Bill Plympton
Web: http://www.plymptoons.com
Bill
Plympton is a highly celebrated cartoonist and animator but it has been a long journey.
In 1968 Plympton began his studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York where
he made his home. Plympton served a long tenure as an illustrator and
cartoonist. Between expanding his ever increasing portfolio he designed the
magazines: Cineaste, Filmmakers Newsletter,
and Film Society Review. His
illustrations have graced the pages of The New York Times, Vogue, House
Beautiful, The Village Voice, Screw, and Vanity Fair. His cartoons appeared in such magazines as
Viva, Penthouse, Rolling Stone, National Lampoon, and Glamour. In 1975 he began "Plympton," a
political cartoon strip which was published by The Soho Weekly News. By 1981
its syndication was reaching some twenty major newspapers.
At
the same time Plympton was not simply satisfied with cartoons, he wanted to go
further and explore animation. In 1983 Valeria Wasilewski asked Plympton to
work on a film she was producing of Jules Feiffer's song "Boomtown." Connie D'Antuono, another of the film's
producers helped him learn the ropes.
Following
the completion of "Boomtown," he began his own animated film,
"Drawing Lesson # 2." Production of the live action scenes was slow,
due to inclement weather, so Plympton decided to start on another film. He contacted an old friend Maureen McElheron
with whom he had performed in a Country Western Band. She agreed to your score
and sing. “Your Face” won a 1988 Oscar nomination for best animation.
His
work started to appear regularly at animation festivals and MTV. His short
films such as "How to Kiss" and "25 Ways to Quit Smoking"
were highly successful. His “Microtoons” were specially successful on MTV. He
also excelled at advertising including a unique take on Trivial Pursuit.
The
Tune was his first full-length feature and fully self financed. Sections of the feature were
released as short films to help generate funds for the ongoing production. These included "The Wiseman" and
"Push Comes to Shove," the latter of which won the 1991 Prix du Jury
at the Cannes Film Festival. The Tune
made the rounds of the film festivals, garnering the prestigious Houston
WorldFest Gold Jury Special Award as well as a Spirit Award nomination for Best
Film Score.
After
personally drawing and coloring 30,000 cels for The Tune, Plympton moved to
live-action. J. Lyle , his first
live-action feature, is a wacky, surreal comedy about a sleazy lawyer who meets
a magical talking dog that changes his life. This was followed by Guns on the
Clackamas, a behind-the-scenes look at an imaginary disastrous Western which was
shot in Oregon and New York.
In
1998, Bill completed another animated feature, titled I married a Strange
Person, a strangely heart warming tale of a newlywed couple on their wedding
night. Grant, the husband, starts
experiencing strange, supernatural powers and Kerry, his wife, can't cope. Whenever Grant thinks of something, it
becomes reality, yet he doesn't know where these magical powers come from. Once again Bill Plympton single-handedly drew
and financed this project - only this time it's for adults and very politically
incorrect.
Bill's
next animated feature, Mutant Aliens, the story of a stranded astronaut
returning to Earth after 20 years in space, was completed in January 2001 and
premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It won Grand Prix in Annecy 2001 and
was released in theatres in 2002. This was followed by Hair High, a gothic '50s
high-school comedy about a love-triangle that goes terribly wrong.
Bill’s
short film Guard Dog was been a hit at film festivals and it brought Bill his
second Oscar nomination in January 2005. He has recently completed a sequel
called Hot Dog.
His
newest film is Idiots and Angels.
Plympton
describes the background to the film..”The first recollection I have of the
concept was an event in 2005, when I was walking with a student at the Lille
Short Film Festival in France, and he asked me what my next feature would be
about. I declared, off-handedly, that it would be about an angel who didn’t
want his wings, and as we discussed the idea, I really got to like the concept.
That night, in my hotel room, I started to explore the dramatic possibilities
of a reluctant angel.
At
that point, I had just finished production on “Hair High”, and although I
thought it was a great film and would make me rich, it was a very difficult
production - so, I decided that “Idiots and Angels” would be the exact opposite
of “Hair High”.
While
“Hair High” was bright and colorful and fully animated, “Idiots” would be
monochromatic and more limited in its animation. While “Hair High” had big-name
actors providing voices, “Idiots” would only have music and sound effects, no
dialogue at all. Because of that, I wanted music to play throughout - almost
like a long opera - or an extended string of music videos. My recent short film
“Shuteye Hotel” was a short rehearsal, an experiment done in the new style of
“Idiots and Angels”, a dark and surreal Eastern European look.”
“Idiots
and Angels” is a uniquely dark and reflective animated film. Angel is a
selfish, abusive, morally bankrupt man who hangs out at his local bar, berating
the other patrons. One day, Angel
mysteriously wakes up with a pair of wings on his back. The wings make him do good deeds, contrary to
his nature. He desperately tries to rid himself of the good wings, doing
everything from bolting them down to attacking them with a chainsaw but they
still work their magic. But the world is a dark place and others believe his
wings are a ticket to fame and fortune and soon he must face off against them.
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.2
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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