Adults-only toonfest 'Sick and Twisted' is dull and disappointing

"Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation" has been around for a long time. I haven't seen every chapter of it, but, as far as I know, it's always lived up to its name. This year is no different: The festival is indisputably sick and twisted. What it isn't, however, is fresh, innovative, shocking, cutting edge or particularly entertaining.

Despite the presence of work by such mad cartoon geniuses as Bill Plympton, this most recent installation of the adults-only toonfest is distinctly dull.

Yes, believe it or not, the torrents of puke, the frogs copulating feverishly, the Barbie-doll Britney Spears look-alike attacked by a demented puppet all fail to spark much interest. Primarily because the filmmakers are trying so hard, and failing so miserably, to be funny.

"The Inbreds" is a good example: It's a "Deliverance" spoof set in "Pisswater, West Chlamydia, 1972." The story — if that isn't too big a stretch for what goes on in the film — is about dangerous Cousin Anus, who comes home from Death Row to be reunited with his family of hillbilly idiots.

"The Inbreds" is only nine minutes long, but it feels like a month. The filmmakers clearly think that the mere fact of having a character named "Cousin Anus" ought to provide enough hilarity for any audience. Sadly, this is not the case. "The Inbreds" manages to be disgusting and boring at the same time.

There are bright spots: a handful of the 28 films are funny or promising or elegant. Adam Robb's "Shhh" doesn't quite hang together, but it's clever and fluidly executed: a frenzied hand struggles to draw something that will placate a screeching baby. The British "1300cc" is a gem, black and funny and bittersweet. "Chump," about two lab animals trapped together in a space capsule, has a couple of funny moments; and the crudely animated "I Am Nougat" is refreshingly silly. The German "Gack Gack" doesn't go anywhere, but it's wittily realized; and "Cubism" is a cute little cubicle fable (sort of a micro-"Office Space.")

That's about it, though. Plympton's disappointing collection of vignettes plays like a series of recycled made-for-the-Internet shorts. The series of Mondo Media pieces, "Happy Tree Friends," is shrill gibberish. The rest of the films are mediocre or just plain trash.

Mary Brennan: mbrennan983@yahoo.com