The Animaniacs are probably what set me off on the scientific road with their awesome musical numbers extolling the virtues of the planets, the presidents and many other subjects. These fast paced but enlightening pieces are almost entirely based around the musical number, but work the animation to it nicely to provide a combined visual/audio piece. I think these definitely show that you do not need to dumb down your presentation even when dealing with the younger sets of audiences.

They Might be Giants are up here again, with a lovely little short in a different style to their usual ones. This was created by actually making the characters and sets with crafting techniques and paper/paints etc, before photographing them and then animating them. This gives them a very hand-made and unique look, while still being able to use much more modern digital techniques for smoother animation and tweening, and even some 3D rendered sequences. I love the combination of different techinques, new and old to created a really stand-out looking visual aesthetic.