Spike and Mike is the fark.com of
animation festivals: lots of quick takes,
about 20 percent of them worth a
click-through. Mostly, they focus on the
grotesque and disgusting, although this
years fest seems to have toned down the
dependence on vomit and
dismemberment a bit. Still, I wouldnt buy
a lot of popcorn and Goobers to eat while
watching this. Some of the cartoons are
really funny, like the obligatory parody of
School House Rock wherein little
Johnny
learns about his first boner. Others are
just your standard fare. I mean, havent
we seen enough Bill Plympton cartoons
by now? Theyre all the same. You could
actually cut them up into 20-second long
segments, mix them all together, and
re-release them and no one would know
the difference. Theres also some
unexpected stuff, like a cartoon by the evil
French. It is, not surprisingly, boring and
pretentious, which are not exactly
trademarks of the Spike and Mike regime.
The biggest difference between this
years festival and the earlier ones,
though, is the general look of the
cartoons. In the old days, they all had the
same hand-drawn look. Now they all have
the same computer animated look. Still,
theres nothing I can say to stop true
Spike and Mike fans from going to see
this, and if youre among that number,
then let me just add the magic words
new No Neck Joe cartoon!