Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with my man, Capone. He's here to fill you in on Don Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge's THE ANIMATION SHOW, which has gotten a new line-up for this year. I saw the first edition of THE ANIMATION SHOW and it was a treat, but I'm a sucker for good animation and seeing new bits from Hertzfeldt is always a treat. I saw his newest, THE MEANING OF LIFE at the Santa Barbara Film Festival last month and, while different and less schizoid crazy, was still a treat to behold. Btw, here's the trailer for this year's editionAnyway, I'll turn the floor over to Capone and let him fill you in! Enjoy!
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here with a confession: I'm a sucker for animated shorts compilations. If you put the names Spike & Mike in front of some animation festival, I'm there. For the last three years, I've been fortunate enough to see all or most of the Oscar-nominated animated and live-action shorts. It was particularly satisfying to serve as a Short Subject jurist for my city's Film Festival last year and see more than 40 animated and live-action films, most of them pretty great. One of 2004's most welcome events, however, was the introduction of the Mike Judge/Don Hertzfeldt produced THE ANIMATION SHOW. If memory serves me right, there wasn't a bad one in the bunch. And what a bunch it was: early animations from Judge; specially created beginning, middle and end bits from Hertzfeldt; and a whole lot more. The 2005 edition of THE ANIMATION SHOW is just now starting to ooze its way across the country. Most of the upcoming release dates are on the West Coast and Midwest (including a March 4 opening in Chicago at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema), but you can track the schedule to see if the show comes to your town any time soon at www.animationshow.com.
The 2005 offerings are as solid a lineup as I've seen from any animation program in quite some time and include one current Oscar nominee (Bill Plympton's amusing-but-far-from-his-best GUARD DOG) and a few that were on the short list for Academy Awards. Probably my favorite from the bunch is Jen Drummond's THE F.E.D.S. Drummond is probably best known for her animation work in WAKING LIFE (you'll recognize the style instantly), and this piece featuring interviews with Food Education Demo Specialists (you know, those people in the grocery stores with the free samples) is wonderfully fun and inventive. Also high on my list is WARD 13 from Australia's Peter Cornwell about a man trapped in a creepy-ass medical facility. This one features some great action sequences. Also from Australia is the sweet HELLO about a little boom box who seeks advise from a gramophone in an effort to win over the cutie pie CD player who lives in his apartment building. Trust me, it'll warm your heart. Sci-fi fans will get a kick out of the CGI work ROCK FISH with some of the most realistic landscape I've ever seen created by computers. It's pretty bad ass.
Probably the most disturbing short was FALLEN ART (from Poland), which takes place on a military base run by an insane officer that orders soldiers to their death for the sake of art. This one stays with you in a bad way. Canada's 2000 Oscar-nominated WHEN THE DAY BREAKS (which also won the Palme d'Or in the Short Film category at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival) is probably the most well-thought-out work in the show. Featuring a cast of animals taking on distinctly human tasks and emotions. The 25-second FIREWORKS made me crave candy like never before. The big news about this year's ANIMATION SHOW is the debut of Hertzfeldt's latest, THE MEANING OF LIFE. I know dozens of people desperate to see this short, and all of them may be a little shocked by what Don has got in store. Don't get so hung up on the fact that Hertzfeldt has given us some of the funniest animated shorts in recent years, including the classic REJECTED. THE MEANING OF LIFE isn't necessarily going for big laughs. It's going for something a bit more substantial. The familiar line drawings are still here, but Hertzfeldt goes some where else with them, with a lot of help from Tchaikovsky's music. There's a brief statement at the end of the film verifying that every frame of this short was done by hand, and I almost couldn't believe it. There's an inventiveness and energy here that I've never seen in Hertzfeldt's work. Clearly the man's mind isn't working quite right, and we'll all the better for it. THE ANIMATION SHOW tradition must carry on for years to come, if only to give Hertzfeldt a place to show us his latest work. This is a spirited and thought-provoking collection.
Capone
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