8:45pm |Attention all animation lovers 18 or over: Get ready, because Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation is about to invade Long Beach.
With four showings lined up this month at the Art Theatre beginning Saturday, the 2011 Sick and Twisted Festival will offer a variety of tasteless, adult-natured ‘toons that are among the world’s most bizarre and acclaimed animated shorts, according to information provided by festival producer Mellow Manor Productions.
Following what La Jolla-based Mellow Manor labeled “the immense success” of last year’s politically incorrect animation festival in Long Beach, the production company has decided to return in 2011.
“We are very excited to be coming back to Long Beach and hope to engage the community in what will be a unique and exciting film experience,” said Craig “Spike” Decker, one of the festival’s co-creators, in a May 2 e-mail.
The roughly three-week festival’s animated content caters to adults, animation enthusiasts and film fans alike. Showcased are animated short films that engage viewers via “gross-out humor, controlled tastelessness and carefully crafted animation technique” and have been dubbed too risqué for general audiences. The shorts are strung together into a single film featuring all things inappropriate.
As one might assume, age restrictions apply: The festival is open only to those who are age 18 and older.
This year’s Sick and Twisted Festival will feature works by Eric Favela, whose film short, Two Minute Itch, was featured during the 2009 festival; Mike Geiger, whose Cuddle Sticks (warning: this cartoon is particularly disgusting and is not for the faint of heart or stomach) was also featured in 2009; and Mondo Media, which will serve up another installation of the Happy Tree Friends series.
The Sick and Twisted Festival was the birthplace of Beavis and Butthead (Mike Judge, creator of King of the Hill). Additional notable films from the festival’s past include Spirit of Christmas, the original uncensored South Park short from creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and Whoop Ass Stew, the first short film from Powerpuff Girls creator Craig McCracken.
Spike and Mike’s collections of short animated films have annually toured theaters, film festivals and college campuses in North America since the late 1970s.
The Art Theatre of Long Beach is located at 2025 E. Fourth St. The Saturday, May 7, showing begins at 11 p.m. Three additional showings are scheduled for Monday, May 16, Tuesday, May 17, and Wednesday, May 18, all at 9 p.m. Visit ArtTheatreLongBeach.com for additional information.
