Illustration by Kirsten Ulve.

With the disappearance of Expanded Entertainment's Tournees of Animation and Manga Entertainment's General Chaos, the short-lived touring theatrical compilations of animated shorts, Spike and Mike, aka Mellow Manor Productions, has an opportunity to choose from the best animated shorts. Spike and Mike's 1999 Classic Festival of Animation is 79 minutes of evidence that the genre is alive and well. Spike, who has managed the festivals since the death of his partner Mike Gribble in 1995, said, "We have been receiving more films than ever," citing the proliferation of animation schools and the widespread use of computer animation as fueling factors.

And if the current demand for "creator-driven" animation keeps up, we may be seeing more of the Spike and Mike brand, now that Mellow Manor is represented by agent Jim Strader, whose client roster also includes Celebrity Death Match creator Eric Fogel.

Pings. © Ex Machina.

The Films:
Taking it from the top, this year's festival opens with Pings by Pierre Coffin of Ex Machina, a French CGI studio known for its commercial work. The film is at first cute, almost too cute, with roly poly baby penguins bouncing around. But soon enough the thin plot thickens to include one of the animator's favorite storytelling tools: malice. It's worth a good chuckle.

Next up is Tightrope, a computer-animated short from effects house Digital Domain and director Daniel Robichaud. While the film's depiction of atmospheric effects and facial expressions is quite realistic, its failings are also symptomatic of a visual effects artist. A lot of smoke and mirrors covers up where good animation and story would have done the trick.

The Blue Shoe by Peter Reynolds of Boston-based studio FableVision is a charming tale of unexpected love between a blue shoe and a green boot. Presented with limited 2D computer animation, the film demonstrates a type of drawn filmmaking, more like a colored animatic than a cartoon, that need not be elaborately animated to tell a great story.

Sientje, a first film made by Christa Moesker at the Netherlands Institute for Animated Film, introduces a little girl having one hell of a temper tantrum. Drawn in rough black lines on white paper, it has a visual appeal that emulates a child's drawings and is well-suited to the story. Parents will enjoy this one!

The Blue Shoe. © FableVision Studios.

The Queen's Monastery is one of those beautiful art films that is entertaining purely for its visuals, making the story almost incidental. Director Emma Calder combined watercolor and graphite on paper, a technique that adds a secondary level of motion -- a squiggling, breathing quality -- to the animation.

Balance is the 1989 Oscar winning animated short by German twin puppet animators Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein. Asked why the film was included in the festival a decade after its debut, Spike answered, "It is one of Mike's and my favorite films, and we've had a lot of requests from a lot of people who wanted a chance to see it on the big screen." And rightly so...the film is a masterpiece for its puppet animation and storytelling, not to mention its captivating sound design.

Busby is a tribute to Busby Berkeley acted by human hands. Using computer animation in a refreshing way, director Anna Henckel-Donnermark brings us elegant abstraction of a universal human form that is like a cross between a synchronized swim team and a Salvador Dali painting. Absolutely mesmerizing.