The Animation Show

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The Animation Show is a semi-annual touring festival of animated short films that premiered in fall 2003. It was created and is personally programmed solely by award-winning animators Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt.

Following the demise of other American touring festivals of animation, the stated purpose of the Animation Show is to continually bring animated short films back into proper cinemas, where most of them were intended to be seen, and to "free these artists from the dungeons of Internet exhibition". It is the first-ever festival of animation to actually be curated by working animators and has been described as a "passion project" by its creators, not something intended to turn a giant profit.

A sister series of Animation Show DVD volumes are also available, but the producers stress that the theatrical and DVD lineups are intentionally a little different, to encourage audiences to not just wait for the DVD but to visit the cinema and view these films properly. As stated on the Animation Show programs and flyers, once the current edition of the Show is out of theaters, it's "gone forever".

[edit] History

The first season's 2003 tour visited over 200 North American theaters with occasional appearances from the producers (Mike and Don) and Q&A's with many of the award-winning filmmakers involved. The films involved were "everything from forgotten classics to the very latest in computer animation". This included many current Academy Award nominees, as well as the restoration of a 5 minute piece from Ward Kimball's 1957 Disney film, "Mars and Beyond". The tour concluded with the DVD release of Animation Show, Volume One.

A second Animation Show toured throughout 2005, featuring Don Hertzfeldt's The Meaning of Life and new films by animators like Peter Cornwell and Georges Schwizgebel.

The third season of The Animation Show began its nationwide release in January 2007, featuring new work by animators Joanna Quinn, Mike Judge, and Bill Plympton, as well as Don Hertzfeldt's Everything Will Be OK.