Back in the heyday of the internet boom, Film Roman, the production company behind such TV hits as The Simpsons and King of the Hill started a new web site, Level13.net.  This site was supposed to acquire new animated works and turn them into web programing, video games, direct-to-video movies, TV shows, and anything else they could think of.  It was supposed to be the ultimate in synergy with one form of media supporting the others and everything tied together with the great and wonderful internet.  Well, things didn't quite work out as they planned (though Level13.net did get two of their shorts into development deals, they never reached the air.)   Now Level13.net is selling some of the animation that they acquired on DVD, the latest disc being Around the World.
 
This 45 minute long DVD has 24 animated shorts on it.  Yes, the films are all very short, most of them running under a minute each.  Many of these shorts were done by film students and amateur film makers, so the quality is not top notch, but none of them are really bad, and a few are very good.
 
One half of the shorts presented are Anabel films; 30 second pieces about a little girl and the odd events that happen to her.  Anabel will watch a group of clouds that look like sheep blowing past, only to have them blow by in the opposite direction a second later being chased by black storm clouds in the shape of wolves.  In another installment Anabel gets ready to take a shower.  She takes off her shoes, her hat, her dress and underwear.  Then she takes off her skin, hangs in on a hook, and has her skeleton wash itself.  These are all dark humor, but they just don't have that the comedic punch to make you actually laugh out loud.

That's the problem with most of the shorts on this disc.  They are amusing, but not hilarious.  Granted, it is very hard to set up a joke and deliver the punch-line in under a minute, but these shorts could have done better.    In one film, A Little Prick, a girl is sitting at a table in a restaurant with her date who just talks about himself.  His head grows larger and larger as he talks, and she finally picks up a fork and pops his head.  End of short.

There were some good films on this DVD though.  I really enjoyed God.  When god throws down a pile of refuse, all the animals pick out something to use.  An elephant chooses a trunk, and an alligator a long tail.  But man arrives late and there's not much left.  Just a brain.

They save the best for last with the hilarious dark comedy Art Appreciation being the penultimate film on the disc.  This tells the story of a man who wants to go scuba diving but ends up having a really bad day.  I mean a REALLY bad day.  The animation and music were both well done, and the timing on the jokes was impeccable.  They were even able to come up with a suitable ending for the film.

All the films on this DVD are pretty good, but only a couple of them are great.  I was hoping for more quality, but on the other hand they could have been much worse.  I would have appreciated a little more variety by cutting out most of the Anabel shorts and replacing them with something else.  Overall not a bad group of animated films though.

Audio:

The stereo English soundtrack was adequate.  There was some light distortion in a few of the cartoons, but this was almost certainly present in the oridinal product and not the fault of the DVD mastering.   There were optional English subtitles, but only for the films that were not in English.

Video:

The quality of the fullframe video varied from short to short, but overall it was very good.  Some of the shorts were showing their age, with faded colors or a hazy print, but these were in the minority.  With there only being 45 minutes of video on this DVD, there was plenty of room and digital defects were practically nonexistent.

Extras:

There are no extras on this DVD.  A series of creator biographies or some background of the cartoons would have been welcome.

Final Thoughts:

These films were amusing, in not out and out funny.  While I wouldn't classify any of them as being bad, there were only a few that I'd say were really good too.  But those few make the disc, and anamation fans should make sure to check this disc out.  It is worth the $19.95 retail price.  Recommended.