The Varsity's latest collection of animated shorts starts off with a 5-1/2-minute film that could win an Academy Award on Sunday night: Oregon filmmaker Bill Plympton's typically demented "Guard Dog."

One of five finalists for the Oscar for best animated short subject, it's the tale of a rabid dog who is disturbed by a walk in the park. As with most Plympton cartoons, bodies and faces seem to be made of Silly Putty; decapitations, amputations and other mutilations are absurdly commonplace. Most inspired touch: a samurai robin who launches into a routine worthy of John Belushi.

None of the other shorts on the program is in the running for Oscars, though three were close runners-up in this year's highly competitive race. Peter Cornwell's ambitious 14-minute-plus Australian epic, "Ward 13," about a traffic-accident victim who experiences a hospital nightmare, nearly made the Academy's final cut.

So did Tomek Baginski's stylish Polish sendup of militarism, "Fallen Art," and Tim Miller's "Rock Fish," an energetic eight-minute American short that plays like a "Road Warrior" wannabe. More than any of the other shorts in "The Animation Show," it begs to be expanded to a feature.

Most of the other entries seem happy at their present length. Georges Schwizgebel's exhilarating nine-minute slice of French-Canadian Impressionism, "The Man With No Shadow," takes just the right amount of time to present the tale of a man who makes a foolish pact with a magician.

Another nine-minute Canadian entry, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby's "When the Day Breaks," is the oldest film in the program. Nominated for a 1999 Oscar for best animated short (it lost to IMAX's "The Old Man and the Sea"), it uses a breakfast routine to tell a story about emotional renewal.

Also part of the show are Sarah Phelps' dazzling American short "Fireworks," which uses candy corn and other sweets to conjure up an eye-popping universe of goodies; Jonathan Nix's "Hello," a witty Australian tale about the perils of technology; David Russo's visually striking American treatment of a Robert Frost poem, "Pan With Us"; and Jen Drummond's goofy Texas satire, "The F.E.D.S.," based on the experiences of "demo" teams offering samples to customers in Austin grocery stores.

The program concludes with Don Hertzfeldt's "The Meaning of Life," a 2005 American production that has nothing to do with Monty Python and everything to do with Tchaikovsky, evolution, nothingness and the irritatingly rhythmic possibilities of clichés. Shown last month at the Sundance Film Festival, it proudly claims that no computers were used in its creation.

At 7 tonight only, Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge will visit the Varsity to talk about the program. Judge is the creator of "Beavis and Butt-head," while Hertzfeldt is best-known for "Billy's Balloon."

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com