As assembled by Mike Judge and his associates, The Animation Show 4 – a compilation of stylistically and thematically diverse animated shorts from around the world, screened back to back – intrigues and satisfies even as it also frequently disappoints. On a positive note, there are wonders to be glimpsed here that redefine the landscape of contemporary animation – numerous ones, in fact. Several come across as particularly arresting. The package as a whole, however, feels maddeningly inconsistent and uneven.

Fans will especially warm to ‘Mr. Schwartz, Mr. Hazen & Mr. Horlocker,’
a farcical bit of about 7 minutes in length by animator Stefan Mueller. The short dramatizes the travails of a pointdexterish little man at an apartment complex, who summons a bulldoggish, lantern-jawed policeman to quiet his crazy neighbors down – completely unaware of the perverted shenanigans happening behind the closed doors of the complex; the segment ingeniously uses rewind to play the same events from two different perspectives and ends with one of the goofiest acid trips ever committed to celluloid.
 
Judge’s package also includes animator Georges Schwizgebel’s mesmerizing “Jeu” (or “Game”), a Swiss-produced tour through a series of pastel-colored geometric abstractions that transform themselves into Daumier-like paintings of sportsmen and orchestral performers. And, though it will not win any points for aesthetic (the visuals are cruder than even Dr. Katz), Steve Dildarian’s ‘Angry Unpaid Hooker’ (now in the process of becoming its own animated series on HBO, ‘The Life and Times of Tim’) scores double for one of the funniest animated narratives in ages, about a guy whose girlfriend returns from vacation and finds a black whore on the couch. The low-down prostie then sees fit to relay the kinky details of her sordid night with the in-denial boyfriend. And the whole compilation hits its peak with the closer: ‘This Way Up’ by Smith and Foulkes, a funny, evocative and visually resplendent sketch (with more than a hint of Rube Goldberg influence) about two wizened British pallbearers who set out to bury a casket and wind up jetting down the River Styx toward the fiery cauldron of hell. Each of these segments is so wonderful that it could stand alone – and the package contains several additional shorts of like brilliance.

If only Judge and co. had limited it to those. Unfortunately, they did not - and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an omnibus film where one segment so ruins the rest of the movie – in this case, a god-awful claymation bit called “Yompi,” by animator Corky Quakenbush. Demented, obnoxious and nauseating, it’s a one-joke outing that suggests Davey and Goliath on crack – in which the deceptively cute little creature of the title (who resembles a yellow version of the Pillsbury dough boy and sounds like Cartman when he sings the opening jingle) silently prances and dances his way around unsuspecting human characters, charms them to no end, then opens his mouth to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth and bites each horrified victim on the crotch. One casualty is even a sweet and helpless old lady on a park bench. It is excruciatingly unfunny to watch the first time, and to make matters worse, executive producer Judge sees fit to bring that plump little bastard back two additional times, with the same “joke” on each occasion. Shame on him for doing so. Likewise for his decision to include three episodes of a sub-par animation series from Australia by Dave Carter, called Psychotown, in which two dung-brained, sloppily-drawn characters proceed to drive each other around the bend in moronic ways. Each of the said segments may only last a couple of minutes, but they drag the film, and the audience, through the gutter with sheer ignorance – and feel particularly unforgivable in light of the wonderful international animations that could have been used to replace them.

The film’s most overarching weakness lies in the inconsistency of tone present – it is pretty difficult to justify moving from the perversion of Yompi directly into John and Karen, a sweet and irresistibly pleasant, low-key British fable by Matthew Walker about a polar bear and a penguin sharing a house together. (In fact, audiences who like one of the two will almost invariably hate the other). But that’s exactly the sort of thing that this compilation does, from first segment to last. Apparently Mr. Judge has some truly schizoid taste, and that doesn’t serve him well.

Overall, The Animation Show 4 has enough dazzle and raw invention to keep animation hounds glued to their seats, but some viewers may find it easier to watch on DVD – where they can skip over the barrel-bottom segments and go straight for the gold.