Undiscovered animation that isn’t just for children

BRING up the topic of little-seen, overlooked animation to any toon-addled parent -- a.k.a. cable guardian and likely caretaker of a vast and well-used Disney/Pixar/Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network DVD collection -- and they’ll probably run you away before you can further excite the little ones. But save for one program of mature-themed shorts, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. and American Cinematheque’s “Unshown Cinema: The Animated Films That Got Away” on Sept. 22 to 24 shouldn’t be the province just of voting-age cinephiles. (It’s part of a continuing series by the two organizations spotlighting worthy movies that fell through U.S. distribution cracks or have rarely been shown.)

For one thing, there’s an exquisitely innocent anime from “Princess Mononoke” director Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, the 1995 feature “Whisper of the Heart” (or “Mimi Wo Sumaseba” in the original Japanese), which was produced, written and storyboarded by the famed filmmaker. Directed by Miyazaki protege Yoshifumi Kondo and based on a manga by Aoi Hiragi, it unveils a rapturously sweet and heartfelt tale of blushing love between a bookish schoolgirl, Shizuku, and a violin-making boy in the grade above her.

More resonantly, however, the film celebrates all manner of romance in Shizuku’s world, from the mysterious beauty of a vibrant Tokyo to the lost world allure of an old man’s antiques store, and eventually her dream to fulfill the promises of an abundant imagination. Decorated with the kind of character details and deft flights of fancy that are Miyazaki’s hallmark -- a cat is never just a cat, for instance -- this well-dubbed English version is a welcome antidote to the computer-generated junk food that passes for most animated features these days.

Then there’s the twofer featuring fable-ish French-speaking animals, though shown on separate days at separate theaters: one a raucous classic that’s like a Gallic raspberry, the other a retelling of the Noah’s Ark story with a message of peace. The former is a must-see from storied stop-motion pioneer Ladislas Starewitch: “The Story of the Fox” (“Le Roman de Renard”), which took the Russian-born animator nearly a decade to complete before its 1937 Paris premiere, is presented here in a first-time-ever English-subtitled version. It’s a cheeky yarn in which the titular trickster of storybook fame outwits nearly everyone in the animal kingdom, from that cheese-holding bird of Aesop lore to the wolf lured into a well he’s told is a heaven of sausage clouds and winged casks of drink (which Starewitch hilariously visualizes for us).

Like a battery-powered pop-up book, Starewitch’s film is a wonder of puppet detail, knockabout humor and illusory movement, and connoisseurs will surely note its influence on everyone from George Pal and the Brothers Quay to Nick Park. The lion king’s unexpected solution at the end also carries a whiff of political commentary -- considering the film’s status as a tweaked Vichy-era re-release -- and may invite speculation as to Starewitch’s notions on managing evil.

The threat in the director Jacques-Remy Girerd’s hand-drawn 2003 feature, “Raining Cats and Frogs” (“La Prophetie des Grenouilles”), is initially that of an apocalyptic deluge, foretold by frogs. When a farm family’s barn and a nearby zoo’s inhabitants are swept up in the storm and cast out on a vast sea, the post-flood calm in the weather turns to restlessness and suspicion between humans and animals, not to mention animals and animals, until a truce is arranged.

Coincidentally, both Girerd’s and Starewitch’s movies get plenty of comic mileage out of the idea of meat-eating fauna suffering enforced vegetarianism -- and, most hilariously in “Raining,” the image of carnivores on KP duty peeling potatoes -- but despite the villainous peril and adventure that make up the second half, what stands out here is the loving portrait of a mixed-race, mixed-generation, partly adoptive family banding together through tough times.

It’s unmistakably French too, from the product placement (the barn is kept afloat by, yep, a Michelin tire) to the lustful metaphor a passionate father uses to explain the celestial origins of life to his son: “It’s as if the sky had made love with the earth.” But while there is one shot of potato vermin procreating, parents needn’t fear that this is a birds-and-the-bees movie, save for the pacifist notion of a world in which birds and bees live in harmony.

As for the ones to leave the kids home for, the variety-pack program “Dangerous Visions: Animated Shorts for Connoisseurs & Grown-Ups” has its own meditations on the relationship between us and beasts in the Canadian-made “Tout Rien” (“All Nothing”), from 1980, which provocatively imagines the fall of humankind in terms both ecological and spiritual. And while fans of irreverent cartoonist-animator Nina Paley await her still-being-made feature “Sita Sings the Blues” -- a female-centric musical retelling of the love-and-war Hindu saga “The Ramayana” -- audiences can catch the world premieres of two completed segments, “Battle of Lanka” and “Grief and Birth.” But the real whopper here is J.J. Villard’s adaptation of Charles Bukowski’s story “Son of Satan,” a jaggedly expressed, disquieting tale of childhood aggression and cyclical violence that cuts through its 12 minutes like a disturbed youth’s demonic flipbook. Because it explicitly deals with the consequences of feelings and emotions that often go unnoticed, it all too aptly belongs in a showcase of movies undiscovered and deserving of attention.

Mob scenes

As for this weekend, the independent-minded New York Independent Film & Video Festival returns with another L.A. edition of its showcase of documentaries, narrative features, shorts and animation, at the Fairfax Cinemas starting tonight through next Thursday.

Among the many offerings (not available for preview) is something of potential interest to “GoodFellas” aficionados: a documentary by Luke Heppner called “Shooting Henry Hill,” screening at 6 p.m. Saturday, about the real-life mobster played by Ray Liotta in Scorsese’s docudrama and his decidedly unglamorous life 25 years after entering a witness protection program.

weekend@latimes.com

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Screenings

Unshown Cinema

* “Dangerous Visions: Animated Shorts for Connoisseurs & Grown-Ups”: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22, Egyptian Theatre

* “Raining Cats and Frogs”: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23, Egyptian Theatre

* “Whisper of the Heart”: 3 p.m. Sept. 23, Aero Theatre; 7:30 p.m. Sept. 24, Egyptian Theatre

* “The Story of the Fox”: 3 p.m. Sept. 24, Aero Theatre

Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica

Info: (323) 466-3456, www.americancinematheque.com

New York Independent Film & Video Festival

When: tonight through next Thursday

Where: Laemmle’s Fairfax Cinemas, 7907 Beverly Blvd., Hollywood

Info: (866) 468-7619, www.nyfilmvideo.com