Animation has always been a cinematic resource for creating motion on film that would be impossible in real life. When the limitations of physics don't apply, filmmakers can create dazzling imagery and spectacular movements previously seen only in their imaginations. Some animators, however, have very disturbed imaginations. It is their work that comes through town once a year with Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation. This is where you find animated sex, drugs, and fart jokes. It is a festival where the quality of the animation often takes a back seat to the potential shock value. And it is the reason Beavis and Butthead and South Park became famous.

Now in its tenth year, the Sick & Twisted Festival is continuing to maintain its popularity as a place to see bizarre, disturbing, and raunchy animation. It was started in 1991 as a spin off of Spike & Mike's Festival of Animation, which has been showcasing quality mainstream cartoons since 1977.

"Spike just kept getting these non-family films that we couldn't put in the original festival," said Scott Haire, who handles promotional aspects of the Sick & Twisted Festival, and who is in Denver as the show's MC. Haire started working with Spike and Mike about the time the Sick & Twisted Festival was started.

"When it first came out it was to test the market to see how it would work," Haire said. "Pretty much right off the bat it got popular."

Haire attributed the immediate popularity to one film shown that first year, titled "Frog Baseball." The popularity of the characters from that short, two lazy teenagers named Beavis and Butthead, made the Sick & Twisted Festival an instant success, and paved the way for a decade of low-brow animated humor.

Now every year 20 or so films are selected to tour the nation with midnight screenings where the audience is encouraged to shout at the screen. Mike Judge's "Beavis and Butthead" isn't the only well-known cartoon to get its start at these late-night screenings. Local boys Trey Parker and Matt Stone's crudely-animated "The Spirit of Christmas" premiered on the Sick & Twisted tour, resulting in "South Park." Even "Rugrats" and the "Powerpuff Girls," two of today's most popular children's cartoons, can trace their origins back to Spike & Mike.

The festival has even started making appearances at prestigious film festivals, such as Slamdance, Annecy, and Cannes, and receiving a better reception than expected.

"When you go to film festivals they always cater to the foofoo crowd," Haire said. The Spike & Mike show, which contained an equal mix of films from the original Festival of Animation and the Sick & Twisted, was assigned smaller theatres at most of the festivals. Haire said that while one of the major events at Annecy was only half-full, the Spike & Mike screening was sold out and had to turn people away.

Occasionally some more mainstream animation finds its way into the Sick & Twisted Festival. "There are a couple films from the original show that are edgy enough that we can put them in the Sick & Twisted show," Haire said. "We like to incorporate a couple films that are well made ... it makes it a little more well-rounded"

The current series contains shorts by PIXAR, the studio that created the Toy Story movies, and Aardman Animation. The Aardman studio is best known for the movie Chicken Run, and the "Wallace and Gromit" series, which had its American debut with Spike & Mike.

In fact, one of this year's most popular films was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000. According to Haire, Don Hertzfeldt's "Rejected" has gotten a strong reaction everywhere it has been shown, with some people paying the admission price just so they can see it. Hertzfeldt has picked up several fans over the years with films such as "Billy's Balloon" and "Ah l'Amour." "He's been making films for us for a while now, and all his films are just amazing," Haire said. "Every now and then you will get an animator who gets a cult following, and that's Don Hertzfeldt."

Some of the submissions Spike and Mike receive are at the opposite end of the spectrum from Hertzfeldt's work, Haire said. Alot of the films they receive are just bizarre, and don't have a discernable point. "Some people think if you just make a film that's kind of weird, 'Oh, Spike & Mike will show this, '" Haire said. "I feel bad when people have us watch these videos ... it's kind of like this late-night stoner stuff. If we put it on the screen, the audience would ask, 'What the fuck is this? '"

Haire said many of the films that don't make it into the festival are turned down because the filmmakers didn't use what should be basic cinematic techniques. "If you have a story and a punchline, there's a chance you might get in ... it has to be a short little film, not just a random bunch of stuff."

Haire said the best thing people can do is "invite 30 or 40 people over and see what they think." On a larger scale, this is done annually at the San Diego Comic Convention every July. Audience reaction at the screening held there helps determine which titles will be on the touring program beginning that September.

While audience reaction varies from city to city, Haire said the festival continues to be an overall success, and will continue touring for the foreseeable future.

--Chris Ward

Movie Review

JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK

Martin Scorsese once said, when it comes to filmmaking, if you make what you know, there's no way of making a mistake. That's been his approach, and it seems like he has a good point, as he's used his memories of the local Italian punks as a point of reference for some of his characters from Goodfellas to Raging Bull.

Kevin Smith used this theory for his first feature Clerks, a modern cult film that showcases what it's like to be an attendant for a day at a convenience store. Since then, Smith has had his ups and downs as a film maker, mostly due to studio interference. Basically, it seems to be that if he makes a film for the studios it's probably not going to work (Mallrats), but if he goes under the radar and comes from the heart (Chasing Amy), it'll be a film worth discussing. In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, we find a mix of both styles and at times it works, but for the most part it seems tired and uninspired.

We find Jay and Silent Bob doing what they do best, rapping in front of their favorite video store and selling weed to kids. These two are so aloof that they haven't realized the comic book heroes Bluntman and Chronic (who were loosely based on them), in the last phases of filming. Initially they want their piece of the pie, but after reading what Internet fans have been saying about them in chat-rooms on the 'net (" Jay and Silent Bob are ball lickers," or, "Fuck Jay and Silent Bob, fuck them in their stupid asses."), they decide to go to Hollywood and stop the movie from being made.

Seeing that they don't have a car, the decide to hitch a ride with strangers and this is how they meet Shannon Elizabeth and her gorgeous friends, who pose as students fighting for animal rights. J & SB are talked into stealing an orangutan, and now they are considered dangerous criminals who become the focus of a national man hunt, headed by a clumsy wildlife ranger played by Will Ferrell.

Being that this a studio picture, there are many cameos ranging from Mark Hamill to Ben Affleck (here Affleck plays a double role: he plays Holden from Chasing Amy and he also acts as himself in a sequel to Good Will Hunting). The original stars from Clerks also make appearances as well.

With all this going for it, it too bad the film doesn't keep up with its end. J & SB are funny guys, but they are funny in moderation. It's tough to base an entire movie on these guys when you get the joke after five minutes, and I think Kevin Smith realized that going into this movie, and that's probably one of the reasons he's retiring their characters. C+ --Neal James

Movie Review

GHOST WORLD

Ghost World is about a couple of girls, recent high school graduates, who are largely unimpressed by strip malls, themed diners, Los Angeles, and life in general. These best friends prank a middle-aged loser played by Steve Buscemi, and one of them, Enid (Thora Birch), becomes infatuated with him. This pisses the other one, Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), off.

This movie scared the hell out of me. I know these girls. They were my best friends in high school. They hated everyone who wasn't them and lived to harass me, and a few lucky others.

Director Terry Zwigoff does good things with comic book material. He directed Crumb, the 1994 documentary about comic artist R. Crumb. That's a good movie. Here, Zwigoff is working with Daniel Clowes' comic book of the same name. Just like with Crumb, he has made a very creepy and moving film. The intense parallels between this movie and my formative years have had a profound and unsettling effect on my psyche.

I think Clowes was spying on us. I give my youth a B+. --Josh Tyson

Movie Review

ALL OVER THE GUY

For years, the vast majority of movies with homosexual lead characters involved either coming out of the closet or dealing with societal prejudices toward gay people. From movies alone, one could get the idea that being gay was entirely about struggling for acceptance-- these characters never lived normal lives.

So it could probably be seen as a sign of acceptance that a standard romantic comedy can be made about two men without dwelling on all the political or social issues surrounding homosexuality. Too bad that's the movie's only selling point. When you get down to it, All Over the Guy is just a bad romantic comedy, nothing else. Two men are introduced to each other by their best friends, and have an on-again, off-again relationship for 90 very long minutes of the viewers' lives. Which would be fine, if there were any reason to care about them. It's very hard to feel any concern for an obtuse man-child and a man who seems to go out of his way to fit homosexual stereotypes.

So why are we even watching these two stumble toward each other? I cared so little if these two ended up in each other's arms that I was more interested in the relationship between the friends who set them up. What's so great about these people that they want to get married within a few months of meeting? There may have been an interesting movie there, but it got pushed to the background, making those characters little more than convenient plot devices to make sure the men consistently get back together.

The writing and acting both play out like a mediocre sitcom, almost to the point that I kept listening for a laugh track; at times I could have used the help finding the jokes. Dan Bucatinsky, who wrote and produced the movie while starring as one of the leads, may have a future if any of the networks decide they need a poor imitation of "Will & Grace."

All Over the Guy is being sold as coming from the same people who made The Opposite of Sex a couple years ago. Aside from saying it on the poster and in the trailers, and cameos by Christina Ricci and Lisa Kudrow and a prominently placed movie poster, there are really only superficial connections. Don Roos, who wrote and directed that great comedy back in 1998, is one of the executive producers here. And while Bucatinsky had a supporting roll in The Opposite of Sex, that hardly qualifies him as a driving force behind the film.

While the fact that a non-political movie with gay characters got made is a sign of movement in the right direction, did it have to be this one? This is not a movie to be proud of; it is something to watch on late-night basic cable several years from now and vaguely recall hearing about when it was in the theatres.

That's right, I said hearing about it, because it is also not a film worth paying $7 to see in the theatre. D --Chris Ward

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