The Animation Show
This crazy diamond really shines on.
May 22, 2005
Now, many of you probably haven't heard of this one because it's only playing at the Angelika and they haven't done much to advertise it to the mainstream, relying on its wit and humor and creativity and quality and substance to slowly permeate through society as the smell of onions permeates a room. WHICH IT WILL. And if it doesn't, it should. Because this movie was fucking awesome.
In all actuality, this slow infiltration has already begun. Put together by Academy Award nominee Don Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, Office Space), The Animation Show kicked off its first American tour in 2003. Since then, it's been making rounds in not only America but Canada, France, and Australia as well. Basically, it's a bunch of animated sHOrts put together by two of the best in the animation business.
It starts off with this cute and simple animation about a dog. And you're thinking... "Damn. I wanted... like... violence and stuff." AND THEN THE VIOLENCE KICKS IN. But really, there's a lot more than blood and guts here. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, it'll make you shit your pants.
Some of the art was really beautiful. Like, awesome. It went from really sketchy stuff to top-notch computer animation to... some of it I don't even know what to call it. Every sHOrt had a different... "flavor," if you will. All the little details the animators put in kept you interested. And if you didn't like one story, all you had to do was sit for a few minutes and then there'd be another sHOrt.
But there's no reason for you not to like any of the sHOrts Mike and Don chose. Except for maybe that French one. But then again, the French are insane.
Overall: Beautiful animation; wholesome violence and humor; the French suck; never go to a hospital in Australia; eclectic mix of sHOrts; Don Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge are the shit.
And to you, The Animation Show, I leave four and a half out of five snorts of coke.
Reviewed by Melissa