MOVIE REVIEWS : Best of the Shorts Are British in Northridge Animation Festival

“The 1990 Festival of Animation,” a program of 17 shorts from the United States, Canada, England and Holland opening tonight at the Cal State Northridge Campus Theater, features three extraordinary films by British artists that illustrate the versatility of the animator’s art.

Easily the most beautiful film in the program, Erica Russell’s exquisitely sensual “Feet of Song,” stands out as an example of sophisticated design and a celebration of the joy of motion. Semi-abstract figures composed of geometric shapes and brush lines of brilliant color dance to an upbeat Latin score. As the film progresses, groups of figures form complex patterns that recall the exuberance of Matisse’s dance paintings.

Mark Baker creates a bizarre, two-dimensional world of square sheep, circular chickens and angular people in “The Hill Farm.” Although the antics of these odd creatures are often hilarious--a ravenous pig devours its supper like an amoeba engulfing a smaller microbe; a farmhand scares off a Gargantuan bear by tapping it on the nose with a shepherd’s crook--Baker somehow manages to make their lives seem compelling. “The Hill Farm” has already won the British equivalent of the Academy Award, as well as prizes at major festivals in France and Bulgaria.

In “In and Out,” the Canadian/British husband-and-wife team of David Fine and Alison Snowden infuse the familiar theme of the Seven Ages of Man with delightful absurdity that characterized their Oscar-nominated shorts, “Second Class Mail” and “George and Rosemary.” During the wedding scene, the toy bride and groom leave the top of the cake for a lower layer furnished with miniature armchairs and a television set.

Two films by American artists demonstrate the latest developments in computer-assisted character animation. The previously reviewed “Knickknack” by PIXAR’s John Lasseter and Bill Reeves (who won the Oscar last year for “Tin Toy”) focuses on the frustrations of a tiny snowman struggling to escape from a souvenir paperweight. “Locomotion” by Steve Goldberg of Pacific Data Images depicts a cartoon locomotive’s determination to arrive on schedule--at any cost. The opening sequence of the train emerging from a tunnel into a forest offers a dazzling example of the trompe-l’oeil realism that computer graphics can achieve.

The remaining films in the Festival are less impressive. “Creature Comforts” from the British stop-motion studio, Aardman Animations, features clever designs and polished movements, but the voice artists provide all the humor and render the visuals superfluous. Bill Plimpton’s “25 Ways to Quit Smoking” (U.S.A.) is basically a retread of his popular “Your Face.” As pointless as it is ugly, “Black Hula” (Canada) by Marv Newland provides a good opportunity to sneak out for a cigarette, even if you don’t smoke.

“The 1990 Festival of Animation” continues at the Campus Theater through Jan. 25, then plays at the State Theater in Pasadena, Jan. 26 through Feb. 3.