.

Disney animators

Walt Disney's studio has been making animated films for nearly a century, and several documentaries tell the stories of the people who worked there. Floyd Norman: An Animated Life follows the first Black animator to work at the Disney studio, a storyman and cartoonist who worked on The Jungle Book and Toy Story 2 and was still drawing every day in his eighties. The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic follows the long journey of Frozen from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale to the screen.

The Sweatbox is a rare and honest film: it follows the making of the film that became The Emperor's New Groove, showing how a studio can change a story completely along the way. Dream on Silly Dreamer remembers the artists of Disney's hand-drawn animation department as the studio turned to computers, and Disneyland Handcrafted, made by Leslie Iwerks in 2026, goes behind the scenes at the theme park Walt Disney opened in 1955.

Classic cartoons and stop motion

Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary, made in 1986, gathers famous fans to celebrate Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the rest of the Warner Bros. gang, and Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens - A Life in Animation tells the life story of the director behind Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. The Powerpuff Girls: Who, What, Where, How, Why... Who Cares? celebrates ten years of the cartoon heroines of Townsville.

Stop-motion animation, in which models are moved a tiny step for each frame, has its own fans. A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman, narrated by Julie Walters, tells the story of the Bristol studio behind Morph, Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema shows animators bringing the wooden puppet to life frame by frame. Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan and Phil Tippett: Mad Dreams and Monsters, described with the film magic below, celebrate two masters of the craft.

Puppets and the Muppets

Puppetry is one of the oldest forms of animation, and Jim Henson made it one of the most beloved. Henson's Place: The Man Behind the Muppets, made in 1984, visits Henson at work with Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and the creatures of The Dark Crystal, and The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson, made in 1990 after his death, lets the Muppets themselves remember their creator with warmth and humour.

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey is one of the most heart-warming films on AniSnatch. It follows Kevin Clash, a teenager from Baltimore who built puppets out of his father's coat lining, as he finds his way to Sesame Street and gives Elmo his famous giggle, meeting his hero Jim Henson along the way. The Crystal Calls - Making The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance follows a new generation of puppeteers returning to Henson's fantasy world of Thra for a series made in 2019.

For a gentle companion, the 2018 documentary about Fred Rogers, the kind presenter of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood who used puppets to talk to children about their feelings, is also in the catalogue and is one of its most popular titles.

Comics and their creators

The Comics shelf holds 31 titles about the art of telling stories in pictures. Stan Lee, a documentary from 2023 told largely in Lee's own voice, follows the writer and editor who co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and dozens of other characters at Marvel Comics in the sixties, and Celebrating Marvel's Stan Lee and Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters & Marvels add tributes and a long conversation with the filmmaker Kevin Smith. In How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, from 1988, Lee and the artist John Buscema teach viewers to draw a comic page, which makes it a perfect film for young artists.

Jack Kirby: Story Teller celebrates the artist who co-created Captain America, the Fantastic Four and Thor, and Batman & Bill tells the story of Bill Finger, the writer who helped create Batman, and the author whose long campaign finally put Finger's name on the comics. Chris Claremont's X-Men looks at the writer's long run on the X-Men, Turtle Power: The Definitive History of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles follows the Turtles from a small black-and-white comic to a worldwide phenomenon, and Moebius Redux: A Life in Pictures celebrates the French artist Jean Giraud.

Several films tell the history of the medium as a whole. Comic Book Confidential, from 1989, surveys the great comic artists, Slugfest tells the story of the long rivalry between Marvel and DC, Marvel's 616 explores Marvel's characters and their fans, and Marvel: Empire of Superheroes follows the company's history. The Image Revolution tells how seven star artists left Marvel to start their own company in 1992, and Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD celebrates the British weekly comic that launched many famous careers.

Fans, shops and new voices

Comics have always been about community. Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope follows fans, collectors and young artists at the San Diego Comic-Con, the biggest comic convention in the world, and Comic Store Heroes spends time in a famous New York comic shop. She Makes Comics tells the history of women in the comics industry, Very Semi-Serious goes inside the cartoon department of The New Yorker, and The New Yorker at 100 celebrates the magazine's famous cartoons along with its writing.

Iwájú: A Day Ahead follows the founders of a Pan-African comic company whose stories became an animated series, Seth's Dominion is an animated and live-action portrait of the Canadian cartoonist Seth, and Bezango, WA, COMIX: Beyond the Comic Book Pages and Heroes Manufactured celebrate independent artists. These are encouraging films for any young person who fills notebooks with drawings.

Superhero films

The comics of the sixties became the blockbusters of today, and the Superhero films shelf holds 20 documentaries about how the heroes reached the screen. The Marvel Studios Assembled series goes behind the scenes of the studio's recent films and series, from Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Thor: Love and Thunder and Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye, Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Ms. Marvel and Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Moon Knight, with the actors, directors, costume designers and effects artists explaining their work.

Spider-Man 2: Making the Amazing is a detailed, twelve-part look at the making of Sam Raimi's 2004 film, from the train fight to Doctor Octopus's mechanical arms, and X-Men: The Mutant Watch introduced the first X-Men film in 2000. Ending the Knight and The Fire Rises: The Creation and Impact of The Dark Knight Trilogy follow Christopher Nolan's Batman films, and Black Adam: Saviour or Destroyer? and DC Films Presents Dawn of the Justice League look at DC's heroes.

Two of the most entertaining films tell the stories of superhero films that took unexpected turns. The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened? reveals the designs, costumes and ideas for a Superman film planned in the nineties, and Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four follows the cast and crew of a low-budget Fantastic Four film made in 1994. Legends of the Knight tells the true stories of people inspired by Batman to help others.

Video games

Video games are the youngest of the arts on AniSnatch, and the Video games shelf is the largest, with 55 titles. High Score, a Netflix series from 2020, tells the history of classic games through the people who made them, from the arcade boom of Space Invaders and Pac-Man to the console wars of the nineties, with charming pixel-art animation. Video Games: The Movie and Gameplay: The Story of the Videogame Revolution cover the whole history in a single evening, and From Bedrooms to Billions, From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years and From Bedrooms to Billions: The PlayStation Revolution tell the story of the British game industry, which began with teenagers programming games in their bedrooms.

The great console makers have their own documentaries. Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story and The Story of Nintendo follow the Japanese company from playing cards to Mario and Zelda, Power On: The Story of Xbox tells how Microsoft's console was built against the odds, and The Story of PlayStation tells how Sony entered the market. Atari: Game Over follows a team digging up a famous landfill in New Mexico to solve the mystery of millions of buried Atari cartridges, and Once Upon Atari, Easy to Learn, Hard to Master: The Fate of Atari and World 1-1 tell the story of the company that started the home console.

Single games have their own stories too. Minecraft: The Story of Mojang follows the small Swedish studio as its building game becomes a worldwide phenomenon, Tetris: From Russia with Love tells how a puzzle game made by a Soviet programmer reached the world, and Double Fine Adventure follows a studio making a classic point-and-click adventure game with money raised from fans. Pretending I'm a Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story, It's in the Game: Madden NFL, League of Legends Origins and World of Warcraft: Looking For Group celebrate famous series and their communities.

High scores and arcades

Some of the most entertaining films in the catalogue are about players. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, made in 2007, follows a schoolteacher trying to beat the world record at Donkey Kong, and it plays like a sports film full of rivalry and suspense. Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters follows the greatest Tetris players as they meet for the first classic Tetris world championship, Man vs. Snake follows a player trying to become the first to score a billion points on the arcade game Nibbler, and Running with Speed meets the speedrunners who race through games as fast as possible.

The Lost Arcade remembers a famous arcade in New York's Chinatown, 100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience visits the multi-storey arcades of Japan, and The King of Arcades follows a man who dreams of opening the perfect arcade. Nintendo Quest follows a collector trying to find every official game for the original Nintendo console in thirty days by visiting shops and collectors in person, The Power of Glove tells the story of a famous gadget, and Free to Play follows three professional players competing at the first great tournament for the game Dota 2.

Music and sound have their place too: Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound traces game sound from Victorian arcades to today, Reformat the Planet visits musicians who make music with old game consoles, and Video Games Live: Level 2 is a concert of orchestral game music.

Film magic

The Film magic shelf holds 48 titles about the craft of movie-making. LIGHT & MAGIC, a six-part series directed by Lawrence Kasdan in 2022, tells the story of Industrial Light and Magic, the effects company George Lucas founded to make Star Wars, and of the young model-makers, painters and engineers who went on to change the film industry, from the Death Star to the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, made by Leslie Iwerks, tells the same story in a single film.

Before computers, effects were built by hand, and Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan and The Harryhausen Chronicles celebrate the master of stop-motion monsters, whose skeleton warriors in Jason and the Argonauts inspired a generation of filmmakers. Phil Tippett: Mad Dreams and Monsters follows the artist behind the walking machines of The Empire Strikes Back and the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, and Jurassic Punk tells how his computer-animated rivals arrived.

Sound, music and light have their own films. Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound reveals how sound designers create everything from the roar of a dinosaur to the hum of a lightsaber, and Music by John Williams celebrates the composer of Star Wars, Jaws, E.T. and Harry Potter. Visions of Light lets great cinematographers explain how they paint with light, Side by Side, presented by Keanu Reeves, explores the change from film to digital cameras, and 24×36 celebrates the art of the illustrated movie poster.

Star Wars and the blockbusters

The oldest title on AniSnatch is The Making of Star Wars, filmed in 1977 with the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 as hosts, and From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga continued the story in 1983. Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, made in 2004, is the definitive account of how George Lucas made the original films against many odds, and The Beginning: The Making of Star Wars Episode I, The Director and the Jedi and The Skywalker Legacy follow the later films. The Galaxy Britain Built: The British Force Behind Star Wars celebrates the British craftspeople who built much of the saga.

Other blockbusters have equally fascinating stories. Return to Jurassic Park gathers the cast and crew of the dinosaur trilogy, Back in Time explores the lasting appeal of Back to the Future, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story and The Making of 'Jaws' tell how the troublesome mechanical shark helped make Steven Spielberg a star director, and Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford follows the adventures of the famous archaeologist. Spielberg, made in 2017, tells the life story of the director himself.

Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made is a joy: in 1982 three eleven-year-olds in Mississippi set out to remake Raiders of the Lost Ark shot for shot, and the film follows them as grown men finishing the last scene. Chaos on the Bridge follows William Shatner into the making of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Behind the Planet of the Apes, hosted by Roddy McDowall, goes behind the famous ape make-up.

The craft of film

Several films celebrate cinema itself. These Amazing Shadows tells the story of the National Film Registry, which preserves treasures of American film, And the Oscar Goes To... tells the history of the Academy Awards, and Hitchcock/Truffaut follows the famous conversations between two great directors about the art of storytelling. Attack of the Hollywood Clichés! gently mocks the habits of action films and romantic comedies.

Jodorowsky's Dune tells the story of an extraordinary film that was planned in the seventies, with designs by Moebius and H. R. Giger, and how its ideas spread across science fiction. The Star Dreamer celebrates the Russian filmmaker Pavel Klushantsev, whose space films of the fifties and sixties influenced 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Our Planet: Behind the Scenes follows the wildlife crews who spent years filming the Netflix nature series.

Martial-arts fans can meet two legends. I Am Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey celebrate the actor who brought martial arts to world cinema, and Jackie Chan: My Story follows the actor famous for performing his own breathtaking stunts.

Magic

Magic is the oldest special effect of all, and the Magic shelf holds 11 titles about the art of illusion. David Blaine: Street Magic, first broadcast in 1997, changed the way magic appeared on television: instead of a stage, Blaine performed close-up tricks for ordinary people on the street, and the camera captured their astonished reactions. David Blaine: Real or Magic and David Blaine: What Is Magic? continue in the same style, and Dynamo: Magician Impossible follows the young British magician as he walks on water and performs for celebrities around the world.

Penn & Teller's Magic & Mystery Tour follows the famous double act on a journey through India, China and Egypt in search of the origins of classic tricks, and Penn & Teller: Try This at Home shows simple tricks families can learn together. Gambler's Ballad: The Legend of Johnny Thompson celebrates the great magician and consultant who helped many famous performers, and Lost in the Shuffle follows the world-champion card magician Shawn Farquhar. Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed shows how well-known illusions are performed, and Derren Brown: The Great Art Robbery and Derren Brown: Inside Your Mind explore the psychology of persuasion and suggestion.

Magic documentaries are wonderful for children, who love to work out how a trick is done and then try it on their families. A pack of cards and a little practice can turn a film night into a magic show.

Toys and LEGO

Toys are designed, built and tested by teams of inventors, and the Toys and LEGO shelf tells their stories. The Toys That Made Us, a Netflix series that began in 2017, devotes each episode to a famous toy line, from Star Wars figures, Barbie and He-Man to Transformers, LEGO and Hello Kitty, telling how they were invented, sold and loved with plenty of humour and nostalgia.

A LEGO Brickumentary, narrated by Jason Bateman, celebrates the culture and creativity around the famous Danish bricks, from master builders to fans who build enormous models, and The Secret World of LEGO, Inside Lego at Christmas and A Big Lego Christmas go inside the company's factories and design studios. Bricks in Motion meets the filmmakers who make stop-motion films with LEGO figures, a perfect inspiration for children with a phone and a box of bricks.

The Pez Outlaw tells the true and very funny story of a Michigan collector who travelled to Eastern Europe in search of rare Pez sweet dispensers, and The Making of Jurassic World VelociCoaster and Disneyland Handcrafted go behind the scenes of theme-park rides and attractions.

Behind the scenes for every age

Behind-the-scenes documentaries suit almost every age, and some are especially good for particular stages. Younger children enjoy Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, A LEGO Brickumentary, The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson, The Toys That Made Us and the magic films, and How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way is a fun drawing lesson. The Pixar and Disney making-of films are short and easy to follow, and they make a perfect double bill with the films themselves.

Children from about nine to fourteen are the natural audience for High Score, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Minecraft: The Story of Mojang, The Pixar Story and Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, which shows what young people can achieve with determination. Teenagers and grown-ups will enjoy The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, LIGHT & MAGIC, Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy and the portraits of artists and filmmakers.

Some making-of films describe action and fantasy films intended for older audiences, and parents may wish to watch the film first. Every title page lists the genres and running time, and the official services show age ratings and offer kids profiles.

Planning a behind-the-scenes night

A behind-the-scenes documentary makes a wonderful companion to the film or game it describes. Watch Toy Story, then The Pixar Story; watch Spirited Away or My Neighbour Totoro, then The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness; watch the first Star Wars film, then The Making of Star Wars and Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy. Children are often amazed to discover how much work goes into a single scene.

A creative weekend could combine a documentary with a project: drawing a comic page after How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, making a short stop-motion film after Bricks in Motion or A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman, building a sock puppet after Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, or learning a card trick after Penn & Teller: Try This at Home. Gamers might hold a family Tetris tournament after Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters.

Save your choices to My List, export the list to the family television, and settle in.

How Watch now works

AniSnatch is a guide, and every title page has a Watch now button that opens the documentary on JustWatch for the country you choose. JustWatch is a widely used service that lists where a title can be streamed on subscription, rented, bought or watched free with advertising. The country menu covers fifteen countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Philippines, India and much of Europe, and your choice is remembered in this browser.

Behind-the-scenes documentaries are found in many places. The Marvel, Pixar, Disney and Star Wars films are usually on Disney's own service, the Netflix series such as High Score and The Toys That Made Us stay on Netflix, and the Xbox and PlayStation histories often appear on the companies' own channels. Some making-of films are included as extras with the films they describe, and many older documentaries are available to rent or buy. The JustWatch page always shows the latest options.

The help pages

Fifteen short guides are linked from the right panel and the footer. How to watch with AniSnatch follows a title from the poster grid to its official service, Finding a documentary gives search tips, and My List explains how to save titles and carry the list to another device.

The theme guides open the shelves one by one: Animation studios, Studio Ghibli, Puppets and the Muppets, Video games, Comics and their creators, Superhero films, Film magic, Star Wars and the blockbusters, Magic and Toys and LEGO, each with a few recommendations.

The practical pages cover Where AniSnatch documentaries stream and The official AniSnatch site, which describes how the real address looks.

Fifty years behind the scenes

Read in order, the catalogue tells the story of popular culture over half a century. In 1977, The Making of Star Wars showed audiences the models and puppets behind a film that would change cinema, and the same years saw the first video games appear in arcades and homes, as Once Upon Atari and World 1-1 recall. In the eighties, Jim Henson filled television with puppets, as Henson's Place: The Man Behind the Muppets shows, and Stan Lee taught a generation to draw in How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way.

The nineties brought computer animation, told in The Pixar Story and Jurassic Punk, and the console wars told in Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story and From Bedrooms to Billions: The PlayStation Revolution. The 2000s brought superhero blockbusters such as those in Spider-Man 2: Making the Amazing and the record-breaking players of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, and the 2010s brought Studio Ghibli's last great films, followed in The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, and the worldwide success of Minecraft: The Story of Mojang. Today, series such as LIGHT & MAGIC and High Score look back on the whole story.

Careers in the creative industries

Many children dream of working in animation, games, comics or film, and these documentaries are a wonderful window into those careers. They show the many different jobs involved: storyboard artists and animators, puppeteers and voice actors, programmers and level designers, writers and colourists, model makers, sound designers, composers, editors and producers. Films such as Floyd Norman: An Animated Life, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey and Double Fine Adventure show the patience and practice behind every success.

They also show that creative careers often begin at home. Kevin Clash built his first puppets from his father's coat, the British game industry began with teenagers programming in their bedrooms, as From Bedrooms to Billions tells, and the three friends of Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made made their film in their own back gardens. For a young person with a sketchbook, a computer or a box of LEGO bricks, these stories are a powerful encouragement.

Hidden gems

Beyond the famous titles, the catalogue rewards curious viewers. Get Lamp tells the story of the text adventure games of the early home computers, in which players typed commands to explore imaginary worlds, and Video Game Box Art: The Stories Behind the Covers celebrates the painters who made the boxes so tempting. The Video Craze and The Bits of Yesterday meet collectors who keep classic games alive, and 8 Bit Generation: The Commodore Wars tells the story of one of the great home computers.

The Sweatbox is a rare look at how an animated film can be reshaped along the way, Seth's Dominion mixes animation and live action to portray a cartoonist, and Very Semi-Serious is a witty portrait of the cartoonists who draw for The New Yorker. The Star Dreamer rediscovers a forgotten pioneer of space films, and Our Planet: Behind the Scenes shows the patience of the wildlife camera crews who spent years filming a single series.

Small studios, big ideas

One lesson runs through almost every documentary on AniSnatch: great things often begin in small rooms. Pixar began as a handful of researchers making short computer films that few people expected to succeed, Studio Ghibli was founded by two directors and a producer who wanted to make animated films their own way, and Mojang was a tiny Swedish team when Minecraft became a phenomenon. The Pixar Story, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness and Minecraft: The Story of Mojang make a fascinating trilogy on this theme.

The same is true of comics and toys. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began as a joke drawn by two friends and printed with borrowed money, as Turtle Power: The Definitive History of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tells; Image Comics was founded by artists who wanted to own their creations, as The Image Revolution explains; and many of the toys in The Toys That Made Us began as sketches by designers who had to persuade sceptical bosses. These stories encourage young viewers to believe in their own ideas.

The people you rarely see

The best behind-the-scenes films give credit to the people whose names scroll past at the end of the credits. Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound celebrates sound editors and mixers, Visions of Light celebrates camera operators and cinematographers, and The Galaxy Britain Built: The British Force Behind Star Wars celebrates carpenters, painters and prop makers. LIGHT & MAGIC introduces the model makers who built spaceships from kits, and the same teamwork appears in the game studios of Double Fine Adventure and Power On: The Story of Xbox.

Puppeteers, too, often work out of sight, crouched below the set with their arms in the air. Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey and The Crystal Calls - Making The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance show how hard and joyful their work is, and how a character comes to life when a skilled performer gives it a voice and a heartbeat.

The power of fans

Fans play a big part in many of these stories. Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope follows fans who dress as their favourite characters, collectors hunting for rare toys and young artists hoping to be discovered, and Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made shows what dedicated fans can create. Nintendo Quest, The Video Craze and The Bits of Yesterday meet collectors who keep the history of games alive, and Running with Speed and Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters show how fan communities turn old games into new sports.

Fans also help preserve history. Many of the oldest making-of films survive because collectors kept tapes and magazines, and documentaries such as Get Lamp and Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound were made by enthusiasts who wanted to record the stories before they were forgotten. Watching them is a reminder that every hobby has a history worth telling.

Behind the scenes in the classroom

Teachers and home-schooling parents will find plenty of lessons in the catalogue. Art classes can begin with How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, Moebius Redux: A Life in Pictures or A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman, and move on to drawing a comic strip, designing a character or making a flip-book animation. History classes can follow the story of the twentieth century through comics in Marvel: Empire of Superheroes and Slugfest, or through toys in The Toys That Made Us.

Science and technology lessons find a natural partner in LIGHT & MAGIC, Jurassic Punk and Side by Side, which explain how cameras, computers and effects work, while computing classes can trace the history of programming through From Bedrooms to Billions, Get Lamp and Tetris: From Russia with Love. Music teachers can use Music by John Williams and Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound to show how a score supports a story.

Business and design students can learn from the stories of companies in Playing with Power: The Nintendo Story, Power On: The Story of Xbox and A LEGO Brickumentary, which show how products are invented, tested and improved, and how teams recover from setbacks. Media studies classes will enjoy Attack of the Hollywood Clichés! and These Amazing Shadows, which encourage viewers to think about how films are made and remembered.

Watching together

Behind-the-scenes documentaries are at their best when watched together and talked about afterwards. Ask what job in the film looked the most fun, which problem was the hardest to solve, or what the family would make if it had a studio of its own. Pause to look closely at a sketch, a model or a sound effect, and then look for the same details in a favourite film or game.

Many families find that these documentaries change the way they watch everything else. After Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound, children start listening for footsteps and doors; after The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, they notice the hand-painted backgrounds of Studio Ghibli; after The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, an old arcade game looks like a mountain waiting to be climbed. That new way of seeing is one of the greatest gifts a documentary can give.

Why behind-the-scenes documentaries matter

Behind-the-scenes documentaries do more than satisfy curiosity. They show that the cartoons, comics, games and films we love are made by people working together, solving problems and trying again when something goes wrong. They reveal the skill hidden in a single animated frame, a well-placed sound effect or a perfectly balanced game level, and they teach viewers to look more closely at everything they watch and play.

For families, these films are also a way to share favourites across generations. A grandparent who grew up with Looney Tunes, a parent who played Atari and a child who loves Minecraft can each find a documentary about their favourite, and discover how much the stories have in common: a small team, a big idea and a great deal of hard work.

Happy viewing

Behind-the-scenes documentaries are generous films: they open the doors of studios, workshops and design offices and let us meet the people inside. AniSnatch gathers 193 of them, with a page for each and a button that leads to the official services, so the next look behind the curtain is only a few clicks away. Choose a title, gather the family and enjoy the show.

Questions