‘Annual Animation Show of Shows’ finally arrives in theaters, but this really isn’t its year

For almost two decades, the “Annual Animation Show of Shows” collection of short films from around the world has presented important, independent work, including Oscar nominees. It’s usually screened for audiences of animation professionals and is finally getting a deserved theatrical release. Too bad this year’s program isn’t better.

Although several of the 11 films offer imaginative visuals, many are too long or suffer from weak stories. Some filmmakers are clearly talented artists who have the potential to create innovative work, but they’re not quite there yet. Instead, we’re left to look in vain for the inspired blend of visuals and narrative that characterized last year’s “Me and My Moulton” by Torill Kove and “The Bigger Picture” by Daisy Jacobs.

“Tant de Forêts” (So Many Forests) by Geoffrey Godet and Burcu Sankur of France offers brightly colored and imaginatively designed CG birds, plants and insects. But its message about forests being destroyed for newsprint lacks the requisite impact.

SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter >>

In “The Story of Percival Pilts,” Janette Goodey and John Lewis capture the awkward balances of a stilt-walker in stop-motion animation. Regrettably, the pseudo-Seussian rhymed narration fails to match the quality of the visuals. Lynn Tomlinson’s “The Ballad of Holland Island House” features handsome images of a building foundering in the waves of the Chesapeake Bay. The paint-on-glass animation echoes the work of Oscar winners Joan Gratz and Aleksandr Petrov, but the visuals illustrate an uninspired folk song too literally.

In “Stripy” from Iran, brothers Babak Nekooei and Behnoud Nekooei show a quietly rebellious worker decorating his assembly line products with scarlet calligraphic lines, upsetting the order of a gray, rectilinear factory. The depiction of an artistic protest against a dreary, workaday world recalls any number of animated Eastern European films from the 1970s.

“We Can’t Live Without Cosmos” by Konstantin Bronzit, a dark tale about two cosmonauts in training in the old Soviet Union, uses simple line drawings but goes on far too long. “Love in the Time of March Madness” by Americans Melissa Johnson and Robertino Zambrano, a monologue about the travails of a 6-foot-4 female basketball player, employs various visual styles until it stumbles to a halt long after the viewer has lost interest.

It’s a mistake to include four brief interviews with filmmakers in the program. The live-action footage breaks the mood, and the artists often have little to say. In one interview, Johnson walks around Venice Beach, repeating the complaints in “March Madness” about the difficulties of being a tall woman.

It’s important for independent and foreign animators to have their work seen in theaters, rather than on YouTube — just as it’s important for audiences interested in the art of animation to see these more personal films. But this year’s “Show of Shows” falls short of its usual standard of excellence.

--------------------------

‘Animation Show of Shows’

No MPAA rating

Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Playing: Opens Thursday at ArcLight Hollywood, Oct. 2 at the Frida, Santa Ana

MORE:

In ‘Pan,’ Levi Miller takes an unexpected trip to Neverland

Movie true-life heroes and villains include Whitey Bulger and Dalton Trumbo

‘Room’ takes top audience award in Toronto, picking up Oscar momentum