FILM REVIEW : In Animation Festival Lineup, Laughing Matters

A frumpy time-traveling housekeeper, given the opportunity to change history, arranges for Jackie Kennedy to be assassinated instead of her husband.

Intent on ending his smoking habit, a dour-looking gentleman places a huge paper clip on his throat.

A man tired of his pet’s lackadaisical attitude, living the dream of millions of pet owners, slingshots his cat out the door.

Only in the fantasy world of animation, where the only limitations are those of the creator’s imagination, could these scenarios come to life.

Everything from hellish hairdressers to repression in the Soviet Union is covered in this year’s Festival of Animation, the annual hodgepodge of short films screening weekends through March 31 at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. Instead of the usual array of technological achievements and examples of the state of the art in animation, the festival has gradually moved toward films firmly rooted in reality.

This is the 11th edition of the local festival. In the past, too many of the films wallowed in technology, often featuring little more than neat gimmicks. Festival organizers Spike Decker and Mike Gribble have since shifted from abstract to more narrative films, with perspectives enjoyable to people other than animation groupies.

“As the audience grows, we adjust,” Decker said.

Nick Park’s “Creature Comforts” is one of the simplest films on this year’s roster, but it is one of the most striking. In the “Claymation” style that will forever be slimed by its connection to dancing raisins, he presents various zoo animals discussing their lodgings. Three skittish bears say it’s not so bad because they hear that some animals in the wild don’t get enough to eat. But a lounging tiger, with the voice of a London aristocrat, sees serious drawbacks to life in a cage. He would like be somewhere--anywhere--where it is warm.

As always, humor is the common element in most of the selections. And humor often flows more from the drawings and caricatures than from the situation.

In “Family Dog,” an eight-minute romp put together with the help of “Batman” director Tim Burton, the title character is a morbid-looking mut. The film simply relates the problems of a household pet through the dog’s eyes, as a crazed kid tries to vacuum him and a frustrated mother feeds him an unappetizing lump of dog food. It is hilarious.

In “25 Ways to Quit Smoking,” animator Bill Plympton takes a concept many can understand--the desire to quit smoking--and provides solutions that can exist only in animation, such as removing the mouth or using a flame thrower as a lighter.

For Decker and Gribble, the search for films is a year-round enterprise. They attend animation competitions worldwide. In recent years, they have worked directly with some artists to help ensure the flow of films.

“It’s a safeguard,” Decker said. “So it’s not just a crapshoot of what films may come up.”

Besides trying to present films from a wide variety of countries--this year’s roster includes Holland, Canada, Great Britain and the Soviet Union--and from a wide variety of styles, they strive to offer films that “people can identify with,” Decker said.

This year, only one film, the free-flowing, exhilarating “Feet of Song,” which features colorful line-drawing characters dancing to African rhythms, stretches the conventional format. It is also one of the most riveting offerings.

“The Hill Farm” is the longest film ever screened at the local festival, even if it doesn’t seem like 18 minutes. The winner of the British version of the Academy Award and the prestigious Gran Prix Annecy, it moves quickly through the cycle of life on a bizarre little farm.

Yet even “Hill Farm” explores adult themes: the reliance on nature and man’s insensitivity to the environment.

As usual, the festival also supplies samples of state-of-the-art computer animation, highlighted, as usual, by an entry from John Lasseter’s Pixar group. “Knickknack” depicts the sexual frustration of a snowman trapped in a souvenir globe paperweight.

Other highlights include “Alternative Fringe,” about a young woman’s unfortunate trip to a hairdresser, and “Chairs,” about aliens trying to figure out the quirks of three unusual chairs.

Each film works on its own level, while keeping the pace of the entire package fast and light. Screenings are Fridays and Saturdays at 7 and 9:30 p.m., Sundays at 2, 4:30, 7 and 9:30 p.m., and Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:45 p.m.