Bill Plympton

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Bill Plympton
Bill Plympton

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

Contents

[edit] Biography

Bill Plympton was born in Portland, Oregon to Don and Wilda Plympton. From 1964 to 1967, 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, New York.

Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been published in The New York Times and weekly arts 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, 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 entirely by himself. Signe Baumane, also a director and animator, has been inking and painting Plympton's cells for many years. As of 2006, Plympton has 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 comic book of his feature before he releases the feature to raise money for the film. Plympton has teamed up with other independent New York City animators from and has released two DVDs of animated shorts. Avoid Eye Contact Volumes 1 & 2. His work also appeared on the 1992-1993 FOX Network comedy series The Edge.

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 "Don't Download This Song".

The actress Martha Plimpton, "a distant relative of mine"[1] 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.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Animated features

Bill Plympton and a guest at the 34th Annual Annie Awards, in Glendale, California.
Bill Plympton and a guest at the 34th Annual Annie Awards, in Glendale, California.

[edit] Live-action features

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

[edit] 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 (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)
  • 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 Tales of Christmas (2001)
  • Guard Dog (2004)
  • The Fan & The Flower (2005)
  • Guide Dog (sequel to Guard Dog, 2006)

[edit] 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)

[edit] Music videos

[edit] Commercials

[citation needed]

[edit] Trivia

After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in 1968 he began his career selling ties on the street. Plympton later joked, "I couldn't sell one tie. It was ten degrees Fahrenheit in the dead of winter".[citation needed]

Plympton made three attempts to break into animation before succeeding. "The Great Turn On" (1968) was a failed yearbook promo. "Lucas Ear of Corn" was a crude paper-cutout film that was unfinished. In 1985, he completed his first animated short, "Boom Town".

In 1991, during pre-production of the animated feature Aladdin, Disney asked Plympton to become lead animator of the film and sign a seven-year contract with the company.[citation needed] Plympton rejected the offer because, if he came up with any animated characters, Disney would have creative control and ownership. However, production on Plympton's own feature The Tune was almost cancelled while Plympton considered Disney's offer.[citation needed]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ efilmcritic.com (Feb. 28, 2005): Interview with Bill Plympton

[edit] References


Animated works by Bill Plympton
Feature films: The Tune (1992) • Mondo Plympton (1997) • I Married a Strange Person! (1997) • Mutant Aliens (2001) • Hair High (2004) • Idiots and Angels (2007?)

Music videos: 245 Days (1990) • Heard 'Em Say (2005) • Don't Download This Song (2006)

Short films: Plymptoons (1968-2006)
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