By
Aaron Cowman
Arizona Daily Wildcat
2001 Sick & Twisted film festival currently playing at Loft
Sick and twisted is an apt description for the 2001 Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, which is currently making a stop at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd.
The festival is well-known for giving "South Park" and "Beavis and Butthead" their first major exposure to audiences, and every year affords hopeful animators the opportunity to strut their stuff on the big screen.
While many of the films at the 18-and-over festival are designed to be humorous, some filmgoers may find them offensive.
"I was laughing, booing and almost puking," said Kurt Snell, a media arts freshman.
The lewd animation just might not be worth the ticket price, some festival attendees said.
"Some of the films were hilarious, some were terrible," said Scott Weller, a pre-business sophomore. "It wasn't worth the $7."
The short films combine clean humor and obscene portrayals .
"Soccer moms would even like 'For The Birds,'" said Cullen Magariel, an undeclared sophomore.
"For The Birds," a production by Pixar Animation Studios - the makers of "Toy Story 2" and "A Bug's Life" - about interactions between flocks of birds on a telephone wire, is merely one of more than a dozen films making up this year's festival.
Also featured are the films "Ghost of Stephen Foster," to which the Squirrel Nut Zippers contributed music, and "Rejected," created by Don Hertzfeldt, whose cartoon "Billy's Balloon" won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the 1999 Slamdance Film Festival.
Several segments of "Angry Kid," famously featured in commercials for the Web site atomfilms.com spotlighting short films, will be shown at the festival as well.
The animation festival began this weekend and will continue daily through Feb. 3, and weekends through Feb. 17. For show times call the Loft Cinema at 795-7777. For other Spike & Mike information, check out www.spikeandmike.com.
Aaron Cowman can be reached at catalyst@wildcat.arizona.edu.
