Warhorse traveling compilation of shorts offers solid laughs among mostly average fare
For lovers of gross-outs, morbid humor and cartoons that go splat! The annual Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Animation Festival is your cup of tea.
A review of the compilation seems largely unnecessary. If you like these sort of films you will not be disappointed in the 2005 edition; if you don't like this sort of film, you will not like this compilation. That simple.
Look out, world, Here Comes Dr. Tran, a notorious Vietnamese boy out to rule the world... or so claims the narrator of 'Here Comes Dr. Tran' the funniest film in Spike & Mike's annual collection of sophomoric animated films.
I don't enjoy these films as much as I used to, not being 19 years old anymore. That's not a dig at 19 year olds, it's just a fact of life. Many of the films are short one-note punchlines, and are not on the screen long enough to make any real impression. Perusing the list of films on the Internet a day later I find there are some titles that bring no corresponding memory of having seen the film.
One question that came to my mind while watching the show is what the purpose of this annual showcase is anymore. Except in a few cases, you can see similar material on cable TV. Even, what... 12 years ago now? Programs like "Ren and Stimpy" were attaining the same levels of grossness, the "Itchy and Scratchy" segments on "The Simpsons" are easily as violent, and certainly South Park eclipses most of the films seen here both in grossness and — more importantly — in terms of a broader satirical point.
Still, it is always nice to see what new filmmakers are up to, and I wish there were more showcase opportunities for beginners.
Many of the films are of the standard "Create A Character Then Brutally Kill Them" genre. Marv Newland invented this genre, and also had the final say on it with his 1969 classic "Bambi Meets Godzilla." But nowadays, well, I guess it's a classic because the formula works.
A few films stood out from the pack, however. There are three films included from a series called Happy Tree Friends, starring a variety of woodland creatures. Of the three, the film called "Milkin' It" stood out for its clever escalation of peril. In it, a couple of sneaky raccoons steal a cow from a farm yard and attempt to escape in a hot air balloon, as raccoons often do. All goes according to plan, until ominous powerlines appear on the horizon, spurring the raccoons into an escalating series of desperate attempts to escape the trap.
For its animation, writing and novelty, Arthur de Pins' "The Crab Revolution" was the best of the lot. Employing a pen and ink drawing style, the French film is a documentary, narrated by a crab who relates the sad history and weird quirks of behavior that define his breed: the unfortunate creatures can only walk in a straight line and in one direction, which often leaves them no choice sometimes but to walk straight into a grizzly fate. The film follows the loopy logic of this premise and explores it through dozens of clever permutations.
Patrick Mallek's "My First Boner" delivered lots of laughs, mainly through the goofily delightful expressions on the face of its young hero who, waking to find he has sprouted an erection, proudly shows it off to anyone and everyone.
"Mr. J. Russell," by Wouter Sel, tells the strange story of an average married Joe who one day slowly begins to psychologically transform into a dog.
But the film that absolutely made me laugh the hardest was Breehn Burns and Jason Johnson's "Here Comes Dr. Tran." Highlighted by brilliant vocal performances, the film opens on a young Asian boy in some nameless village eating breakfast and minding his own business. Suddenly, a cliche "narrator voice" comes out of nowhere and starts referring to the boy as "Dr. Tran," star of a series of action movies. The boy protests and demands to be let alone, but the Hollywood hype machine is not to be denied. The narrator persists, turning the mundane details of the boy's real life into a big-budget movie nightmare, pulling out every ridiculous cliche in the book.
The idea lampoons a number things all at once, beginning with the overhyped trailers for overblown movies and continuing to mocking a lazy kind of racial stereotyping.
Some of the films in this compilation are available at spikeandmike.com on their most current DVD “Caught in the Act.”
"Here Comes Dr. Tran" is also being sold by the film's creators.