The intro to Animation Mixtape, a mind-bending showcase of a dozen shorts curated by local legend Don Hertzfeldt, is worth the price of admission alone. Minute one revives Hertzfeldt’s “Rejected” stick-figure blobbies; they trade screams for 60 seconds, in itself an absolute scream. Minute two, the blobbies issue a disclaimer that “certain portions of tonight’s program will be animated with artificial intelligence”: cue fuzzy-wuzzy CGI creatures mutating into vomiting, exsanguinating freak shows. And there’s still 83 minutes to go! It’s not all giggling carnage: The international assemblage shows off eclectic animation styles and moods that careen from trippy to sardonic to existential, and includes some vintage animation Hertzfeldt cites as influences on his own award-winning work. Highly recommended. – Kimberley Jones
Through Sept. 12
