Anxious Animation

Note to Spike and Mike fiends – there is definite and palpable art lurking in the ten short animated films compiled on Other Cinema's Anxious Animation DVD, but there’s no need to get all Stalin-esque and reach for your revolver at the mention of the word.

While some of the shorts are dense and, on occasion, obtuse, all are visually fascinating and even beautiful. The dizzying array of patterns and textures in Janie Geiser’s “Immer Zu” evokes the chiaroscuro lighting of classic film noir. Lewis Klahr's celebrated cut-and-paste technique manipulates advertising and pop culture images from the ‘40s and ‘50s to suggest Superman sidekick Jimmy Olsen’s exploration of his homosexual side and the pressures exerted on women by society. Jim Trainor's simple hand-drawn ink sketches imbue his animal subjects – bats in a 14th century Mayan temple in “The Bats,” and a bovine prehistoric animal in “Moschops” – with surprising tenderness and humanity.

But if all that makes your head swim, you can also groove on the manic energy of Eric Henry, Syd Garon, and Rodney Ascher who, as Henry Garon Ascher, bring a great deal of irreverent humor and cutting-edge style to the disc, especially with “Somebody Goofed,” a hilariously dead-pan adaptation of a fire-and-brimstone comic by the notorious religious cartoonist Jack Chick, and “Spokes from the Wheel of Torment,” which sets the apocalyptic art of 15th century painter Hieronymus Bosch to dancing with the weirdcore music of Buckethead. For those who like their animation with an adventurous flavor, Anxious Animationis a satisfying and self-contained festival unto itself, and best of all, there aren't any drunks in the audience or high merch prices to endure.