“The Animation Show of Shows” on DVD

Back in 2007 and again in 2010 I posted about Acme Filmworks’ incredible boxed sets of award winning animated shorts, The Animation Show of Shows. Today, I’m happy to report Acme has released a third set of three boxes (containing 18 more discs, an additional 54 shorts). And here is another unabashed plug:

First the basics: The animated shorts collected here are celebrated works of independent artists, every film carefully curated and lovingly presented – and in the case of several older films, beautifully restored. Each box set contains six DVDs, each disc containing three shorts, held in its own slip case illustrated with still art from the film and a bio of each director. In this day and age of You Tube, digital downloads and micro screens on hand-held devices, I believe it’s important to preserve the great films of our time on physical DVDs, in compilations such as this.

This latest compilation contains new HD restorations of classic films like The Man Who Planted Trees, Crac!, Bitz Butz, Hot Stuff, Every Child, and The Street. There are multiple Academy Award Winners including La Maison en Petite Cubes, Logorama, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and The Lost Thing.

I am always struck by the the variety of styles included here. From the hand-drawn antics of Bill Plympton (The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Hamburger), and Geefwee Boedoe (Let’s Pollute), to the painterly wonders of Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby’s Wild Life and Jason Carpenter’s The Renter; along with the latest CG innovations (Till Nowaks’ The Centrifuge Brain Project, Damian Nenow’s incredible Paths of Hate, among others), there’s style and technique to spare. Unless you’ve attended the competitions at Ottawa or Annecy for the last ten or fifteen years you probably haven’t seen all of these before and I’ll tell ya, there isn’t a bad film in the bunch. Click here to read the entire content list.

To say this is an important compilation is an understatement. These are vital for any serious animation library and required viewing for students and all who want to see some of the best shorts ever made. Owning them on DVD is the way to go. As you can tell, I cannot praise Acme’s Animation Show of Shows DVDs highly enough. For complete contents and ordering information, visit filmporium.com. The dvds are very reasonably priced — 3 films on each DVD for $5 dollars. Each DVD is offered individually or available in the 6-DVD Box Sets for $30 each. Needless to say, I highly recommend.