Page 8-The Michigan Daily -Wednesday, September 25, 1991
AT23:
You'll have a gay old time
The 23rd
International
Tournee of
Animation
dir. Various Animators
by Brent Edwards
Going to every annual animation
festival presented at the Michigan
Theater is like visiting the Ann
Arbor Art Fair year after year. You
expect to see familiar pieces by your
favorite artists along with some
junk you can't believe anybody
would like, but you also hope to see
something new that'll catch your
eye with its wit or innovation.
True to form, The 23rd Inter-
national Tournee of Animation
provides us with the latest pieces by
our favorites: the cute escapades of
Canadian Paul Driessen's goofy-
looking dreamer; a disappointing
"environment" piece by Italy's usu-
ally outrageous Bruno Bozzetto;
and the obligatory hilarious se-
quence by American Bill Plympton.
Plympton's feature, Push Comes to
Shove, which has been aired on
MTV in bits and pieces, shows two
well-dressed gentlemen inflicting
incredible punishment on each other
in funny ways.
In past years, political allegories
have been a popular mode of story
telling, but there is a noticeable re-
duction of the genre in this year's
selection, possibly because anima-
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tors feel less satirical urgency in
today's New World Order, but
more likely because the funding for
these works are coming less from
government grants and more from
the likes of MTV and Sesame Street.
The familiar computer-animated
parent/child desk lamps by Pixel are
used to demonstrate the word
"surprise" and the difference be-
tween "light" and "heavy" for the
Children's Television Workshop,
while a claymation kid named
Arnold demonstrates the powers of
one's imagination.
The pros and cons of animation
funding by the entertainment indus-
try is evident in Slow Bob in the
Lower Dimensions. The MTV-
funded piece can be compared to the
MTV-logo claymation skits that
proliferated a year or two ago, mak-
ing it apparent that this renewed in-
terest by industry in animation has
injected money into the art form
while diluting its importance.
While none of the pieces in the
23rd Tournee have the significance
that the Academy Award winner
Balance had two years ago, there are
still some very entertaining pieces.
One of the funniest is Potato Hunter
by Timothy Hittle, a claymation
short where a hunter tries to capture
a member of a group wild potatoes
who roam his tabletop environment,
finally succeeding when he ca-
mouflages himself in a potato skin
and infiltrates the herd.
There's also an amusing piece
about childhood by Stephen Barnes
called Capital P, in which a child
must choose between wetting his
bed and traversing the dark and scary
hallway to the bathroom. Two Ann
Arbor Film Festival highlights are
also included in the festival: the
creative Photocopy Cha Cha by
Chel White, which won Best
Animation and was created solely
with photocopies; and the humorous
Ode to G.I. Joe by Gregory Grant,
which won the Student Academy
Award for Animation and has old
12-inch G.I. Joes taking over a little
boy's room when they're left alone.
Part of the success of the
Tournee of Animation series is the
way that animation transcends
words (most mimicked language
sounds, like the school teacher from
Peanuts). Yet the most interesting
works in the latest collection, by
father and son Paul and Menno de
Nooijer from the Netherlands, in-
corporate a narrator's dialogue.
Their pieces At One View and I
Should See combine animation,
photography and philosophy in a
comment on the role of the visual@
media, the artist and time.:
Unusually heady for the rest of the
Tournee, they add some weight tQ
what is otherwise a light yet entert
taining collection.
THE 23RD TOURNEF OF ANT:
MATION runs through October 2nd
at the Mich.,fan Theater.
Billy Crystal finds his smile in the blockbuster summer comedy, City
Slickers. (Just kidding. It's Tim Hittle's Potato Hunter. Yee-haw.)
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Chel White's Photocopy Cha Cha (The Chelmeister - makin' copies!),
also shown at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, is the first animated film to
be created on a copy machine. Can fax art be far behind?
I
It's not just another way for you
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It's a way to help you save it.
VIDEO
Continued from page 5
been purchased by a public televi-
sion station in New York for broad'
cast later this year. Sternberg is cur-
rently finishing her degree here at!'
the University and is studying to
become a professional documentaryI
filmmaker.
The Ann Arbor premiere of One
Banana, Two Bananas is part of '
program of cutting-edge perfot7
mance art at the Performance Net-
work this weekend. (Actually;:
Sternberg's video played at the Ann~
Arbor 8 mm film fest two yearsl:
ago, but nobody showed up excepf'
her dad and "some guy fromt
Toledo.") Portions of the proceeds,
from the show will be donated to,,'
the Hospice of Washtenaw, a sup,.,
port organization which, as Stern%,
berg describes, "makes it easier fo?
people to live with someone they
love who happens to be dying."
ONE BANANA, TWO BANANAS
plays, along with other art and
artists, at the Performance Network
Friday and Saturday at 8 pm.
Tickets are $9, $7 for students. The,
video will also be shown on Sunday
at 6:30 at $5 per ticket.
RECORDS
Continued from page 5
the recent glut of pseudo-funk pre-
tenders on the musical scene."If
Were A... I'd," a four-part live
skankin' workout that pops u
throughout the album, takes
tongue-in-cheek look at anything
and everything ("If I believed evA2
erything I saw on television/ I'd.' W
Think like Brady Bunch/ Eat;
Wendy's for lunch..."). So strap orb
your crash helmet and lace up those.
steel-toed Doc Marten's; thy.
'Bone's gonna go for your head a'
well as your feet.
-Scott Sterling
Stereo MC's
Lost In Music (12")
4th and Broadway
For those who live to dance, the
Stereo MC's have whipped out a
new disc to keep your butt wig
gling. Although "Lost in Music'"
doesn't come close to the band'
hypnotic summer club hit "Elevate
My Mind," the song does manage r4
hold its own on the dance flood
With deep shuffling drums, funkX
bass and those oh-so-hip British v _
cals, how could they lose?
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