The animated film fest is nearly here

Anima Buenos Aires
 
The sixth edition of the Montreal International Animated Film Festival (MIAFF) is around the corner. Though still in relative infancy, this festival and industry conference is offering its sturdiest program yet. Festivities kick off on Thursday, April 16, with the premiere of the “motion graphic novel” The Land of the Magic Flute, which is being screened with accompanying live scoring by Philippe Lambert. The opening night double feature is capped off with a newly restored print of the cult classic Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle. This French-Belgian X-rated take on Tarzan is probably best known these days for the infamy of its English dub, which includes vocal performances by Bill Murray, his brother Brian Doyle-Murray and John Belushi.

There are seven features in official competition this year — interestingly, not one of them hails from North America. Pascal Morelli’s 108 Demon Kings is a fantasy set in 12th century China, while Christian de Vita’s Yellowbird has migrating birds as its central characters (the English-language dub features vocal performances by Seth Green, Dakota Fanning and Community’s Yvette Nicole Brown). Also coming from France is Aunt Hilda, an ecologically-minded adventure from Rémy-Jacques Girerd and Benoît Chieux.
 

The Land of the Magic Flute
 
The only South American entry this year is Maria Veronica Ramirez’s Anima Buenos Aires, an animated Paris je t’aime-esque look at the Argentinian capital wherein each segment is done by a different animator in a different animation style. Chinese director Joe Chang’s Magic Train is a dream-like, dialogue-light story of a young girl travelling through China on a train. Manieggs: Revenge of the Hard Egg, by Hungarian director Zoltan Mislosky, is a dark crime comedy starring a bunch of hardboiled eggs (!), while Eliot Cowan’s The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead and Roundhead (out of Romania) is the feature version of the popular shorts featuring… well… a boxhead and a roundhead.

There are, of course, plentiful shorts programs grouped by themes, three programs featuring the best of other animation festivals and various panel discussions, including a screening of the Can-Con classic Heavy Metal and a discussion with its director, Gerald Potterton. ■
 
The MIAFF runs from April 16–19, on the Concordia campus. See the complete program on their website.