• Honored as closing film at 1995 CalArtsProducers' Show • Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation(1997) • Showcased on MTV'sCartoon Sushi(1997)
Knowledge is Power! My third-year CalArts film teaches kids politically correct grammar, sung to the infectious melody of "Interjections". This is the earliest known Schoolhouse Rock parody, predating subsequent spoofs from TheSimpsons, SNL, Mad TV, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and countless others by several years.
Click PLAY to View Film
Click PLAY to View Original SHR "Interjections"
"... Steven Fonti's wickedly wry update on Schoolhouse Rock."
Click to Read Full Post Review
— Desson Howe,
The Washington Post
"Political Correction succeeds on wit... a hilarious sendup of the effects of political correctness on language."
Click to Read Full LA Times Review
— Kristine McKenna,
Los Angeles Times
"...Hilarious... Fonti creates a world of backbreaking political correctness..."
Click to Read Full Globe Review
— Renée Graham,
The Boston Globe
"A subject matter that seemed to have been milked for all its humor clearly still has a little juice left."
Click to Read Full NYT Review
— Stephen Holden,
The New York Times
"... Steven Fonti's supremely witty Political Correction manages to mock both children's TV and the ultra-sensitivity that plagues today's society... it's also a lot of fun."
Click to Read Full Bee Review
— Joe Baltake,
The Sacramento Bee
"Yes, Timmy, There Is A Santa Claus" (CalArts, 1993)
• Expanded Entertainment's Too Outrageous Animation (1994)
• Spike and Mike'sSick & Twisted Festivalof Animation(1998)
The initial concept for my first year CalArts film was a boy opening presents from Santa but disappointed by the crappy toys, each more lame than the next. However I could never come up with a satisfying ending. Ultimately I decided to reverse the premise: the gifts are now good, it's Timmy who has the problem.
Click PLAY to View Film
Click to Expand
Click to Expand
1994 TooOutrageousAnimationposter
1998 Spike and Mike'sSick & Twistedprogram
"The festival really lives up to its 'Sick and Twisted' name with Steven Fonti's Yes, Timmy, There Is a Santa Claus..."
Click to Read Full Tribune Review
— John Petrakis,
Chicago Tribune
"... Elegantly animated — a prime example of the sort of material that got Lenny Bruce labeled 'sick'."
Click to Read Full Daily News Review
— Dave Kehr,
New York Daily News
"Yes, Timmy" is beautifully drawn, but incredibly dark."
Click to Read Full Berkeley Review
— Vivian Host,
The Daily Californian
(U.C. Berkeley)
"Fonti's black-and-white holiday short startsout like caramel-sweet Disney but ends up like gimlet-sour Luis Buñuel."
Click to Read Full Newsday Review
— Gene Seymour,
Newsday
"...and, finally, one clip that almost redeems the whole thing: the searchingly presented, truly sick Yes, Timmy, There Is a Santa Claus, surely one of the most perfectly realized short films ever made."