While it's neither as fashionably irreverent nor as gag-oriented as its better known cousin, Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation Festival, Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt's touring Animation Show is by far the best program of its kind.
Gathering together more than a dozen award-winning films (and a few beauties from left field), this third edition of The Animation Show is a feast for the eyes and the brain, although not necessarily at the same time. The only pieces that come close to laugh-out-loud funny here are Bill Plympton's typically loony Guide Dog and Joanna Quinn's Dreams and Desires (nine minutes of the most grotesque wedding of the year), but all of the pieces in this year's program are of the highest quality, and all of them have something unique to offer.
Some are simply eye candy — Nine is a gorgeous slab of CGI surrealist escapism (currently being developed as a feature-length project by Tim Burton's henchmen) and City Paradise mixes mediums of all sorts to depict a hidden, metaphysical world beneath London — while intriguing shorts like Run Wrake's enigmatic Rabbit and Hertzfeldt's own Everything Will Be Ok are brilliantly, purely idea-driven. Oury Atlan's weirdly lyrical Overtime even features a coven of Kermit-the-Frog-like muppets re-animating their dead, human creator — one more reason to bear in mind that this is, by and large, pretty dark and sophisticated stuff, and definitely not for the kiddies.
The Animation Show 3 (NR) Directed by Run Wrake, Don Hertzfeldt, Shane Acker, Bill Plympton, Remi Chaye and Joanna Quinn. Opens April 27 at Tampa Theatre. 3.5 stars
This article appears in Apr 25 – May 1, 2007.