ASIFA-East president David Levy.

The joint “Best in Show” winners exemplify this thinking: Bill Plympton’s Guard Dog and Greg Ford’s It’s the Cat. This happens to be Plympton’s first piece that wasn’t shot on film, the rest of his process remains the same with the Oxberry replaced by the scanner. The piece is about a minute too long for me, but the gags pay off and it displays Plympton’s short films moving deeper into an interesting period of observational fantasy. It’s the Cat generates opinions, not about itself, but on the bygone animation, which it mimics.

If the Van Buren cartoons from the '30s and '40s made you switch to Gilligan’s Island as a child, this film will have you fondly comparing the merits of Mary Anne and Ginger before the obligatory “Three Blind Mice” reference. But if you’re nostalgic for a time before you were born -- when animation was done the right way -- It’s the Cat is impeccably executed. Surely 2D is not dead when the corpse of Ub Iwerks has risen with his Blackwing sharpened.

Animator Nina Paley.

It’s the Cat and Andaluz are independent films and should be considered with gravity and dignity. Were they commercial commissions they would deserve more slack -- and would, in fact, be highly laudable intelligent executions of specific, salable concepts. Alexander Woo’s Student Academy Award Winning, ASIFA-East Honorable Mention Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher would be a clear indication that the future of independent animation is alive and well were it not so obvious that the author has no interest in creating work of artistic merit, but is gunning for a layout position on the next DreamWorks TV series. God bless ‘em, I hope he’s happy.

NYU’s other entrant Jake Friedman’s Green #1 in D Minor (1st Place in the Student Category) may be a throwback to the ‘70s -- some of his animation looks like John Canemaker channeling Tissa David -- but it’s a heartfelt, joyous film. Rex Steele is awash in cynicism (and more dangerous, belittles the ever increasing threat of Corporatism), if it’s flashy enough, if you can make multiplane moves with motion parallax, if you can put in some 3D elements, if you give ‘em big tits and heart shaped asses, people will love it no matter how banal, no matter how ugly the art.

President's Award recipient Chris Robinson uses his laser vision on Jesse Schmal.

The above paragraphs are in honor of the evening’s special honoree, Chris Robinson. Robinson, who writes the Animation Pimp -- and I can personally attest to the accuracy of that title -- and is the artistic director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival, was given the President’s Award for his contributions to independent animation. If a writer and festival organizer can make any contributions to this art form, it is to demand better. It is to be discontent with second best from those who should do better and to hold no allegiance to “animation” or friendship to its creators above what he feels to be honest criticism. Honest criticism, given as always with respect, can propel an artist to create an ever-improving body of work.

Highlights of the show included:

Chris Hinton’s Nibbles: gets better each time. Simultaneously subtle and over the top.

Nina Paley’s Sitayana: proves, 1) there is no “Fart Joke” programmed in Flash to be executed in all films over one minute and, 2) it doesn’t matter what tools are used, if it looks good and sounds good the final product will be good.

PES’ Pee-nut: I’m kind of snobby when it comes to the bodily function gags, this one is clever, charming, well designed and impeccably executed.