In an effort to help out the folks at Dobie, let’s just get this clear right up front: this ain’t no kiddie show. Animated it may be, but 75 percent of these puppies definitely do live up to the title’s high standards of “sick and twisted.” Not to mention frequently hilarious. Spike and Mike, the warped duo who have consistently brought together the best cartoon fests of the last few years have really topped themselves this time out; there are a few duds in the bunch — that’s almost a given — but the majority of the shorts are delightfully crazed in the best sense of the word. The fest opens with a series of extremely short one-shot gags following the trials of a young boy called “No Neck Joe.” As implied by his name, poor Joe is lacking a vital piece of his anatomy, and when the town bullies decide to ruin his day, all they have to do is buy him a turtleneck sweater, and so on. It’s a great bit to open with and sets the tone for the rest of the show to follow. “Lullaby,” by Ken Bruce, is a black-and-white short dealing with the terrors of a small boy after tucking-in time. Is that stuffed giraffe in the corner an emissary of Satan or not? Heh, heh, heh. American animator Bill Plympton, a fellow who can seemingly do no wrong, checks in with the longish “One of Those Days,” in which — via our hero’s P.O.V. — we see just how bad things can get for Joe Average. And you thought your life was tough. A veteran of several other festivals, Danny Antonucci’s violent “Lupo the Butcher” is offered once again for those of us who missed it the first time around. It’s hard to believe that NBC actually attempted to create a TV show around this character, but it’s true. The best of the lot, though, has to be Miles Thompson’s “Dog Pile.” It’s so short that I really can’t say much about it except to note that the toilet etiquette of dogs is pretty hilarious. With 19 cartoons in all, the All Sick and Twisted Fest is more than that — it’s also the best gathering of animated shorts I’ve seen in years. Just remember to leave Junior with the sitter, folks. (But watch out for that giraffe.)
This article appears in February 7 • 1992 (Cover).