Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Animation Festival (1999)
Various Animatory
Two dozen shorts, most consisting of less than five seconds of concept, had too many beers one night and decided to hold a film festival. Some were clearly lost, like The Devil Goes Down to Georgia , and wandered into the wrong bar. Others, more akin to Clayboy’s Animalistic Times , had bummed enough change to buy a beer and were hoping to catch the end of happy hour. Quite a few ( Spirit of Christmas , Yes, Timmy ) had been hanging around since the last animation festival, and hoped nobody noticed. Collectively, they had the entertainment value of karaoke night at Hartsfield Airport. More often than not, the title sequence was the best part of the film.
The pick of the litter might be How to use a Tampon , a German short exploring creative and dangerous methods to deal with a girl’s worst friend. Or it might have been Secrets of Flirting , with Cave Man and Cave Babe dealing with some Freudian issues. A few other contenders were Dog Pile (aah…yeah. You guessed it!) and a computer animated condom doing its duty in the prevention of AIDS.
These sparkles were outweighed by the dreadfully annoying No Neck Joe , with its ever increasing-volume. Everyone chanted “No More Joe!” as the film ended, in a touching show of audience solidarity. Special Games took an outrageous concept, ran about 10 feet, and fell on its butt. Monica Banana ? I actually feel SORRY for Bill. Wait for this to come out on video, then rent an earlier version.
