From: paulf@tiamat.hacks.arizona.edu (Paul Frankenstein, Bs.D.)
Subject: REVIEW: THE ALL EXTRA SICK & TWISTED FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION
Reply-To: paulf@tiamat.hacks.arizona.edu (Paul Frankenstein, Bs.D.)
Organization: University of Arizona
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 15:20:08 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.movies
Summary: r.a.m.r. #01314
Keywords: author=Frankenstein

[Followups directed to rec.arts.movies.  -Moderator]

		 THE ALL EXTRA SICK & TWISTED FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION
			  a review in the public domain 
			       by Paul Frankenstein

THE ALL EXTRA SICK & TWISTED FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION
Distributed by Mellow Madness Productions
unrated, no one under 17 admitted

     "The All Extra Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation."  With a title
like that, what sane person could pass it up?  On the other hand, the
question of how to review a collection of shorts can be vexing.  No
doubt the Phantom would issue forth an erudite essay on the varied
meanings of "sick" and "twisted," while others would compile detailed
and studied synopses of each episode.  

     I chose a middle ground.  The shorts will be grouped, and discussed
in the company of their peers, rather than reviewed in order of
appearance.

     The film is rather short, under eighty minutes.  To make it seem
longer, the distributors added an intermission.  

     While a viewer might expect scatological humor to abound, it
actually doesn't here.  Only "One Man's Instrument," (Max Bannah,
Australia) "Bladder Trouble," (Webster Colcord, USA) and "Dog Pile"
(Miles Thompson, USA) are excrement-oriented.  And despite varying
lengths, they are all basically one-liners.  Of the three, "One Man's
Instrument" is the funniest, "Bladder Trouble" the most disgusting, and
"Dog Pile" the most explicit.

     After excrement, sex would seem to be the next topic of choice.
Two shorts deal with it: "Pink Komkommer," (Sara Petty, Janet Perlman,
Alison Snowden, David Find, Pal Driessen, Marv Newland, Chris Hinton,
Ftoyan Dukov) and "Deep Sympathy," (Mike Grimshaw, Canada).  "Pink
Komkommer" (translates to "Pink Cucumber") has all the animators above
tackle a suggestive soundtrack, one at a time.  The results range from
gently explicit, to anatomically impossible, to simply very funny.  "Deep
Sympathy," however, is the one most likely to offend everyone watching.
Necrophilia is its topic of choice, and while a few truly funny gags
lurk within, they are buried under the overkill of crudity the animator
forces past us.

     Grimshaw seems to have a talent for offending, as "Quiet Please,"
his other film in the collection, would indicate.  It's about a man
asking people to be quiet ...  in the least quiet manner possible.
Perhaps its only redeeming quality is a somewhat obvious observation.

     Mike Judge checks in with two pieces on life with the white trash
crowd, "Frog Baseball" and "In Bred Jed's Cartoon Honkey Problem."  Two
teen-aged heavy-metal fans and their creative time-killing activities
are featured in "Frog Baseball," while In Bred Jed, his country and
western band, and a few innocent by-standers are the stars of "In Bred
Jed's Cartoon Honkey Problem."

     "Thank You Mask Man," (John Magnuson, narration by Lenny Bruce,
USA) is by far the oldest short in the compilation, and one of the
funniest.  Think of this as the Lone Ranger meets Lenny Bruce.  It also
includes a really funny twist near the end.

     The honor of having the funniest piece, though, goes to Bill
Plympton's "One of Those Days," a chronicle of perhaps the worst day of
any man's life.  From waking up in the morning to hitting the sack at
the end of the day, this is Murphy's Law illustrated.

     Following in the footsteps of "One of Those Days" is "Woeful
Willie," (Chris Louden, USA) the funny, if somewhat violent, tale of an
accident-prone boy and his youth.

     Violence seems to be the sole purpose for the inclusion of "Lupo
the Butcher" (forgot to write it down) and "Mutilator."  (Eric Fogel,
USA) "Mutilator," is, by far, the *worst* film included here.  It runs
like the violent post-apocalyptic day-dreams of a teen who has listened
to "Dust in the Wind" one too many times.  It's a good film to laugh at.
"Lupo the Butcher" is the tale of Lupo, a foul-mouthed butcher, who
starts to come apart at the seams.  I found it somewhat amusing.

     "Hello Dad I'm in Jail" is a true oddity, and one must wonder how
it got in here.  Interestingly done animation, but a repetitive
soundtrack by WasNotWas and a lack of any form of plot relegate it to
the the rank of also-ran.

     Another also-ran is "Little Red Riding Hood in Storybook Land,"
(forgot to write it down) a rather over-ambitious bit about Little Red
Riding Hood.  A well-done point about child abuse is somewhat diluted by
attempting to also talk about real-estate development and the "Japanese
takeover."  

     This brings us to the two best works in the collection.  "Lullaby"
(Ken Bruce, USA) is an chillingly scary piece about child abuse.  It
builds momentum all the way to a horrifying conclusion.  "Deadsey"
(David Anderson, UK) is an extremely complex and technically brilliant
short about Death.  No, not death, but Death.  The Grim Reaper.  The guy
with the scythe and the black robe.

     Overall, I'd give it a 

        B                 (E to A scale, A being best)
        $4.25                (amount of money it's worth)
        6                (scale 1-10, 10 being best)
        mild thumbs up        (please tell me you don't need a translation)

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