June 18, 1998

Showings:
June 21 - Enzian, 4pm

As they do every year, the Florida Film Festival puts together a screening of animated shorts. This year, we get another slew of them (18 in all) in all sorts and styles, from the elaborately drawn to simple stick figures to still-frame photography. And with the variety of styles comes a variety of subject matter: the superhero ("Radioactive Crotch Man"), the tutorial on how to ingest wood ("Wood Technology"), the interpretation of dreams ("5 Dreams"), the insanity of drug abuse ("Dirty Baby Does Fire Island"). Fans of Spike and Mike's should line up, even if they won't find such familiar faces as "No Neck Joe" and "The Buliminator" here. But there's still plenty of laughs, especially in the fantastic stop-motion parodies of Corky Quakenbush, whose material stole the show, and some fantastic, inventive animation.

Quakenbush's shorts (who's work is best known to watchers of Fox's Mad-TV), as he explained to the audience in a short Q&A after the screening, mix the innocent stop motion of the Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer with the violent chic of Scorcese or Coppola. My two favorite of his: "Bwisk" and "CLOPS."

"Bwisk" parodies that Lipton Iced Tea commercial featuring Rocky Balboa by replacing Mike Tyson and Don King in the roles of Rocky and Mickey the manager, respectively. The twist is that Bwisk doesn't so much quench Tyson's thirst as it increases his hunger. Tyson's opponent? Evander Holyfield. You can guess the rest.

"CLOPS," a clay-mation version of the "COPS" TV-show, features such inspired comic moments as Gumby getting busted for disorderly conduct (and being sent to the "pokey" of all places) and Santa Claus being pulled over for drunk driving (they find a mother load of cocaine in Santa's trunk, which he cites as being "just a bunch of snow from the North Pole."). I was in hysterics.

Aside from Quakenbush's shorts, which comprise nearly a third of the screening's hour and a half, a majority of the show revolves around films of self-reflection. For the most part, these shorts seem too self-absorbed and serious to really connect well with me.

There is one exception, though: "That Strange Person," which examines a woman's vanity by showing her obsession with looking in the mirror. The animation reminds me a lot of Picasso's , while its narrative is witty and real and makes good use of self-deprecating humor. When the narrator says at one point: "A person can waste a lot of time doing this," it's funny, but it also works well as satire of the other self-reflection pieces at the screening.

My two favorites of the show are also its most dramatic. "Division," a haunting parable about greed and patience, shows that emotional complexity isn't always needed to make something worthwhile, which this short clearly demonstrates with its simple, universal story and its eerie animation and soundtrack. And "Repetition Compulsion," drawn in a sketchbook manner, describes the story of a woman who can't escape from an abusive relationship: both frightening and compelling, it could easily be double as a great PSA about spousal abuse.

Other highlights include a series of amusing short-shorts by animation guru Bill Plympton titled "Sex & Violence" (Plympton introduced the screening and told the audience of his future plans - a television show for MTV.) and Pixar Entertainment's "Geri Game," 1997's Oscar-winner for best animated short. (Pixar made 1995's highly successful and highly entertaining Toy Story.)

"Geri's Game" is a sweet little tale of an old man playing a game of chess with himself. With its is glorious animation, and its witty story, "Geri's Game" is a wonderful testimony to what a lot of inspiration - and a lot of money - can do for animation.

Check it out.

Eyal Goldshmid I am a fiction writer supporting myself as a government clerk for the US army. Until I can fully live off writing, I plan to milk all the luxury I can from the American taxpayer. Other Articles I've Written