"The 24th International Tournee of Animation" is the latest collection of cartoon shorts from around the world, and it's decidedly a mixed bag of good, bad and ugly efforts. Fans will no doubt want to take the plunge, however.
There's no Bill Plympton this time around, but there are a couple of big names — Gahan Wilson, whose macabre magazine cartoons become an animated event here, and Will Vinton, with a minifest overview of his work winding up the "24th Tournee."
Wilson's gruesome piece, "Gahan Wilson's Diner," is redundant and overplayed, as a rookie health inspector checks out a remote diner that is replete with horror film cliches. A couple of chuckles emerge, but there is nothing here to match the grim hilarity of Wilson's cartoons on the printed page.
Vinton fares better . . . but then, there's a lot more to choose from in the rapid-fire collection of clay and computer animation that gives us everything from commercials to shorts and features everything from dinosaurs to dancing raisins. A bit too long, though there's enough good stuff to make it worthwhile.
Like "Gahan Wilson's Diner," Paul Berry's "The Sandman" is another sick joke, albeit more effective and evocative, with a solid punchline. And if it strongly resembles Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in terms of style, there's a reason — Berry was lead animator on the latter.
"The Man Who Yelled" is an amusing short by Mo Williams and "Little Wolf," by An Vrombaut, is a charming parable. And the Hollywood satire "We Love It" by Candy Kugel and Vincent Cafarelli is also enjoyable.
John Callahan's "I Think I Was an Alcoholic," which made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival last month, is bittersweet and pointed and gets better on repeat viewings.
But Phil Tippett's dinosaur exercise "Prehistoric Beast" seems like little more than a pointless warmup for his work on Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park."
And the 11-minute "The Stain," which combines a number of interesting visual styles, seems a bit flippant for its subject of incest and abuse.
All in all, as is often the case with these collections, there are some gems in the midst of a mass of ordinary work.
"The 24th International Tournee of Animation" is not rated but is in PG-13 territory, with occasional sexual imagery and some profanity. Note that "The Stain," "The Sandman" and "Gahan Wilson's Diner" may be particularly disturbing for children.