Collection offers best
animated shorts
"The Animation Show," which makes its U.S. tour stopover at the Wallace Restaurant Row multiplex starting this weekend, is a collection of the best animated short films from around the world.
The show is personally programmed by co-producers Mike Judge ("Beavis and Butt-Head Do America," "Office Space" and "King of the Hill") and Academy Award-nominated animator Don Hertzfeldt.
This year's lineup spans eight countries, featuring everything from forgotten classics (including a beautiful segment excerpted from legendary Disney animator Ward Kimball's "Mars and Beyond") to the very latest in computer animation -- with six recent Oscar nominees, including "Mt. Head," "Das Rad," "Strange Invaders" and "Fifty Percent Grey."
While the collection as a whole is not rated, some of the films might not be suitable for children under 12.
Here's a rundown of the main animated shorts:
"Strange Invaders": Roger and Doris live a quiet, comfortable life until one night they are awakened by the arrival of a strange visitor. It's a child -- the answer to their dreams! A gift from heaven ... or from much further out? The strange little thing wreaks havoc on the entire household. Hand-drawn anarchy from Cordell Barker.
"Mt. Head": After a stingy man eats some cherry seeds, a cherry tree grows on his head. This film is a modern interpretation of the traditional Japanese Rakugo story "Atama-yama," set in contemporary Japan. Made by Koji Yamamura, it's a striking combination of 2-D and CG animation.
"Mars and Beyond": A history of astronomy and thoughts about life on other planets. It's an excerpt from a 1957 feature by one of Walt Disney's original "Nine Old Men" animators, Ward Kimball. Combining traditional animation with some practical, filmed f/x work (and narrated by Uncle Walt himself), it's drawn with inspiring attention to detail.
"Ident": A film of masks and weird goings-on. A city of mirrors and mazes, putty people, plasticine places and bizarre changes. It's an early short from Aardman Animations ("Wallace and Gromit" and "Chicken Run") and an intriguingly abstract counterpoint to the other projects that established the British company. Written and directed by Richard Goleszowski.
"Fifty Percent Grey": Between good and evil, black and white, and heaven and hell, in the end, it's all shades of gray. Commissioned by the Irish Film Board, Zanita Films' Ruairi Robinson portrays, in computer animation, a futuristic soldier in a voidlike afterlife, with only a television for company and his descent into hell.
"The Cathedral": A traveler encounters a strange, starlit cathedral. He soon realizes this building is more than it appears. This is a collaboration between Polish sci-fi writer Jacek Dukaj and Tomek Baginski, an accomplished CG artist with a strong background in painting and architecture.
"Das Rad": The stone people Hew and Kew have seen a lot in their everlasting lives on top of their mountain. Therefore, they're only mildly amazed by the goings-on in the valley below; they've got their own little problems to deal with. All of a sudden, mankind is discovering and inventing, and this new behavior starts to threaten the two's stoic peacefulness. Another Zanita Films production, using 3-D and CG animation techniques.
"La Course a L'Abime (The Ride to the Abyss)": An excerpt from Berlioz's "Damnation of Faust" accompanies two horsemen racing through a succession of painterly scenes of village streets, birds flying, children playing, a carousel turning and a circle of skeletons dancing around the orchestra.
"Parking": A parking lot attendant loses his temper when his lot is invaded by a blade of grass, and a furious battle ensues. It's the latest short from the hilariously absurdist imagination of Bill Plympton.
"Billy's Balloon": A recklessly funny look at a boy and his unusual balloon. Don Hertzfeldt has created a macabre but funny black-humor short in which balloons become ruthless attackers against the children holding them.
"Rejected": Another twisted Hertzfeldt short, this time depicting the collision between art, commercial culture and madness.
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