Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

One of the greatest things about living in a city like Chicago is that we get fairly regular access to a small handful of traveling animation festivals that come from the likes of Spike & Mike (who seem to have two festivals going at any one time—a more conventional collection and another that offers a fabulous group of sick and twisted shorts) and Mike Judge & Don Hertzfeldt's ANIMATION SHOW, which now has its fourth anthology of all new offerings (although I don't think Hertzfeldt is involved any longer). It's always tough to review these kinds of programs because it really boils down to whether there are more worthy films than sub-par stuff. Spike & Mike's stuff is a bit more spotty, if only because they tend to repeat shorts from year to year (calling them "fan favorites"), but so far the THE ANIMATION SHOW has been solid as a rock for four years running. Show number four has a few duds, but the stuff that's good/great here far outweighs the average (nothing here is bad).

The announced highlight of this program is the latest five-minute glory from the legendary Bill Plimpton, "Hot Dog" (which completes his "Guard Dog" trilogy, for those of you who know he had a trilogy going). Plimpton is something of a miracle worker, offering complete and hilarious stories with some fairly crude drawings and a brain full of great ideas. Other highlights include Steve Dildarian's "The Life and Times of Tim," which is being turned into a series for HBO. Good choice. The laid-back approach of the film reminds me a bit of "Dr. Katz," but the subject matter (in this case, Tim's girlfriend who returns home to find him sitting on the couch with a hooker, and Tim attempting to deny that he knows who she is) is far more racy. I was in awe of the latest from PES's stop-motion wonder "Western Spaghetti," a simple cooking lesson that is far from simple in its execution. A pair of shorts from Matthew Walker ("Operator," which has a man calling God to ask an important question, and "John and Karen," about a tense moment between a polar bear and a penguin) are marvelous examples of subtle, less-is-more humor that absolutely work.

The three "Yompi the Crotch-biting Sloup" shorts are bound to become cult classics, while "Raymond" from Bif Productions is a doozy of a mind-fuck involving a swimming instructor looking for a way to get to the ocean using experimental drugs. My second-favorite short, "This Way Up," about a pair of undertakers trying to get a coffin to the funeral on time, is as good as any Pixar short in recent history and far more sinister than any of the Tim Burton-produced animated features. But the one short I could (and did) watch dozens of times is "Love Sport Paint Balling," chronicling the "bloodiest" paintball game in history (and that's all I'll say). These two offerings are worth the price of admission, but lucky for you, you get about 80 minutes of some of the best animation out there from around the world. My underlying feeling about any collection of shorts, whether they be live-action/documentary stuff you might get at a film festival or these floating animation festivals is that they need to be supported even during an off year. Fortunately, this is a very good year for THE ANIMATION SHOW, which is currently touring the country for your enjoyment.

Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com