Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation

at the Coolidge Corner Theater

including "The Wrong Trousers," "Bob's

Birthday" and "The Janitor"

Saturday, April 29 May 5 at 7:30, 9:30, 11;:30 pm

Sunday April 30, May 7 at 2:30, 7:30 pm

The only down-side to "Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation" is that one leaves wishing that life itself were this hilarious and absurd, not to mention this seamlessly constructed, this Iyrical or simply this kaleidosopically varied.

If only one could consistently re-enter an interrupted dream (complete with dream date) despite a falling green toilet, persistent household pet and ringing alarm clock as "Sleepy Guy" does.

If only all triangulation's were as sensually beautiful and rhythmically entrancing as those within "Triangle."

If only all surprise parties could go as perfectly wrong as "Bob's Birthday."

The pleasure in the Festival lies in its variety. Thought some pieces are enormously successful and others only passingly amusing, the constantly changing medium, country of origin and sense of humor of each of the shorts keeps the momentum going between especially strong pieces.

"The Dirdy Birdy" will partially quell Sick and Twisted fans, craving for the excellently disgusting displays only possible on celluloid gels. This birdy really is very very naughty, mooning his tree-dwelling cat-friend over and over and over again.

The German short, "Passage," (the above, of course, being an American creation) moves poetically through an alternately icy, snowy and watery landscape. Two black figures wordlessly negotiate the terrian with inky fluidity and cryptic relatedness. Their quest, timeless in its way as the dirdy birdy's endless mooning, communicates itself perfectly through the spare ink and paper rendtion.

The beautiful French film, "The Monk and the Fish," (an Oscar nominee) creates a luminous monastery and aquaduct out of watercolors--and a fish-obsessed Monk to go along with it. The musical bouncing of the thoroughly rotund monk and the similarly entrancing splashing of the elusive little fish create a visual dance. That the monk is nearly mad with the chase only adds to the enjoyment.

Despite the aesthetic pleasure (and sick glee) to be enjoyed from the above short's the best films of the bunch are also the funniest. "The Janitor," an Oscar nominee by Canadian Vanessa Schwartz, uses mellow vernacular and quirky sketches of a naked old man's body to bring a janitor of the universe to life. Lines describing the moon as a "sure" nub dustcatcher" don't hurt either.