Walt Disney Pictures proves fast out of the 2004 starting gate with a prodigiously clever and playful animated feature, Disney’s Teacher’s Pet, a delightful whilrwind of a movie, 68 minutes of virtually non-stop verbal and pictorial slapstick. Derived from a Saturday cartoon series that began in 2000, the feature edition also showcases the characters and illustrative style of Gary Baseman, whose humorous elasticity and exaggerations owe something to the vintage madcap animators of the 1940s, Bob Clampett and Tex Avery. The title character, splendidly voiced by Nathan Lane, is a brainy, articulate pooch called Spot who has been masquerading as a classmate of his boy companion, Leonard. Species transformation lures Spot in a berserk form during a holiday in Florida: He allows himself to become a guinea pig for a mad genetic scientist, Ivan Krank, dubbed by Kelsey Grammer. A fast-paced musical comedy, the film also boasts the wittiest song score since “A Mighty Wind.” A tongue-twisting novelty number, “A Whole Bunch of World,” races through the names of all 50 states, in alphabetical order, accompanied by quick-as-a-flash cartoon puns. Timothy Bjorklund directed from a screenplay by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner. The principal songwriting team is Randy Petersen and Kevin Quinn. All are veterans of the TV series. Evidently, none has gone stale on the pretext.
— Gary Arnold
hypermeltfictioncontradiction is the intriguing name of emerging Korean-American artist Jiha Moon’s first solo exhibit in the Washington area. Opening tomorrow at the Dega Gallery in McLean, this show of often contraditory visual symbols reveals Miss Moon’s attempts to combine the Eastern traditions of her native Korea and Western ones of the United States. She often marries the bizarre and beautiful, as in “Decapitated Buddha,” in which she shows headless buddhas floating in a cobalt blue lagoon surrounded by bird shapes in cotton-candy-pink. At Dega, 8100 Old Dominion Drive, McLean. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, through Feb. 28. Free. 703/760-7616
— Joanna Shaw-Eagle
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