Good Judgment

Mike Judge is a deeper guy than you might have thought. That’s the only way to explain why The Animation Show 4, the latest in a series of independent animation anthologies the Beavis and Butt-head auteur curates by his lonesome, is so unexpectedly sophisticated, showing off an international flavor and...

By Susan Froyd

July 24, 2008

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Mike Judge is a deeper guy than you might have thought. That’s the only way to explain why The Animation Show 4, the latest in a series of independent animation anthologies the Beavis and Butt-head auteur curates by his lonesome, is so unexpectedly sophisticated, showing off an international flavor and streaked with underground, ironic humor. While animation shorts, by nature, often evoke that whole B&B primary process thing (they are, after all, the product of a highly technical art by one guy twiddling all the knobs), they’re also the territory of the kinds of visual surprises and quirky humor you won’t find anywhere else. Animation Show 4 meets those standards easily, throwing daunted coffin-bearers, road-pariah Russian rabbits, paintball video games, crotch-biting sloups, pissing firehouse dogs and pick-up-stick spaghetti into the collection’s 82-minute pot. The whole thing gets the artsy seal of approval, but I suspect the Great Cornholio would also approve.

The Animation Show 4 opens today at Starz FilmCenter in the Tivoli for a week-long run; go to www.starzfilmcenter.com or call 303-820-3456.
July 25-Aug. 7, 2008

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

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