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The best of these 10 shorts will bust open conceptions of what it means to be a “cartoon.” In other words, Ducktales this ain’t. The third incarnation of the traveling animation exhibition curated by Mike Judge (Beavis and Butt-head) and the genius Don Hertzfeldt continues to showcase visually stunning examples at the height of animated art. What unites the films — beyond the artistry — is a darkness, a sinister sense that carries from one to the next. In “Rabbit,” Run Wrake animates Dick-and-Jane illustrations. The pair slaughter a bunny to find a mischievous idol in the entrails; cockroaches infest, bees get turned to jewels, and Dick slams horses with a cricket mallet. It’s menacing and lovely. In Shane Acker’s computer-animated “9,” a soul-sucking beast gets defeated by a spiral-eyed rag doll. Hertzfeldt’s offering, “Everything Will Be OK,” takes the prize, however. In his trademark 2-D animation, a stick figure enacts quotidian rituals — fruit buying, commuting — with a growing sense of ennui, existential angst, and eventually insanity. It’s hellish — and moving, too.
