Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation

This compilation of about 17 shorts from around the globe is not as collectively subversive, artistically impressive, exhilarating or funny as S&M’s previous festivals. Highlights include the stop action and puppetry of Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose, and The Ghost of Stephen Foster, a retro black-and-white swing tribute to Max Fleisher featuring music from the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Other hit and mostly miss entries include Will Vinton’s claymation canine standup comedian Mutt, the shadow puppeteers of the aptly titled Humdrum, a pen and ink Village of Idiots retelling of a Jewish folk tale, and three brief Angry Kid encounters with an obnoxious male youth as he rides in the car with his father.