it has come to my attention that spike and mike's sick and twisted animation festival is one of the single worst atrocities ever visited upon the animation industry and mankind. it is quite literally shameful to the art form i have basically dedicated my life to. save three or four films, the show was filled with nothing but tasteless and pointless shorts. some dragged on for so long and were so horrible that i actually zoned out and got very bored, which almost never happens to me while watching anything animated. other shorts were honest to god drawings by stoners who would simply paste a frame of an open mouth over the closed mouth on the character, which was still visible on the corners of the open mouth. the people who put this show together obviously had no regard to the quality of picture or substance of the films. as for the shorts that were actually good (john dilworth's mousochist, stubble trouble, whatever that death one was called, and of course don hertzfeldt's billy's balloon), being played next to such terrible films is embarrassing due to the sheer contrast. and happy tree friends... i love it, but that needs to stay on the internet. flash will never be able to give the same whimsical feel that hand-drawn animation gives. ever.

that having been said... if you live in the laguna beach/socal area, go see the animation show in the downtown Laguna theater. coming in several weeks. support some stuff that is actually good.

"the animation show: it's better than spike and mike's, i promise"
--erin