Anxious Animation
by Lewis Klahr
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DVD Cover Information
Director: Lewis KlahrBrand: Facets Multimedia
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 81 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Other Cinema
Product features:
- This ain t no Pixar. This is ain t no Disney. This ain t no foolin around. ANXIOUS ANIMATION presents six contemporary film artists who take us into surreal worlds of delirium and paranoia The reigning proponent of cut-and-paste, LEWIS KLAHR nourishes intensely private visions on the compost heap of collective fantasy through old magazines, comic books, and cocktail iconography.Complex, full of ch
Movie Reviews of Anxious Animation
Movie Review: Not really that anxious, but easily worth the price
Summary: 5 Stars
Only one or two of these are actually what might be called anxious. "Spokes on the Wheel of Torment," the animated Hell from Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delight is the most of all. "Sneak Attack" with a DJ superhero and his sidekick robot attacking the fortress of Mexican wrestling midget bad guys is next, but its just cool. It took me a few watchings but I finally realized that the weapon-watch on his wrist is actually a tiny turntable and he scratches to emits waves at the enemy octopus. Except for those two the rest is relatively sedate. "Lulu" and "Altair" are interesting visually and musically, but there is hardly a storyline. I am not one of those people who need a storyline, but "Altair" anyway, is way too long for nothing but mood. The third one of the set about gay Jimmy Olsen is more interesting than the other two, but still. Jim Trainor's two "line drawing" animations are hugely minimalistic but you cannot help but be entranced. The lack of music and the engagingly hypnotic monotone puts you right into the lives of the animals. No razzle or dazzle, just pure connection, like Adam Elliot's "Brother." I can't remember the rest. So you've got a very mixed bag of action and color, quiet engagement, style without much substance, and whatever. But even the parts I didn't really like so much were interesting just to see how the style was used, I just wish they had some direction. Having seen it now, I would definitely buy it again. 5 stars even with it's flaws.
Summary of Anxious Animation
ANXIOUS ANIMATION - DVD MovieAnxious Animation definitely lives up to its title, serving up an eclectic variety of avant-garde animations as unsettling as they are unforgettable. Previously unseen outside of art museums, fringe festivals, and other outlets for specialized programming far outside the mainstream, this bizarre collection of films is one of many titles made available by Other Cinema DVD, an adventurous independent San Francisco-based distributor devoted to "peculiar visions and offbeat sensibilities, drawn from the contemporary underground as well as the archives." Judging from the films and artists represented here, that mission statement is in full effect, with something to delight, offend, or subtly disturb just about anyone. When you select the "Play All" option, first up is "Spokes for Wheel of Torment," from the Bay Area artist collective of Eric Henry, Syd Garon, and Rodney Ascher. It's essentially a two-minute, mind-altering music video for enigmatic alt-rock/jazz guitarist Buckethead (for the track from his killer 2004 CD, Cuckoo Clocks of Hell), combining meticulous cut-and-paste computer techniques with the nightmarish visions of Hieronymous Bosch. Henry-Garon-Ascher are also represented here by "Sneak Attack" (2000) in which DJ Q-Bert's hip-hop turntable wizardry is brought to life by an eye-grabbing spoof of Saturday morning sci-fi cartoons, and "Somebody Goofed" (1998), in which Jack Chick's notorious Bible tract comes to life through "the magic of Re-Animation®," with outrageous and amusing results.
Pioneering cut-and-paste artists Lewis Klahr and Janie Geiser are represented here by three and two shorts, respectively. While Klahr (with "Lulu," Altair," and "Pony Glass") plunders old magazines, comic books, and other printed ephemera to create loose, dreamlike visions of popular culture with a homoerotic bent, Geiser uses found objects, figurines, and cut-out backgrounds to explore elusive themes of love, loss, and primal urges of the sexual subconscious. In stark contrast, Jim Trainor's charmingly crude line animations ("The Bat" and "Moschops") play like nature shows from fantasyland, exploring the inner lives of animals that possess remarkable gifts of self-awareness. It's a safe bet that anyone outside of a major city will find these animated films nothing short of revelatory. As the DVD package accurately promises (with apologies to Talking Heads), "This ain't no Pixar. This ain't no Disney. This ain't no foolin' around." So if you're ready for a trippy trip to the outer fringes of moving picture art, you've come to the right DVD. --Jeff Shannon
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