Spike & Mike's Animation Festival

For all of you fans of animation, this week the Rio Theatre is hosting Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation. Commonly known as the Kings of Tasteless Toons, Spike & Mike are famous for being the world's greatest promoters of adult animation art. Some of the past contributors to the festival include Tim Burton, Eric Fogel (creator of Celebrity Deathmatch) and Kenn Navarro (Happy Tree Friends). Also, the now super famous Beavis and Butthead cartoon was "discovered" at Spike & Mike's festival!

I went to the festival last Saturday and I must confess that it was quite a different experience to be in a theatre surrounded by a crowd of adult animation fans. For instance, there were constant shouts and loud comments. The crowd was unforgiving to the animations that they didn't like, and like strict judges, they would loudly dismiss or laugh at any faux pas in the stories. But regardless of what each animation was about, the loud clapping and whistling between clips made it clear that this crowd was alive and thirsty for high quality animation! The festival ends this weekend, so don't miss it!

These were my favorite animations:


"Animal Instincts" by Cameron Edser (clay animation rules!)


"Yellow Sticky Notes" by Jeff Chiba Stearns (from the Vancouver Film School!)



"2 minute itch" by Eric Favala (I laughed so hard my stomach hurt)



The famous "Lapsus" Juan Pablo Zaramella


"Frog" by Christopher Conforti (got a full minute of applause)


"2 in the AM PM" by J G Quintel (a true acid trip!)


"Dr. Tran's Quiet Log Time" by Breehn Burns & Jason Johnson (Spike & Mike called it "one of the coolest films in years!")


This one is more like a music video, but still hilarious:



And last but not least, this was Spike's favorite animation:

The incredible "Ghost of Stephen Foster" by Raymond S. Persi (so retro!)