Movie Reviews

“Animation Outlaws” Movie Review: Creative Entrepreneurship Spiked With Scintillating Gems Of Animation Shows The Evolution Of Spike And Mike’s Festival Of Animation

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An interview-style documentary film in the style of “Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films,” about two hippie friends who set out to create a first of its kind animation festival and end up helping to start the rise of the animation industry and launch the careers of the artist and directors who run it.

Some of the most creative and successful animation artists in this country can trace the seed of that success back to Spike Decker and Mike Dribble and their Animation Festivals that began on a shoestring in 1977. Those festivals were born, quite literally from necessity: two starving entrepreneurs in Riverside, California, looking for a way to make some cash and slowing evolving their ideas into a showcase for animators anxious to display their wares in hopes of recognition by the industry.

“Animation Outlaws,” a film directed by Kat Alioshin and written by Jon V. Peters, cogently follows the story of Spike and Mike’s creation of animation festivals that began in Riverside in 1977. The animation examples are dizzying and leave one wanting to see much more. They are interspersed with interviews with some of the giants in animation who had their humble beginning by supplying examples of their craft in the crazy, kooky arena of the Festivals. Animators like Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”), Barry Ward (Bardel Entertainment Inc.), Libby Simon (“FernGully”), and many others describe their early beginnings with Spike and Mike and the zany Festivals of Animations. Interviews also with Spike follow the enlargement of the original ideas to offer animators interested in more edgy, provocative, envelope-pushing films into Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festivals.

Described by some who worked the festivals, the atmosphere of the festivals was much like “a Grateful Dead concert.” Mike Gribble was the heart of the entertainment and Decker was the ever-aggressive promoter and they asked only that any animator from one of their festivals who went on to receive an academy award, only acknowledge them in their acceptance speech. Those acknowledgments were eventually delivered by several of the contributors over the years.

The film created a sadness in this reviewer due to never having experienced a Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation, Classic or Sick and Twisted. Wow. Think I may have really missed something! But then again, thank goodness for “Animation Outlaws” to somewhat fill the void.

 

Now available on Digital and Video-On-Demand


 

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Mildred Austin

I can remember being a girl fascinated by the original CINDERELLA and trying to understand that the characters weren’t REAL?? But how was that possible? Because my mom was a cinema lover, she often took me with her instead of leaving me with a babysitter. I was so young in my first film experiences, I would stare at that BIG screen and wonder “what were those people up there saying?” And then as a slightly older girl watching Margaret O’Brien in THE RED SHOES, I dreamed of being a ballerina. Later, in a theatre with my mom and aunt watching WUTHERING HEIGHTS, I found myself sobbing along with the two of them as Katherine and Heathcliff were separated forever. I have always loved film. In college in the ’60s, the Granada in Dallas became our “go-to” art theater where we soaked up 8 ½, THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, WILD STRAWBERRIES and every other Bergman film to play there. Although my training is in theatre and I have acted and directed in Repertory Theatre, college and community theatre, I am always drawn back to the films.

I live in Garland and after being retired for 18 years, I have gone back to work in an elementary school library. I am currently serving as an Associate Critic for John Garcia’s THE COLUMN, an online theatre magazine and I see and review local community theatre shows for that outlet. I’m excited to have the opportunity to extend my experiences now to film and review for IRISH FILM CRITIC. See you at the movies - my preferred seat is back row!