Good movie but grossly overrated

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

1st watched 12/29/2008 OK group of animated shorts presented by Mike Judge of "King of the Hill" and "Beavis and Butthead" fame and Don Herzfeld. Supposedly the DVD shows different shorts than the original theatrical release that traveled to various film festivals, so I this is definitely not a review of the original but instead of the DVD version but here goes with the version I viewed. The added 3 shorts to round out the feature by Don Herzfeld were fun, the three adventures of Ricardo are pretty bad, the three uncle, bother and cousin British claymation shorts were kind of strange and pretty serious stuff for this medium, which I guess is at least unique if nothing else. The short films surrounding these efforts were pretty good foreign entries but it doesn't make for a complete good film as a whole. Probably the best two were a video game-like entry where the character gets assimilated into an outdoor-like Cathedral and a computer animated entry about cloning. These thought-provoking entries surrounded by silly stuff doesn't make the feature flow very well. It would probably be better to watch a particular artist's shorts all the way thru instead of this weird mix, but maybe the original was better—I guess I will never know until they release it as it was in the theatres.

-- Light spoilers ahead --This is a collection of original and entertaining animation shorts, which I recommend for viewing without any reservations. There are very few parts which do not live up to the overall standard, and only while watching "Cathedral" I was longing for a fast-forward button. Highlights are the shorts by Don Hertzfeldt, especially the "Rejected" part, where he pretends to show his rejected commercial attempts for advertising the Family Learning Channel and some stupid consumer products. This is hilarious and over-the-top humor, sprinkled with gratuitous violence and cruelty (sometimes maybe a bit too much), very enjoyable. There is also a beautiful French short with music by Berlioz and drawings which look like impressionist paintings morphing into one another, though with a very dark and depressing mood to it. Then there is the Japanese flick about a man growing a cherry tree on his head, a German short about very slowly living stone people watching human civilization inventing the wheel, growing and finally destroying itself. There are beautiful and funny "short shorts" by Mike Judge, clay animation in "Ident", a great piece by Tim Burton on a boy identifying himself with Vincent Price (narrated by Vincent Price himself, all in verse), too much to be told here. Go and watch it, you won't regret it.

In a year of regurgitated ideas and mindless sequels, The Animation Show proves that there are still value left in the art of moving pictures. Don Hertzfeldt's simple yet excruciatingly genius segments hurdle you through a gaggle of shorts produced with love and thought. I was a bit surprised to see Mike Judge's contributions were small, but they are still welcome.The excerpt from Ward Kimball's "Mars and Beyond" animated film proves how the Disney company could once produce, in just a few minutes, something that contained more ingenuity than an entire 2 hour animated Disney film today. I still haven't mentioned the thought provoking shorts Mt. Head or Ident. And I'm sure this doesn't give justice to some of the other animated segments that deserve credit in this wonderful anthology.I beg of you all to see this collection while it is still in theaters so we may be blessed with a second volume come next year. Enjoy it while you can!

This is quite simply the strongest animation festival I've ever seen, and I've been attending them for over 30 years now! There is not one bad film in the lot, as opposed to your typical festival of animation, in which you're usually lucky to find a small handful of gems amid a bunch of junk.The other animation festivals that are still around out there are either in the toilet or completely out of gas. Animation as a basic film medium really needs this kind of fresh show right now - if this is playing in your area, PLEASE go and support this kind of film-making!