Movie Review : Animation Festival Showcases Reruns of the Silly and Absurd

Summer is traditionally the season for reruns on television, but the “Best of the Fest” animation festival, opening tonight at the Port Theater in Corona Del Mar, extends the practice to the big screen. All the films in this international collection of animated shorts have been shown at various programs in Southern California in recent years.

It’s interesting to see which films retain their appeal after repeated viewings. “Crac!,” Frederic Back’s poetic overview of changes that the 20th Century has brought to life in rural Quebec, looses none of its charm. The casually skewed absurdity of “Special Delivery” by Eunice Macaulay and John Weldon and “Charade” by John Minnis remains undimmed. These Oscar-winning favorites attest to the ongoing vitality of Canadian animation.

Audiences never seem to tire of the delightfully macabre “Vincent” (USA) by Tim Burton and Rick Heinricks, or Mike Jittlov’s tour-de-force of stop-motion animation, “The Wizard of Speed and Time” (USA). The outre humor of these shorts makes “Furies” (USA), Sara Petty’s deft blending of feline movements and Cubist forms, seem even more elegant by comparison.

Not all the films in the program have aged so gracefully. Jimmy Picker’s “Sundae in New York” (USA) may have won an Academy Award, but this rather silly example of clay animation has grown very tired very quickly. (The current political scandals in New York have taken much of the humor out of the image of a caricature of Mayor Ed Koch cavorting through the city.)

Ferenc Rofusz’s “The Fly” (Hungary) was always a one-gag film, and when the audience knows what’s coming, the joke loses its punch.

Richard Conde’s “Getting Started” (Canada), a droll portrait of a musician inventing ways to avoid practicing, is still funny, but it’s been overshadowed by the freewheeling zaniness of Conde’s more recent “Pig Bird” and “The Big Snit.” This talented animator was just getting started himself.

Conversely, Zbigniew Rybczynski’s mordant “Tango” (Poland) is far more interesting than his subsequent videos for MTV, which juxtapose technical polish with an intellectual void.

While “Best of the Fest” offers no revelations about the state of world animation, it does provide an agreeable summer diversion, one that’s more entertaining than reruns of “Miami Vice.”

The show continues at the Port Theater, 2905 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Corona Del Mar through July 23rd. Further information: (714) 784-1668 or (714) 673-6260.