The Animation Show Volumes 1 & 2 – DVD Review

Film, Reviews


Available at Amazon.com

MTV presents The Animation Show Volumes 1 & 2. Volume 1 is 92 minutes and Volume 2 is 79 minutes. Not Rated.

Presented By:

Mike Judge &
Don Hertzfeldt

The Show:

It’s interesting how so many things in life come full circle. Animators Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt both got their first notice and acclaim when their shorts appeared in Spike & Mike’s Festival of Animation. Now, years later, these men have started their own festival to give a new generation of animators a chance to the get the acclaim they deserve. They titled their showcase simply: The Animation Show.

This collection of animation is a virtual cornucopia if interesting ideas. One can only guess that these are the best of the best, the crème de la crème. One can imagine Mike and Don spending long arduous hours watching tape after tape of crappy animation shorts till they find the few that are worthy of entrance into The Animation Show.


Milton, the character that inspired the film, Office Space.

There are two discs in this collection and the first, originally released on DVD back in ’04, is near flawless. Of the twenty cartoons here only a couple aren’t that good. These animation gems range from traditional to computer and even stop motion. Hertzfeldt has created a couple new cartoons to introduce and end the show which are very funny and while Judge hasn’t created anything new, he gives us a collection of early pencil tests as well as one of the Milton cartoons that inspired his film Office Space. What’s really great about all the cartoons here is that they aren’t just all funny. There are serious cartoons, dramatic ones, even a very tragic one that is a stop motion retelling of Madama Butterfly.

The second disc is a collections of shorts from The Animation Show’s second run. Sadly, the pieces presented here pale in comparison to the first group. If these really were the best of the best I’d hate to see what was left out. That’s not say that every cartoon here is bad, just that none of them extend beyond the realm of okay. While technically competent and compelling they just don’t seem to have anything to say. Amongst the bunch only one is a comedy however, it’s one of Bill Plympton’s less interesting pieces. Even the Hertzfeldt piece included here is less than stellar.


La Course A L’Abime, a beautiful piece of art come to life.

FINAL SCORE: 8

The DVD:

The Video:

The shorts are presented in fullscreen 1.33:1. The animation here is beautifully presented. Even the ones that aren’t that interesting look amazing.

The Audio:

The shorts are presented in Dolby Digital Stereo. The quality of sound varies from short to short but for the most part they are all really good. Nothing bad enough to distraction from what you are watching.

The shorts:

Disc 1:

Welcome To The Show by Don Hertzfeldt (2003) (3:00): Two talking balls of cotton introduce the show and discuss animation. This is the first of three pirces created especially for The Animation show’s inaugural program.

Mt. Head (Atama Yyama) by Koji Yamamura (2002) (10:00): After a stingy man eats some cherry seeds, a cherry tree grows on his head. This animated film is a modern interpretation of the traditional Japanese rakugo story Atama yama set in contemporary Tokyo.

Brother by Adam Elliot (2000) (7:50): A brother’s vivid tribute to his beloved but sickly older sibling who “didn’t look for trouble — it found him.” Brother is part of a trilogy tat includes Uncle and Cousin.

Parking by Bill Plympton (2002) (5:16): A parking lot attendant loses his temper when his lot is invaded by a blade of grass, and a furious battle ensues.

The Adventures of Ricardo by Corky Quakenbush (1990-1993): Three wild shorts that introduce us to the misguided world of 4-year-old Ricardo.

Moving Illustrations Of Machines by Jeremy Solterbeck (for some reason this one isn’t listed on the back of the DVD) (2000) (9:30): Inspired by the cloning and birth of Dolly the Sheep, this is a painstakingly detailed animated film. It consists of hand-drawn ink artwork completed over a span of nearly four years. Describing the convergence of man and technology, it is a surreal look at the mechanical world where human eggs are genetically reprogrammed by ominous machines.

La Course A L’Abime by Georges Schwizgebel (1992) (5:16): Two riders on galloping horses disappear, then reappear, alternating with other animated images moving to the same rhythm as their own.

Billy’s Ballon by Don Herzfeldt (1998) (5:22): A boy is attacked by his balloon.

Cousin by Adam Elliot (on the DVD it says this is by Jonathan Nix which is false) (1998) (4:40): Ordinary details create an extraordinary picture of a little boy who dressed up like a superhero, had a left arm with a mind of its own, and always “smelt of licorice”.

The Cathedral (Katedral) by Tomek Baginksi (2002) (6:30): A traveler encounters a strange starlit cathedral. He soon realizes this building is more than it appears.

Intermission In The Third Dimension by Don Hertzfeldt (2003) (3:00): The hosts of the program, the balls of cotton, take us on a bazaar trip into the third dimension. This is the second of three new pieces created by Don.

Fifty Percent Grey by Ruairi Robinson & Seamus Byrne (2001) (2:46): Between good and evil, black and white and heaven and hell, in the end it’s all shades of grey.

Uncle by Adam Elliot (1997) (6:08): A nephew recalls the sometimes-lonely and often-eccentric life of his beloved uncle.

Early Pencil Tests And Other Experiments by Mike Judge (5:00): A collection of vintage odds and ends from Mike’s animation desk in the early 1990s. This collection ends with the one of the animated Office Space shorts starring Milton.

Aria by Pjotr Sapegin (2001) (10:32) A stop motion animated short inspired Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly.

Bathtime In Clerkenwell by Alex Budovsky (2002) (3:15): This film is about The Great Revolution of the British Cuckoos who bravely took over London, forcing all the people to move inside the cuckoo clocks.

The Rocks (das rad) by Chris Stenner and Heidi Wittlinger (2001) (8:30): The stone people Hew and Kew have seen a lot in their everlasting lives on top of their mountain. All of a sudden, mankind is discovering and inventing, and this new behavior starts to threaten Hew’s and Kew’s stoic peacefulness

The End Of The Show by Don Hertfeldt (2003) (3:00): Our hosts, the balls of cotton, bring the show to and end in a was only Don could bring. This is the third of his new pieces.

Disc 2:

Bunnies by Studio Soi (2002) (:30): A night on the town in busy bunny metropolis.

Guard Dog by Bill Plympton (2004) (4:41): Man’s best friend finds the park a very scary place.

The F.E.D.S. by Jennifer Drummond (2002) (6:20): Under the fluorescent lights and piped-in muzak of a Texas-sized grocery store, the Food Education Demo Specialists struggle to keep their perky attitudes intact.

Pan With Us by David Russo (2003) (4:00): This film is a conceptually pastoral poem-film about the creative retirement of the ancient Greek woodland god, Pan. It imagines his unseen, forgotten spirit moving amidst a modern world.

Ward 13 by Peter Cornwell (2003) (14:50): After a car accident, Ben wakes up in a hospital. Not knowing where is or what is going on, he starts exploring the corridors only to find that the staff don’t have his health in mind! This claymation film is an interesting mix of action, horror and comedy.

Hello by Jonathan Nix (2003) (6:30): In a digital world, can analog find true love?

Rockfish by Blur Studio and Tim Miller (2003) (8:58): One man’s interstellar fishing trip unexpectedly turns into the ride of his life.

Magda by Chel White (2004) (5:30): A first love is corrupted as a man recalls his affair with a beautiful circus contortionist in the stop-motion animation of wooden mannequins.

Fallen Art by Tomek Baginski (2004) (5:50): In an old forgotten military base far from civilization, a group of deranged military offices nurture their insanity.

When The Day Breaks by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby (1999) (9:35): After witnessing the accidental death of a stranger, Ruby seeks affirmation in the city around he, and finds it in surprising places.

Fireworks by PES (2004) (:39): A fran fireworks display in classic PES stop motion fashion.

The Meaning Of Life by Don Hertzeldt (2005) (12:00): Life and death on Earth over the course of one billion years. The Meaning Of Life is the epic end result of four years and tens of thousands of drawings, single-handedly animated and photographed by Don.

Extras:

Disc 1:

Many of the shorts on this disc have extras. Those that have art galleries are: Mt. Head, Billy’s Balloon, The Cathedral, Das Rad (The Rocks), Don Hertzfeldt’s Trilogy (a.k.a Welcom to the Show, Intermission in the Third Dimension and The End Of The Show). These are kind of interesting.

There are also a couple commentaries on here including Bill Plympton’s Parking and Corky Quakenbush’s Ricardo.

La Course A L’Abime has a Storyboard and Scene Comparison. Which if very fascinating to watch.

Mike Judge’s deleted pencil tests are humorous.

Don Hertzfeld Optical Effects making of for Trilogy is interesting because he talks about how to create good effects without resorting to comptures.

The Cathedral is a beautifully computer animated piece and this making of is very interesting to watch.

Experimental First Ricardo Short. I thought these Ricardo shorts were the worst part of disc one and this “first short” isn’t any better.

Theatrical Trailer for Tomek Baginski’s new short Fallen Art

Theatrical Trailer for Bill Plympton’s new feature Hair High

Disc 2:

The best thing about disc 2 is this documentary, 100 Years of Animated Short films It talks about the history of animation and the development of the animation festival.

The F.E.D.S. recipe for animation: This short is rotoscoped and this making of talks about how they did it.

Fallen Art creating and animating characters. This is two making of interviews with animators as they talk about how they created the characters for this piece, very interesting.

A new film by Chet White A Painful Glimpse Into my writing Process. I found this more interesting than his short included in the show, Magda

The Making of Magda: this is just a photo gallery that isn’t very interesting.

A new film by Pes, Kaboom! And the making of Kaboom!: Again, I found this short a better animated piece that the one in the show. Also, the making of is very interesting. The animator talks about how each item in this stop motion cartoon was specifically chosen to bring about a certain reaction from the viewer.

On top of all of this, the collection comes with a thirty-seven page book giving detailed back stories on all the animators involved and how they came to create these animated shorts.

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for The Animation Show Volumes 1 & 2
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE MOVIE

8
THE VIDEO

9
THE AUDIO

8
THE EXTRAS

8
REPLAY VALUE

8
OVERALL
8
(NOT AN AVERAGE)

The Inside Pulse
This is a definite must for animation lovers of all kinds. However, if you can find Volume 1 by itself I suggest you pick that up. Volume 2 just doesn’t offer all that much in the way of entertaining animation. It will only be interesting to those who are impressed by technical achievement.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years