The Animation Show 4

Compiled by Mike Judge; various directors. Distributed by the Animation Show. 1 hour, 27 mins. No MPAA rating. In English, French, German and Japanese. Playing at: Ritz Five.

The fourth annual Animation Show is a lot like a circus freak show - except that it's, um . . . animated.

Compiled by Beavis and Butt-head auteur Mike Judge, the two dozen animated shorts that make up the 87-minute program include such delightfully bizarre entries as "Angry Unpaid Hooker," about a young dude named Tim who wakes up to find his girlfriend suspiciously eyeing a hooker he apparently hired the night before.

Other guffaw-worthy films include the understated, droll English entry "Operator," about a timid lad who phones God to ask the stupidest question in human history, and any of the handful of computer-animated films from France's prestigious Gobelins school, including "Voodoo," about an Indiana Jones-like adventurer whose plan to pillage an ancient temple is thwarted by the local tribe.

The films, which range from 90 seconds to almost 8 minutes and hail from America, Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Australia and Japan, are uneven. For every "Voodoo," there's a "Psychotown," an obnoxious series from Australia, or the puerile, vulgar one-note joke "Yompi the Crotch-Biting Sloup."

The collection is composed entirely of light comedies, which is a shame: A few edgy dramas or genre stories would have livened things up.

Two fine films come close. Trevor Jimenez's "Key Lime Pie" is a beautifully animated film noir parody about a tortured soul addicted to dessert, and Georges Schwizgebel's Swiss film, "Jeu," is a surreal, M.C. Escher-inspired collage of dizzying shapes and patterns.

- Tirdad Derakhshani