Yearly Animation Festival Rolls Into Town

Step right up to the traveling animated show.

Watch the screen. See amazing sights.

Seventeen cartoons. Count ‘em, folks, 17. And each one’s sure to please.

The annual Festival of Animation has once again rolled into town. Each winter for the last 12 years, the festival has arrived with a variety of animated short films from around the world.

This year’s selection includes works from 10 countries, including the United States, Norway, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Italy and the Soviet Union.

“We travel around the world and make tons of phone calls. We go through thousands of films a year to find the ones we use,” said Shane Peterson, a producer with Multiple Maniacs Promotions of San Diego, which assembles the yearly cartoon collection.

After they have finished their selection process, Peterson and his associates spend September to May bringing the program to cities in the United States and Canada. After showing in Toronto, the festival has arrived in Southern California and will be at Cal State Northridge for nine days, starting today.

“You say cartoons and people have two ideas: either ‘CareBears’ or ‘Fritz the Cat,’ ” Peterson said. “We’re trying to show the world that there are cartoons for adults that aren’t rated X.”

The crown jewel of this year’s festival is Nick Park’s “Grand Day Out,” which won a 1989 British Academy Award. The film tells of Wallace and his dog Gromit heading for a picnic on the moon and hoping to find cheese there.

Another Park film in the festival, “Creature Comforts,” was awarded the Special Jury Prize Hiroshima Award for 1990.

The films in the two-hour program range from 1 1/2 to 23 minutes in length. They include Candy Guard’s “Fatty Issue,” also from Great Britain; Donio Doner’s “Wolf Suite” from Bulgaria, and Taku Furukawa’s “Tarzan” from Japan.

The promoters also promise assorted surprise films and guests.

That’s all, folks.

The Festival of Animation will show in the Cal State Northridge Main Campus Theater, 18111 Nordhoff St., today through Tuesday, Thursday and Feb. 15, 17, 18 and 19. Times are 7 and 9:30 p.m., with 4 p.m. matinees Saturdays and Sundays. The cost is $5 in advance for CSUN students, $5.50 in advance for the public and $6.50 at the door. Advance tickets are available at Moby Disc stores. Call (818) 993-6555.