In my view, at least, the best short-form animation — like the most memorable short stories — is daring in perspective and malleable in interpretation. And while the 15 short films on view in “The 20th Annual Animation Show of Shows” are mostly charming and invariably well-executed, only a handful push outside their carefully drawn lines. Sticking a dagger in conformity in under two minutes, this sharp, peremptory film turns the tension between its loose, surreal line drawings and rigidly uniform dialogue into zany fun. Equally provocative is “Grands Canons,” a stop-motion animation by the French artist Alain Biet, who bombards us with thousands of his startlingly precise watercolor drawings of everyday items and gadgets. At once dazzling and disorienting, this frenetic montage prompts us to pay more attention to the deluge of objects we’ve ushered into our lives.

Source: New York Times December 27, 2018 12:00 UTC