Bill Plympton
Bill Plympton | |
---|---|
Plympton at the SVA Theatre in Manhattan in September 2013 | |
Born |
Portland, Oregon, U.S. | April 30, 1946
Nationality | American |
Education |
Portland State University School of Visual Arts |
Known for | Animation |
Notable work | Your Face, Idiots and Angels, Guard Dog, Cheatin', The Tune |
Signature | |
Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946)[1] is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Award-nominated animated short Your Face and his series of shorts Guard Dog, Guide Dog, Hot Dog and Horn Dog.
Early life
Plympton was born in Portland, Oregon, the son of Wilda Jean (Jerman) and Donald F. Plympton,[2][3] and was raised on a farm in nearby Oregon City, with five siblings.[1] From 1964 to 1968, he studied Graphic Design at 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[2] in New York City, where he majored in cartooning. He graduated from SVA in 1969.[4]
Career
Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been published in The New York Times and the 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.
As of 2012, Plympton had created over 40 animated short films and six animated features. He has also published a comic book, The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton.
Plympton, together with other independent New York City animators, has released two DVDs of animated shorts, both titled Avoid Eye Contact. His work also appeared on the 1992–1993 Fox comedy series The Edge; on MTV during the late 1980s; and on MTV's animated series Liquid Television in the early 1990s. In 1995, he contributed animation and graphics to a computer game collection, Take Your Best Shot.[5]
From 2001 to 2003, he teamed with Don Hertzfeldt for the touring "The Don and Bill Show", which played throughout the United States. In 2005, Plympton animated a music video for Kanye West's "Heard 'Em Say". The following year, he created the music video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Don't Download This Song".
The actress Martha Plimpton, a distant relative of his,[6] 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 contributed animation in the History Channel series, 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America, to illustrate the events of Shays' Rebellion.
His films The Fan and the Flower, Eat, Your Face, Guard Dog, and Santa: The Fascist Years were included in the Animation Show of Shows.
Plympton's 2008 80-minute feature, Idiots and Angels[7] presented by Terry Gilliam, had no dialogue.[8] The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on 26 April 2008,[9] and won a Special Distinction prize in the feature film category at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival 2008.
In 2011, Alexia Anastasio completed a documentary on Plympton's life, Adventures In Plymptoons!,[10] released in September 2012 direct-to-DVD and on video-on-demand.[11]
In 2011, Plympton collaborated with child film critic Perry Chen on Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest, a 2011 short animated film directed by Kevin Sean Michaels, about actress and Holocaust survivor Ingrid Pitt.[12]
Bill Plympton animated the opening couch gag for the Simpsons episodes "Beware My Cheating Bart" in 2012, "Black Eyed, Please" in 2013, "Married to the Blob" in 2014, and "22 for 30" in 2017.
Plympton directed the segment "On Eating and Drinking" in the 2014 animated film "The Prophet", adapted from Kahlil Gibran's book The Prophet.
A collection of more than 180 Plympton items is held at the Academy Film Archive.[13]
Personal life
On December 23, 2011, Plympton married animator/artist/illustrator Sandrine Flament at his sister's house in Oregon.[14][15] Their son, Lucas, was born in September 2012.[1]
Awards
- 1987 Academy Award nomination for Short Animation: "Your Face"
- 2001 Grand Prize for Short Films, Cannes Film Festival Critics' Week
- 2005 Academy Award nomination for Short Animation: "Guard Dog"
- 2005 Life Time Achievement (Time Machine Award) SITGES Film Festival
- 2006 Special Career Award - Fantasporto Film Festival
- 2006 Winsor McCay Award; Annie Awards by ASIFA-Hollywood
- 2008 MoCCA (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) - Cartoonist of the Year, MoCCA Art Festival
- 2010 Delray Beach Film Festival for "The Cow Who Wanted To Be a Hamburger"
- 2011 20th Annual Cinema St. Louis Film Festival (traditional name: St. Louis International Film Festival), Lifetime Achievement Award[16]
- 2011 Burbank International Film Festival, Pioneer in Theatrical Animation Award[17]
- 2011 Action On Film International Film Festival, Lifetime Achievement Award[18]
- 2013 ANIMAFicx Award, 51st Gijon International Film Festival: "Cheatin'"[19]
Filmography
Animated features
- The Tune (1992)
- I Married a Strange Person! (1997)
- Mutant Aliens (2001)
- Hair High (2004)
- Idiots and Angels (2008)
- Cheatin' (2014)
- Revengeance (2016)
Documentaries
- Fuck (2005; provided animated sequences)
- Adventures in Plymptoons! by Alexia Anastasio (2011)
Live-action features
- J. Lyle (1993)
- Guns on the Clackamas (1995)
- Walt Curtis, the Peckerneck Poet (1997)
- Hitler's Folly (a mockumentary) (2016)
Animated shorts
Source unless otherwise noted:[20] Title, Year, Running Time in Minutes and Seconds
- Lucas the Ear of Corn (1977; 4:00)
- Boomtown (1985; 6:00)
- Your Face (1987; 3:10)
- Love in the Fast Lane (1987; 3:00)
- Drawing Lesson #2 (1988; 6:00)
- One of Those Days (1988: 7:50)
- How to Kiss (1989; 6:35)
- 25 Ways to Quit Smoking (1989; 5:00)
- Plymptoons (1990; 6:45)
- Tango Schmango (1990)
- Dig My Do (1990; 4:00)
- The Wise Man (1990: 4:30)
- Push Comes to Shove (1991; 6:30)
- Draw (1993; 2:00)
- Faded Roads (1994; 2:30)
- Nosehair (1994; 7:00)
- How to Make Love to a Woman (1995; 5:00)
- Smell the Flowers (1996; 2:00)
- Boney D (1996; 3:00)
- Plympmania (1996; 8:00)
- Sex & Violence (1997; 8:00)
- The Exciting Life of a Tree (1998; 7:00)
- More Sex & Violence (1998; 7;00)
- Surprise Cinema (1999; 7:00)
- Life (1999, 6:10) (presenter, animator)
- Can't Drag Race with Jesus (2000; 2:00)
- Eat (2001; 9:00)
- Parking (2001; 5:22)
- 12 Tiny Christmas Tales (2001)[21]
- Guard Dog (2004; 5:00)
- The Fan and The Flower (2005; 7:10)
- Guide Dog (2006; 5:45) (sequel to Guard Dog)
- Shuteye Hotel (2007; 7:00)
- Gary Guitar (2007) (episode of Random! Cartoons)
- Hot Dog (2008) (third in the Guard Dog series)
- Santa: The Fascist Years (2009)
- Horn Dog (2009) (fourth in the Guard Dog series)
- The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger (2010)
- Summer Bummer (2011; 1:49)
- Waiting For Her Sailor (2011; 0:30)
- Tiffany the Whale: Death on the Runway (2012; 8:56)
- The Simpsons couch gags (s23e18 and s24e15)""
- Drunker Than a Skunk (2013; 3:30)
- "ABCs of Death 2" (segment-H is for Head Games)
- Footprints (2014; 4:01)
- The Loneliest Stoplight (2015; 6:18)
Compilations (DVD)
- Avoid Eye Contact Vol. 1
- Avoid Eye Contact Vol. 2
- Plymptoons: The Complete Early Works of Bill Plympton (1992)
- Bill Plympton's Dirty Shorts (2006)
- Mondo Plympton (2007)
- Bill Plympton's Dog Days (2009)
- Bill Plympton's Dogs & Cows (2013)
Music videos
- Peter Himmelman – "245 Days" (1990)
- Kanye West – "Heard 'Em Say" (2005)
- "Weird Al" Yankovic – "Don't Download This Song" (2006)
- Parson Brown, "Mexican Standoff" (2008)
- "Weird Al" Yankovic – "TMZ" (2011)
- Cousin Joe Twoshacks (Joe Cartoon) - "Deep End" (2014)
Commercials
- MTV public service announcement "Acid Rain" (1989)
- Trivial Pursuit (3) (1990–91)
- Nutrasweet (1991)
- Soloflex "Transformation" (1992)
- Oregon Lottery "Blackjack" (1992)
- NBC "Peacock Bumper" (1993)
- Taco Bell "Fuddy Duddy" (1993)
- Nik Naks (UK) (1993)
- Microsoft Windows '95 (1995)
- AirTouch Cellular (1996)
- AT&T "Longshot" (1996)
- AT&T Wireless "Map-O-Rama" (1997)
- 7-11/PBS "Head" & "Explore" (1998)
- The Money Store "End of the World" & "Rollercoaster" (1998)
- Geico Direct (6) (1999)
- Wilson Tennis (3) (2002)
- United Airlines "Signature" (2005)
References
- 1 2 3 Lovece, Frank (October 23, 2012). "God of Indie Animation Bill Plympton at Gold Coast Film Fest". Film Festival Traveler. Archived from the original on February 10, 2014. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
Born April 30, 1946, in a Portland, Ore., hospital, Plympton grew up in a family of six kids on a farm in nearby Oregon City. ... [Plympton's son] Lucas [was] born about three weeks before this interview was conducted on Oct. 13, 2012....
- 1 2 "Biography". Plymptoons (official site). Archived from the original on 2012-02-09. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
- ↑ http://obits.oregonlive.com/obituaries/oregon/obituary.aspx?pid=168811462
- ↑ Visual Arts Journal. Volume 19, Number 1. Spring 2011. School of Visual Arts. Page 13.
- ↑ MobyGames: Take Your Best Shot, September 17, 2000
- ↑ "Bill Plympton, Animator - Profile Interview Series Vol. #6". Efilmcritic.com. February 28, 2005. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
- ↑ Sex, Death and Pragmatism: Bill Plympton's DIY cartoon cottage industry by Vadim Rizov LA Weekly Thursday, Oct 28 2010
- ↑ Animation World News (April 10, 2007): Interview with Plympton
- ↑ Tribeca Film Festival Film Guide Archived May 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Variety Film Reviews - "Adventures in Plymptoons!" Nov. 1, 2011
- ↑ Zahed, Ramin (September 28, 2012). "A Good Time to Watch 'Adventures in Plymptoons!'". Animation Magazine.
- ↑ "Wise Beyond His Years". Animation Magazine. PerrysPreviews.com. February 2012.
- ↑ "Bill Plympton Collection". Academy Film Archive. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
- ↑ Beck, Jerry. "Congratulations Bill Plympton and Sandrine Flament". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
- ↑ Plympton, Bill (January 3, 2012). "What I did this Christmas". Scribble Junkies (Plympton official blog). Retrieved October 13, 2012.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 26, 2011. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 24, 2011. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
- ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 9, 2011. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
- ↑ "51st Gijon International Film Festival Awards". Retrieved November 23, 2016.
- ↑ "Animated Shorts". Plymptoons (official site). Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
- ↑ Godfrey, Leigh (December 10, 2001). "Bill Plympton's 12 Tiny Christmas Tales To Air On Cartoon Network". Animation World Network. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bill Plympton. |
- Official website
- Bill Plympton on IMDb
- October 28, 2010 – ActorsEntertainment.com interview (video): Cartoonist Bill Pympton. Host: Comedian Brett Walkow
- October 27, 2010, ep. 34 - ManVsArt.com interview (podcast) with Bill Plympton. Host: Raul Aguirre Jr.
- October 2, 2010 - Zedura Magazine vol.1 iss.4 interview: "Idiots and Angels and Beyond" with Bill Plympton By Molly K Enright
- VX Filmmaker, Aug. 7, 2010, "Exclusive Interview: Bill Plympton" with host Lee Stranahan
- February 2, 2009, Season 2, ep.5, pt.2 Time Stamp: 9:50 (video) - PetesBasement.com NYC Comic Con interview: Bill Plympton. Host: Roger of Pete's Basement
- Zoom In Online / podcast: "On the Circuit: Idiots and Angels"
- Wild West Whoopee Cushion
- Bill Plympton Interview on Notes on the Road