The Occasional, Brilliant Work of Cordell Barker

If you're a fan of zany-but-smart animation, like I am, I think you'll like Cordell Barker. A friend and I recently went to see a collection of this year's Oscar-nominated animated shorts (shown along with a couple of honorable mentions), and Barker's "Runaway" was probably my favorite. It's an eight-minute story about an out-of-control locomotive. The front car is occupied by the train's captain and his assistant; the next car by ridiculously dainty and stiff patrician types; and the last by dentally challenged hillbillies joyously playing hillbilly music. It's very funny, but also very cynical. Unfortunately, the whole thing isn't available online, but Barker's two previous films are. I include them below. The first, The Cat Came Back (1988), is based on a late-19th-century folk song of the same name. The second, Strange Invaders (2002), about a couple who get visited by a child from outer space, is nine kinds of crazy. I enjoyed them both, and I hope you will, too: