Cynical Cinema

          When The Animation Show starts, the first character you see is Butthead.  The second is Beavis.  And while they are not involved in the show itself, and are merely hosting it, you get an idea of what the show is going to be right away.  As my Grade 8 science teacher, Mrs. Walsh, used to say - rude, crude, lewd and socially unacceptable.  The Animation Show Volume 3 is a series of sixteen short animated films, packaged together, that comes out June 3rd courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment. 

          The first short film is called “rabbit”, a bizarre but about two kids who seem intent on murdering small animals.  Everything in the short is labeled.  When they pass a tree, the word “tree” appears beside it.  When they eviscerate a sheep, you see the word “sheep”.  The proceedings are presided over by a tiny little golden “idol”, who has some sort of magic powers, turning a cage into a pie and things of that nature.  He seems to be the god which these children worship, and is convincing them to perpetrate these heinous acts.  And…that’s about it.  Eventually the kids get eaten by bugs.  It’s weird and creepy, but pretty effective. 

          The second one is a strange live-action style animated bit called “City Paradise” about a Japanese swimmer living in a big American city.  The third is called “Everything Will Be OK”, about a stick drawing named Bill and his life.  Again, weird, but it is hilarious and very smart.  I’d go through all the shorts, but there are sixteen and it would be boring.  So I’ll just say this.  Not all the shorts are crude, not all of them are offensive, and not all of them make sense.  In fact, most of them make little sense, but few of them are offensive.      Some of the highlights are “one d”, where the entire world goes about it’s business in one dimension, so sticks talk to sticks and they get into other sticks to drive them to work…all this amid an alien invasion.  Also fun is “learn self defense”, a very short bit about a guy learning self-defense through cheap shots.  Not very good, but fun. 

          Most of these short films are good, and although you get a certain amount of the violent and the belligerent and the profane, that isn’t really what the Animation Show is about.  Really, it’s about art.  Short films, almost by definition, are artsy.  Simply because people make them solely with the intention of creating something cool.  No one ever sees a short film, so you can do whatever you want with it - it isn’t like some major studio is backing you and you need to turn a profit.  I’d be surprised if any short, ever, turned a profit.  But I’m also too lazy to look it up and see if one has.  So this means that when watching The Animation Show, you’re watching stuff that was made by a film maker with the sole intention of doing what he or she wanted, not what he or she thought you wanted to watch.  And if you like actual art, and you’re interested in short bursts of artistic expression, that makes it a wonderful collection.  If not, you can skip this.  And go rent The Lion King again.