Wet Shorts: The Best of Liquid Television

with William Waghorn, Mandy Perryment, Richard Ridings
Written by Melissa Salmons
Directed by Ed Bell, John Hays
(MTV/SMV)
by Joe Hacking

MTV was cool back when they didn’t show any commercials. Today, the only thing about MTV possessing any enduring value is Liquid Television, their show of adult cartoon shorts. Yet this compilation, while containing many gems, falls short of satisfying its “Best of” title.

Stupid concepts, like Crazy Daisy Ed (an angry flower interacts with the human world) and Raisin (weak Ren and Stimpy wanna-be) are a waste of magnetic tape. There are dozens of potential candidates that should have been on here instead.

If you buy this tape, buy it for Aeon Flux, Stick Figure Theatre, and Big City. These toons utilize the pure creative freedom of animation. Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux is Heavy Metal Magazine-inspired, full of violence, sexy characters and buckets of blood. Robin Steele and Roy Kissin’s Stick Figure Theatre is simple (and I mean simple) genius. Ed Bell’s John K-like Big City transcends the boundaries of race, color animation, storyline, editing, and music. This semi-mystical-inspirational tale of dreams fulfilled in the big city is worth the price of the tape alone.