ANIMATION FESTIVAL IN PASADENA

“Festival of Animation 1987,” a program of short films from around the world (opening today at Sexson Auditorium, Pasadena City College), is a mixed bag that offers some delightful new works, some familiar ones and a few out-and-out duds.

Alison Snowden and David Fine gently spoof the cliches of cinematic romance in “George and Rosemary” (Canada), the story of a endearingly frowzy little old man and his equally dowdy inamorata. Drawn in a pleasant cartoon style, “George and Rosemary” presents a funny, yet touching look at love among the ruined.

Raimund Krumme’s “Rope Dance” (West Germany) uses two figures joined by a red cord to explore motion, perspective and balance. The sophisticated use of three-dimensional space in this intriguing film reveals strong ties to contemporary dance.

In “Sunnyside Up” (Netherlands), Paul Driessen takes the cliched image of a man stranded on a desert island and transforms it into a droll, idiosyncratic world that appears to be two parts of a mirror image. But the symmetry is quickly shattered: The man on one side of the picture is visited by a comely maiden and a rescue ship, while his chagrined counterpart looks on. Andrew Stanton cheerfully turns a conventional children’s fable topsy-turvy in “A Story” (U.S.), one of three student films from CalArts.

Not all the films approach this level of excellence. Jonathan Amity created the visuals in “Oh Dad” (Canada) by drawing with lengths of silver chain. But he delivers his anti-nuke message with all the subtlety of a traffic jam, and his bored audience quickly loses interest in the novel technique. The energy of a song by the rock group Was (Not Was)can’t disguise the crudeness of the imagery in Christopher Simon’s “Hello Dad, I’m in Jail.” “Peppy” (Japan), from the Toyo Links Corp., is an ill-conceived effort to capture the look of a ‘30s cartoon in computer animation.

Several of the films in “Festival ‘87” have screened in recent programs in Southern California, including Tony Venezia’s ethereal “Passages” (U.S.); “Face Like a Frog” (U.S.), Sally Cruikshank’s unsuccessful attempt to re-create the fluid, jazzy insanity of the early Fleischer cartoons, and Bill Plympton’s odd, metamorphic “Your Face” (U.S.. Juliet Stroud’s “Snookles” (U.S.) has been shown so many times over the last few years that the film’s one gag has lost its punch.

Given the increasing number of animated films being produced in the world and the limited number of opportunities in the United States to see them, the sponsors of showcases like this should be able to assemble programs that don’t overlap.

“Festival of Animation 1987” screens today, Saturday, Sunday and Oct. 31 at Sexson Auditorium, Pasadena City College, 1570 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena.

Information: (818) 509-3989.