Orlando Sentinel
August 2, 2001
By: Roger Moore
Excerpts:
To the folks who ‘toon, Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation is like Cannes and Sundance rolled into one. Getting your short animated film included in this touring compilation film is animation’s Lotto jackpot.
“You get in that, you’re following in the footsteps of John Lasseter (Toy Story), Beavis and Butt-head (created by Mike Judge) and Nick Park (Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run),” said Orlando animation director Mark Simon.
In Timmy’s Lessons in Nature, a banjo twangs and a chubby little redheaded boy who doesn’t fit into his scout uniform experiences the wonders of the wild in some not-so-fun ways.
He whacks a snake, which promptly pounces on him and tries to swallow him whole.
“Lesson One: Avoid Snakes.”
Timmy gallops across a darkened pasture to tip a cow. He misses and winds up giving Bossy a rectal exam.
“Lesson Two: Aim When Cow Tipping.”
He greets a rabid fox by smacking it with a lollipop, with fur-flying results.
“Lesson Three: Avoid Rabid Animals.”
“We created this book of rules for Timmy when we started the films,” said Jeanne Simon, Mark’s wife and a writer on the series. “He can’t be mean, but he never learns.”
“We started showing the first Timmy at festivals; it started winning prizes [at Houston, Cal State Northridge and ASFIA, a French animation society] and then we heard from Spike,” Simon said.
Craig Decker of La Jolla, CA., the ‘Spike’ of Spike & Mike’s animation festivals, has been foisting odd ‘toons on art cinema audiences since 1977. He laughed at the first “Timmy.”
“I said, ‘If the rest of them are as funny as this, I’ll take as many of these as you guys can make by June,’” he said. “I liked the look of the nerd. It’s corny and it’s direct, and that, to me, is funny. That snake bludgeoning has face with multiple strikes, that is such a surprise that it makes me laugh every time I see it.”
“We all love Timmy; he’s our baby,” Simon said. “I’d love to see him get a series. And what I’d really love to do is what the Aardman people [the Wallace & Gromit team] did. They made short animated films to get attention, won some festivals, got on Spike & Mike, got more work and money to do bigger pieces, and then they made a feature film (Chicken Run).”