Spike and Mike Animation is giving its fans a different taste of animated shorts. Its newest festival, “A New Generation of Spike and Mike Animation,” will play at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) La Jolla multiple times during February and March. “It’s a great 80-minute escape,” Craig “Spike” Decker said. “Nothing is better to escape and have a good time than animation, and this is a very unique show.” What makes this film different from previous Spike and Mike productions — most notably “Spike and Mike’s Sick & Twisted” — is that it is of a completely different genre. This genre is not so much sick or twisted. “It’s very artistic, sophisticated and international,” Decker said, “but at the same time very humorous with great entertainment value.” Decker created the festival in three years, and said it is one of the top two shows he has produced in terms of quality, humor, diversity and styles of animation. He said he chose to branch off for this project because he had simply received too many films to be ignored that didn’t fit the traditional Spike and Mike mold. “Every year there’s a finite amount of great shorts that come in and we were getting some really great pieces in that wouldn’t fit into the ‘Sick & Twisted’ show as a brand,” Decker said. “So, I had to come up with a new concept and brand.” The animation film made its local debut Feb. 13 at MCASD La Jolla, 700 Prospect St. There will also be showings at 7:15 and 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 20 and 27, and March 5, 13 and 20. Spike and Mike got started in 1977 with “Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation” and their work has since been shown at film festivals such as Cannes and Sundance. Their production company, Mellow Manor, is based in La Jolla. For more information on the film, visit www.spikeandmike.com. MCASD La Jolla is online at www.mcasd.org.