"Political Correction" (CalArts, 1995)
• CalArts Character Animation Producers' Show selection
• Spike & Mike's Festival of Animation selection (1997)
• Showcased on MTV's Cartoon 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 The Simpsons, SNL, Mad TV, Jimmy Kimmel Live and countless others by several years.
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Click PLAY to View Original SHR "Interjections"
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(cover)
1995 CalArts Producers' Show program
(cover)
1997 Spike & Mike program
"... Steven Fonti's wickedly wry update on Schoolhouse Rock."
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Full Post Review
— Desson Howe,
The Washington Post
"Political Correction succeeds on wit... a hilarious sendup of the effects of political correctness on language."
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Full LA Times Review
— Kristine McKenna,
Los Angeles Times
"...Hilarious... Fonti creates a world of backbreaking political correctness..."
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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."
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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."
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Full Bee Review
— Joe Baltake,
The Sacramento Bee
"Yes, Timmy, There Is A Santa Claus" (CalArts, 1993)
• Expanded Entertainment's Too Outrageous Animation selection (1994)
• Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation selection (1997, 1998)
The initial concept for my first-year CalArts film was a boy opening presents from Santa but being disappointed by all the crappy toys, each more lame than the next. However, I could never come up with a satisfying enough ending. Ultimately I decided to reverse the premise: the gifts are now good, it's Timmy who is the problem.
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Click Images to Enlarge
(cover)
1994 Too Outrageous Animation program
(cover)
1998 Spike & Mike Sick and Twisted program
"The festival really lives up to its 'Sick and Twisted' name with Steven Fonti's Yes, Timmy, There Is a Santa Claus..."
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Full Tribune Review
— John Petrakis,
Chicago Tribune
"... Elegantly animated — a prime example of the sort of material
that got Lenny Bruce labeled 'sick'."
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Full Daily News Review
— Dave Kehr,
New York Daily News
"Yes, Timmy... is beautifully drawn, but incredibly dark."
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Full Berkeley Review
— Vivian Host,
The Daily Californian
(U.C. Berkeley)
"Fonti's black-and-white holiday short starts out like caramel-sweet Disney but ends up like gimlet-sour Luis Buñuel."
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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."
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Full SFWeekly Review
— Bill Wyman,
San Francisco Weekly
