The Dryden Theatre hosted the RIT School of Film & Animation Student Honors Show on a sunny Saturday afternoon last week. Not exactly the time of day most people want to sit in a dark theater, but it would've suited you just fine if you were out late the night before, and even had to rush to make the 1 p.m. start time.

Three hours, an intermission, and an aching butt later, the audience -- mostly students and the friends and family of the filmmakers - had taken in 21 short films. The striking thing, besides the animation, was the music. Many of the scores were totally original, and perfectly accented the mood of each film. My favorite might have been "It," which involved a cool but sly superhero type-girl and a big green monster on wheels that chased her. Riannon Delanoy's "Deep Fishing" had psychedelic over- and undertones; it featured a curmudgeonly amphibious-type monster guy that, while fishing, caught an egg that hatched a little blue creature, who immediately took monster-guy for its father. In a twist, the guy swallows his would-be child, can't keep him down, and discovers the pleasurable properties of licking the skin (!) of the creature.

Another scene-stealer was an experimental piece called "Eavesdropper," by Keelee Hammond. The setup was that you're listening in on an intimate (but not that interesting) conversation between three college guys. They chat about mundane stuff -- school, girls, jobs - until someone in the audience yelled out that it was boring. Some of us stirred a little. A minute or so went by, and the same rude dude called out what a waste of his time the film was. Someone across the theater countered, suggesting he should leave. It seemed a fight was about to happen right in the theater. Then, the characters in the film started talking back to the people in the audience, and a fight did break out - a staged one, part of the film, making it suddenly 3D, and shaking up those of us who had been quietly, passively watching.