For fans of animation, one of the biggest highlights each year has to be Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. This “adults only” collection of clips tours the country like a prowling rock band, with San Diego as its home base. Founded in 1990 as an offshoot to their original and more family-friendly event, The Classic Festival of Animation, the “sick and twisted” edition has taken on a life of its own.
Several big-name producers got their start as part of this cartoon showcase, including Trey Parker (“South Park”), Mike Judge (“Beavis & Butthead,” “King of the Hill”) and Seth McFarlane (“Family Guy”). Though animation is far easier to come by today than it was 16 years ago, Spike & Mike’s screenings continue to be a major draw, based largely on their reputation for showcasing the cream of the crop from animators worldwide.
“I’d say, collectively, there are 700 or 800 clips to go through each time,” explained Craig “Spike” Decker (co-founder Mike Gribble died several years ago). “We watch them online mostly, a few come in on DVD, but going through all these short films is a process I like. You never know what sort of discovery you might make.”
Indeed, Decker noted that this year’s opening night on Oct. 21 was in direct competition with the reopening of another festival alumni’s film.
“We were up against Tim Burton’s ‘Nightmare Before Halloween,'” he said. “We first screened his short film ‘Ghost Dog’ many years ago, and this sort of match-up shows how far things have come.”
The fest returns to the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art’s Sherwood Auditorium on Friday and Saturday nights through Nov 25. Nineteen short films are part of this year’s event, with special guests making appearances throughout. Musical satirist “Weird Al” Yankovic, currently riding high in the charts with the album “Straight Outta Lynwood,” made an appearance opening weekend, signing autographs and taking questions from fans.
Despite San Diego being a major focus for animators the world over during the annual Comic-Con, clips by local artists, for this occasion, are rarely screened. “This is not an area noted for its animators,” Decker remarked.
Though the films that are shown still push the boundaries of good taste, he allows that a few, subtle changes have taken place in their film selection over the years.
“We’re not doing so much gross-out humor these days,” he said. “We don’t just take stuff and run it because it has gratuitous violence or language. We tend to shy away from that sort of thing and look for clips that are more interesting. We have films that are very high in production value.”
While Decker is happy to have had success with the animation festivals, his sights are now firmly set on television.
“I really would like to get something on TV. I mean, we’re better than most of the crap on now,” he said with a laugh. “To be honest, I’m disappointed it hasn’t happened yet. As anyone who’s been to our shows knows, these films are well made. Our ‘brand’ is great and funny. And we strive for a type of quality you don’t see now on television. If I showed half the stuff that gets passed off on TV to our audiences, they wouldn’t return.”
Now in his 29th year promoting animation festivals, Decker still has a love for the cartoon art form.
“I very much still like the medium,” he said. “The part I don’t like is that it’s become more of a responsibility. When we started out, it was just me and Mike, two carefree hippies.”
Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation features 21-plus brand-new shorts and a few bonus surprise films, including two new “Dr. Tran” films from Lone Sausage Productions, “The Zit” by Mike Blum, two Weird Al videos by Bill Plympton and the creators of “Robot Chicken,” “Chirpy” by John Goras and “Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006” by Paul Robertson, among others. Festival dates are Oct. 28, and Nov. 3, 11, 18 and 25. Friday shows are at 8:30 p.m., with Saturday shows at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $10, and attendees must be at least 18 years old with valid ID. Sherwood Auditorium is located at 700 Prospect St. For more information, call (858) 454-3541.