Customer Reviews

Spike and Mike's Cutting Edge Classics

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Spike and Mike scrape the barrel again to re-release another old collection of rehashed animated shorts on DVD, with minimal extras and unrestored VHS picture and sound quality.

There's very little rhyme or reason as to the selection process behind such a random compilation. Aside from a couple Internet cartoons that you could just watch online for free, everything else here has been previously available on other, superior collections. All I can guess is they had some old film licenses lying around that were close to expiring and they wanted more of your money.

I have to sadly agree with the other reviewers here, that Spike and Mike is truly dead. Pick up the "Animation Show" instead, or if you can still find them, the old out-of-print "Tournee" animation collections.

I think the point of this collection is that it collects classic shorts from the past 15 year that were on the cutting edge at the time of their release. That's why they're classics. Looked at that way, there is a ton of great material here. My favorite is Rope Dancers, which is really trippy--almost like what Escher would have done if he had worked in animation. There are plenty of other great clips here, as well. If you're new to animation, this is a great starting point, and if you've scene it all before, then this DVD is a fantastic set of highlights.

When I first wrote my review for this disc, I panned it. Recently, I've given it another go, and I have to say that this isn't such a bad little compilation after all. I still don't have too much interest in the blood-guts-and-butts humor of "An Old Story," "Maakies" or "Cane Toad," but the disc also includes some fascinating work like Patrick Smith's "Drink," Mo Willems' "Iddy Biddy Beat Boy," Pjtor Sapegin's "One Day a Man Bought a House," and Raimund Krumme's "Ropedancers." "Stubble Trouble" is quick and humorous, and with The World's Best Animation DVD out of print, it's nice to see the German film "Balance" available for a new generation of artists.

So, Spike and Mike, I take back some of what I said before. While I still prefer your previous release, "Spike and Mike's Classic Festival of Animation," I appreciate the effort in putting some very unique animations on one very affordable disc. Here's looking forward to an even better compilation in the future!

What is "cutting edge" about animated shorts over 10 years old and internet cartoons we've all seen before? I keep hoping for Spike and Mike to release just one good DVD, but from the looks of it, it probably won't ever happen.

While the quality of the cartoons here are a step up from their usual bathroom humor, all of them are pulled from previous video tape and DVD volumes. There's not a single piece that even a casual fan has not seen a million times before.. have they given up on finding new material? Out of money? Too out of touch? I used to be a big fan of this stuff, but these guys have been out of steam for years.

I thought this tape was overall good. But in my point of view Balance
and Ropedancers were in pretty bad verson. Possible because of being over 20 years old. I give this 2stars because of that and there's no special features on this dvd. That's strange because almost every spike and mike dvds has aleast 2 or more speical features the only speacial feature is a short that doesn't end. This might possibly be the worst dvd of spike and mike ever made. If it was up to me I would get the spike and mike vhs tapes or the sick and twisted festival.

It's low brow. That being said, I LIKE IT! My favorite was Maakies on the "Full Frontal" Spike and Mike DVD. With most of the shorts the point is there's no point. What you might appreciate is the attitude behind the shorts. (Short films.) In this case it's a compilation of the more popular independent animation efforts collected together based on popularity. Tony Millionaire has his own thing going with Maakies and with tongue planted firmly in cheek he makes the innocently funny and fatalistic Crow just great fun to watch. Is it a metaphorical commentary on society at large? You be the judge.

there's some classics on here. "Drink"(Patrick Smith) is one of my all time favorites. there's also a great one from Mo Willems, as well as several other classics. It is true, however, that a lot of these films are re-runs for Spike, matter of fact, i think they are ALL found on other compilations. but still pretty darn good. nice menus, easy to navigate.

Cutting Edge Classics is a perfect title for this collection since it showcases material from the last 20 years that either is now or was cutting edge at the time. For those of you who have seen the Maakies cartoons on Saturday Night Live and want to own them, well this DVD has four of them. Adam Elliot who won the Oscar in 2004 for his animated short "Harvie Krumpet" is represented here with "Brother." My favorites on here are "Drink" and "The Snowman" which features some great 3D computer animation. All in all a very nice selection of animated shorts.