{star}{star}1/2 Hair High -- 77 min. Not rated: animated violence, adult situations. Guard Dog ({star}{star}{star}), 5 min., and The Fan & the Flower ({star}{star}{star}{star}), 7 min. Both not rated: Nothing objectionable. 9 tonight at AMC Coral Ridge.

Those who have grown accustomed to the seamless detail of computer animation may be taken aback by the deliberate crudity of animator Bill Plympton's work, but as his trio of films ably demonstrates, there's legitimate substance beneath his atavistic style.

In Guard Dog, Plympton's Oscar-nominated short about a loyal dog protecting his owner from the evils of a dog park, the artwork looks like crayon etched onto the screen. But the loyalty of the dog is unmistakable, and anyone who's ever owned or loved an animal is sure to smile at this effort.

The supremely sweet and touching The Fan and the Flower follows. Narrated by Paul Giamatti, the short tells the story of a ceiling fan's sweet crush on the new flower in the room. Here Plympton uses rudimentary black and white, for an allegory about the sacrifices we make in the name of love.

The feature-length Hair High is the weakest of the three; it's a gothic '50s high school comedy about a love triangle that goes terribly awry when two young, murdered teens come back from the dead to get revenge.

Visually, the Japanime-meets-Beavis-and-Butt-Head style allows for truly anything to happen, as is evident with the bugs in the opening sequence, football players getting split in two and the humping chickens. The cast of voice talent may be formidable -- Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Silverman, Beverly D'Angelo, Keith Carradine and more -- but lost is the sweetness and heart that make the short films so memorable.

What's Bugging Seth? garners some interest because it was written and directed by a deaf man, and centers on the struggles of a young deaf man to succeed in business and in love.

Past that, the real struggle is in watching this mess of a movie. Seth (Ross Thomas) dreams of running his own extermination business, and goes door-to-door to drum up customers. His mother dies, which is sad, but his situation becomes much more bearable when he begins dating a wonderful woman with no legs, Alma. She's great, but he really has the hots for the picture-perfect blond model who helps him "hear" his all-time favorite duo, Loggins & Messina.

The pity is that freshman writer-director Eli Steele hits some very successfully quirky notes here: Seth must handle an elderly woman's massively horrifying roach infestation; his wise-cracking best friend is a suit salesman who very vocally only sells to men shorter than 5-foot-6, like himself.

But the perspective is so stubbornly centered around Seth that those sequences are treated with no respect. Even when Alma and Seth get intimate, which could have generated some emotional and involving dialogue, there's barely mention of the fact she has no legs, it's all about how Seth can't hear. Hello, weren't there two people in that cozy moment?

The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival continues through Nov. 20. Today's screenings take place at AMC Coral Ridge 10, 3401 NE 26th Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 954-566-9663. Most tickets are $8, $7 for students and seniors, $5 for FLIFF members. For details, visit www.fliff.com or call 954-525-3456.

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