FILM

Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation

Listen, I know you love those Internet cartoons that show the Flintstones boning, but that's just not the kind of animation you'll get at Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation Festival . It's not witty enough. I mean, sure it's crass, but crassness alone does not make a sick and twisted animation. According to Scott Haire, Festival Promoter and Emcee, the often disgusting, sometimes-offensive adult cartoons are chosen for subtler characteristics like cleverness and quality writing. The festival certainly isn't a showcase for heavy-handed shock-toons.

A too-hot-for-MTV video for Jack Black's band Tenacious D was selected as much for its edgy hilarity as for the high-profile team of people behind its creation. Produced by the Beastie Boys' production company and animated by the Ren & Stimpy team, Spumco, it has drawn a cocktail of old animation fans and new comedy fans to the festival.

Scott, whom you'll see at the show encouraging you to "buy a beer, you cheap-ass," also wants you to see Behind the Music That Sucks , starring the animated character and voice of Chris Rock and Rejected , a short originally produced for and ultimately rejected by the Family Learning Channel.

Marc Ziccardi, the Festival Director at Spike and Mike's Mellow Manor Productions, can't wait for you to see Maakies , by Tony Millionaire, a sort of Behind the Heckle & Jeckle, about a drinking crow. Maakies is one of the films that was discovered on the Internet, according to Scott, who says that the Internet has been useful in finding new animation and contacting new animators. (Go to www.maakies.com to view more Maakies strips. I recommend Do It Again Daddy .)

In fact, now that underground animation is widely available on the Internet, how does the Sick and Twisted Festival expect to draw a crowd? Scott compares watching the films on the Internet to watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show on a Tuesday night. "You go to Rocky Horror on a Tuesday night and there's no stage show. But you go on a Friday night and there's a stage show." He adds, "We get the audience riled. We play some adult games of a sexual nature, goofy games. At intermission, people buy merchandise, drink, ask us questions about the show and the films." So ask yourself, are you the type to get drunk at home in front of your computer or are you going to make an outing of it?

Now this is all probably very new and exciting for you, unless you've been attending the Sick and Twisted Festival since it's nascence in 1990. Spike and Mike have been working the movie festival circuit since 1977, when the Spike and Mike label represented Oscar-caliber high art films. Along with the artistic film submissions came a pile of underground animation. The cartoons didn't quite fit in with the original festival format, but they couldn't go to waste. Out of high art, the Sick and Twisted Festival was born. And because business owners rarely get the opportunity to share their product favorites with the public, I thought I'd ask the founding duo which films they look forward to in their 12th sick and twisted year.

Between you and me, I was let down by my experience trying to contact Mike. I mean, Scott made it sound like Mike would be totally interested if I called. He was all, "Yeah, just give him a call. I think he's in the office today. He'll probably be able to answer some more of your questions." Naturally, I became giddy and anxious because I thought Mike was looking forward to hearing from me. When I called the studio the guy who answered said he was "on the other line . and that he'd "call me back." I sat there for like, an hour with nary a ringy-dingy. I kept thinking that was Mike who answered, and he really didn't want to talk to me and never intended to call back. The insecurity was swallowing me whole, so I purged an entire box of Snackwells just to calm my quivering stomach.

To be quite honest, I had absolutely no way of knowing for sure, but I was positive that it was Mike who answered the phone. If I'd known in the first place that he wasnít going to call me back, I'd have pretended I wasn't interested and called his friend, Spike, instead. Just to show Mike that I can still generate interest.

Finally, I called back and got Marc, the Festival Director. I could picture Mike in the background going, "If it's her, tell her I'm not here." Well, it turns out that Mike is dead, as of 1994, and either Scott is a total douchebag or I'm hard of hearing. But Marc gave me Spike's cell phone number and I was again in the uncomfortable position of not knowing whether he would be happy to hear from me. After all, I do have a cute voice, but so does Charles Nelson Reilly.

Initially, Spike comes off as a Mafioso-style tough guy. He's very gruff; a lackey he calls "Beetle Boy" answers the phone. Beetle Boy meekly informs Spike of who is calling while Spike closes some sort of deal on another phone. So Spike seems sort of brusque at first, but like all outwardly severe businessmen, it turns out that he's really in it for the animation. He's super-pumped about Fuck Her Gently as well as When Chickens Attack , "for its quality, rendering, style, and artwork," he says. Spike also recommends, Eat , by cult animator Bill Plympton (recall his series of MTV cartoon shorts of morphing apoplectic heads?). For Spike's sake, don't forget Harry Pothead and the Magical Herb , a character popular with the kids, I believe.

But Spike is really excited about the next Sick and Twisted Festival, which begins in San Diego this September. Colorado is the last state to view the current festival, which began last September . because . . no offense . . but you live in the middle of nowhere. . Next year . s show promises another South Park -style hit with the Happy Tree Friends and the Pixar film Mike's New Car . In the meantime, enjoy this year's offering including annual favorites like No-Neck Joe. If the wait becomes excruciating, you can always watch the Flintstones perform caveman coupling on the Internet.

All Rights Reserved © 2002 Go Go Media, LLC, Denver, Colorado