THERE WAS NO JOY

Dear Ottawa, Canada:

Yesterday I had what I thought would be the privilege of seeing the Best of Ottawa International Animation Festival presentation at the Calgary Film Festival.

Eleven animated shorts, representing the award-winners of the OIAF, which is the LARGEST Animation Festival in NORTH AMERICA, and the second largest in the WORLD. How wonderful! How educational and entertaining!

How about DISMAL, DISAPPOINTING, ASSAULTING and OFFENSIVE?

My wife is an illustrator and I am an actor and voice-over artist; we love animation and do our best to support the industry and increase the awareness of it in a broader sense than mere mainstream theatrical releases allow.

Never again.

We were so utterly chagrined at the wasted effort put into this so-called "award-winning" offering that we have decided to never again spend 86 minutes of our lives at any kind of festival of animation.

Firstly and most importantly, let me target with extreme prejudice Canada's own National Film Board. The two offerings-- "Flux" and "Twang"-- were not only visually amateur and derivative of early Bill Plympton (without the humour) but were much more offensive because we knew that some Canadian Arts Council agency had actually given a GRANT of taxpayer's money for this piece of tripe that a student could produce on their first foray into a six-week introductory animation course.

Why was that last example so specific? Because my wife actually TOOK a six-week introductory animation course and THAT was the caliber of "final projects" that the class turned out.

The International aspect was well-represented with German, Mexican, British, and Polish animated fare; but did you not consider the fact that every one of the offerings was depressing, dealing with death and war and child abuse? I wouldn't say it wasn't art, but string all these things together and you have an audience that is continually and repeatedly assaulted right down to a spiritual level with depression and angst.

Which brings me to another point: This is North America. We tend to view "animation" as synonymous with "for children." Oh sure, we as artists know that animation deserves a broader appeal, a wider respect-- but for the love of God, could you not have factored in that perception when you decided which films to show, and either RATED or in some way WARNED parents with young offspring that some of these films are not targeted at children?

My wife and I were offended by the continual (!) dark angst of the Festival and felt even more sorry for the families who attended, whose children had no idea why they were being subjected to these sad, angry shorts when they were expecting cartoons. Or at least, some HAPPINESS every five minutes or so.

But you did throw in one cartoon, a "Samurai Jack" episode. Congratulations for appeasing the mainstream. Of course, you picked one of the longest, most drawn-out, boring episodes of Samurai Jack, not to mention one where he is left alone and bereft at the episode's conclusion. Children who could at least identify with something they'd seen on TV were, doubtless, left with a distinct impression that they'd been swindled.

Even the relatively innocent "Leunig" shorts began with some whimsy but ended with a trumped-up piece about faith and belief which ended on a much-less-than-happy note.

I also blame the Quickdraw Animation Society in Calgary. Like any special-interest group, they seemed to completely forget that a festival audience deserves to have the material prefaced or introduced in some way; a problem endemic to artists who do not know how to showcase their own work, or even talk about the genre.

I am sick to death of the "Festival mindset" that believes that just because something isn't MAINSTREAM, that it must therefore be ART-- which in turn means it deserves high praise because it isn't something that everyone can understand.

My greatest wish is that the entire Canada Council of Arts be sacked, and replaced with actual, real working artists-- and then a healthy sprinkling of commercial businesspeople, the ones whose job it is to sell art and make something of it (got to keep those artists grounded in the real world, after all) and so therefore take the decisions on what is award-worthy out of the hands of idle upperclass matrons with too much time and money and not enough sense.

I am a Canadian, I have long been a fan of animation in all its forms, and I am here to tell you that I am offended.

Posted by Agent M at October 06, 2003 09:59 AM