Bill Plympton

Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator best known for his 1987 Academy Award-nominated animated short "Your Face."

Biography

Bill Plympton was born in Portland, Oregon, to Don and Wilda Plympton. From 1964 to 1968, he attended Portland State University, where he was a member of the film society and worked on the yearbook. In 1968, he transferred to the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been published in "The New York Times" and weekly newspaper "The Village Voice", as well as in the magazines "Vogue", "Rolling Stone", "Vanity Fair", "Penthouse", and "National Lampoon". His political cartoon strip "Plympton", which began in 1975 in the "Soho Weekly News", eventually was syndicated and appeared in over 20 newspapers. His distinctive style is easily recognized.

Plympton is considered the first animator to draw every frame for an animated feature film by himself. Signe Baumane, also a director and animator, has been inking and painting Plympton's cels for many years. As of 2006, Plympton created 26 animated short films and five animated features. He has also published a comic book, "The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton". Plympton usually publishes a graphic novel version during the production of each feature in order to raise money for the film itself. Plympton has teamed up with other independent New York City animators from and has released two DVDs of animated shorts, both titled "Avoid Eye Contact". His work also appeared on the 1992-1993 FOX Network comedy series "The Edge", and on MTV during the late 1980s.

From 2001 to 2003, he teamed with Don Hertzfeldt for the touring "The Don and Bill Show," which was played throughout the United States.

In 2005, Plympton's "Guard Dog" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Also that year, Plympton animated a music video for Kanye West's "Heard 'Em Say." In 2006, Plympton created the music video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Don't Download This Song".

The actress Martha Plimpton, "a distant relative," of his, [efilmcritic.com (Feb. 28, 2005): Interview with Bill Plympton] served as associate producer on Plympton's animated feature "Hair High" (2004), doing much of the casting. The movie's voice cast included her father Keith Carradine and her uncle David Carradine.

Plympton claimed in early 2007 to be working on an 80-minute feature, "Idiots and Angels", that would have no dialog. [ [http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3240&page=3 "Animation World News" (April 10, 2007): Interview with Plympton] ] "Idiots and Angels" will have its world première at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, 26 April 2008; it is also nominated in feature film category of the official selection at Annecy 2008.

In an interview conducted during the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, Plympton defended the avant-garde (no dialogue, noirish animation style) and mature elements (nudity, violence) of "Idiots and Angels" claiming that he's just one many filmmaking voices trying to break the stereotype that the animation medium is strictly for kids. He also explains that he hand draws every frame of film personally - the first animator to ever do so for a feature-length film - and describes how the expenses for his feature-length ventures are funded by the successes of his short films. Such successes allow him to retain complete independence and have full control over what he includes in his films. [http://www.zoom-in.com/podcasts/on_the_circuit_idiots_and_angels]

Filmography

Animated features

* "The Tune" (1992)
* "Mondo Plympton" (1997 shorts compilation)
* "I Married a Strange Person!" (1997)
* "Mutant Aliens" (2001)
* "Hair High" (2004)
* "Idiots and Angels" (2008) [http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/filmguide/Idiots_and_Angels.html]

Live-action features

* "J. Lyle" (1993)
* "Guns on the Clackamas "(1995)
* "Walt Curtis, the Peckerneck Poet" (1997)

Animated shorts

* "The Great Turn On (1968)
* "Lucas the Ear of Corn" (1977)
* "Boomtown" (1985)
* "Drawing Lesson #2" (1985)
* "Love in the Fast Lane" (1985)
* "Your Face (film)" (1987)
* "One of Those Days" (1988)
* "How to Kiss" (1989)
* "25 Ways to Quit Smoking" (1989)
* "Plymptoons" (1990)
* "Tango Schmango" (1990)
* "Dig My Do" (1990)
* "The Wise Man" (1990)
* "Draw" (1990)
* "Push Comes to Shove" (1991)
* "Nosehair" (1994)
* "Faded roads" (1994)
* "How to Make Love to a Woman" (1995)
* "Smell the Flowers" (1996)
* "Boney D" (1996)
* "Plympmania" (1996)
* "Sex & Violence" (1997)
* "The Exciting Life of a Tree" (1998)
* "More Sex & Violence" (1998)
* "Surprise Cinema" (1999)
* "Can't Drag Race with Jesus" (2000)
* "Eat" (2001)
* "Parking" (2001)
* "Twelve Tiny Christmas Tales" (2001)
* "Guard Dog" (2004)
* "The Fan & The Flower" (2005)
* "Guide Dog" (sequel to "Guard Dog", 2006)
* "Shuteye Hotel" (2007)

Compilations (DVD)

* Avoid Eye Contact Vol. 1
* Avoid Eye Contact Vol. 2
* Bill Plympton's Dirty Shorts
* Plymptoons: The Complete Early Works of Bill Plympton (2006)
* "Mondo Plympton" (2007)

Music videos

* Peter Himmelman – "245 Days" (1990)
* Kanye West – "Heard 'Em Say" (2005)
* "Weird Al" Yankovic – "Don't Download This Song" (2006)

Commercials

*MTV public service announcement "Acid Rain" (1989)
*"Trivial Pursuit" (1990-91)
*Sugar Delight (1990)
*Taco Bell
*Windows 95
*Nik Naks (UK) (1995)

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.plymptoons.com Official Web Site]
* [http://tsoya.blogspot.com/2006/06/podcast-indies.html "The Sound of Young America" public radio program / podcast: Plympton interview]
* [http://www.zoom-in.com/podcasts/on_the_circuit_idiots_and_angels Zoom In Online / podcast: "On the Circuit: Idiots and Angels"]