| Bibliografía |
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THE TUNE la primera película larga de Bill Plympton. Sus cortometrajes han sido
vistos alrededor de todo el mundo, participando en multiples festivales de
animción. was animator Bill Plympton's first full-length feature. His short
films have been seen
widely
around the
country,
highlighting
many
animation
festivals.
His oblique, off-center sense of the ridiculous in everyday life has made
the "Microtoons" and his other shorts a popular MTV offering. His
distinctive style has even invaded the world of advertising. Commercials
for both Trivial Pursuit and Sugar Delight make us chuckle and gasp. But
it's been a lot of hard work. When Plympton first moved to New York City,
a recent college graduate with a B.A. in Graphic Design, he tried selling
belts on the street. "It was January, about 25 degrees outside. I couldn’t
sell a one!"
Born in Portland, Oregon on April 30, 1946 to Don (now a retired banker) and
Wilda Plympton, he grew up in a large family of three girls and three boys. For
the six children it was often far too wet to play outside. Plympton credits Oregon's
rainy climate for nurturing his drawing skills and imagination. He also was a
cub scout and played little league when the weather permitted. In 1964 he graduated
from Oregon City High School where he participated in J.V. basketball, swimming
and the art club. He went on to Portland State University, where he edited the
yearbook and was a member of the film society. It was for this film society that
he first attempted animation, making a yearbook promo that was accidentally shot
upside-down, rendering it totally useless.
To avoid the Vietnam War, Plympton served in the National Guard from 1967 to
1972. In 1968, he moved to New York City and began a year of study at the School
of Visual Arts. Making the Big Apple his home, Plympton served a long tenure
as an illustrator and cartoonist. Between toting his portfolio and catching cheap
matinees, 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, in The Soho Weekly News, he began "Plympton," a
political cartoon strip. By 1981, it was syndicated in over twenty papers by
Universal Press.
All his life Bill Plympton has been fascinated by animation. When he was fourteen
he sent Disney some of his cartoons and offered up his services as animator.
They wrote back and told him that while his drawings showed promise, he was too
young. It wasn't until 1983 that he was approached to animate a film. The Android
Sister 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 "sort of held my hand through the whole process," Plympton
says. "It was a great way to learn to make a film."
Immediately 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. For this one, he contacted an old friend with whom he had performed in
a Country Western Band (he played pedal steel guitar). Maureen McElheron, whose
band it had been, agreed to score "Your Face." Due to budgetary considerations,
she also sang. Her voice, eerily decelerated to sound more masculine combined
with a fantastically contorting visage helped garner the film a 1988 Oscar nomination
for best animation.
"Suddenly people began returning my phone calls," remembers Plympton.
His work started appearing with more and more frequency on MTV and showing in
the increasingly popular touring animation festivals. After a string of highly
successful short films ("One of Those Days," "How to Kiss," "25
Ways to Quit Smoking," and "Plymptoons"), he began thinking about
making a feature film. His shorts were winning prizes like crazy and he wanted
a new challenge. And, as he puts it, "I wanted to make a full-length movie
ever since I was a kid."
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Bill Plympton
What
came to be called THE TUNE, was financed entirely by the
animator himself. Sections of the feature were released as
short films to help generate funds for production. These
include "The Wiseman" and "Push Comes to Shove," the
latter of which won the 1991 Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film
Festival. At the same time two different ad agencies offered
Plympton what then seemed a "mind-boggling
and obscene" amount of money to make a few commercials in the by-then distinctive
Bill Plympton style. With this money in pocket, he was then able to complete
THE TUNE and realize a childhood dream. The completed TUNE also 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. "Making
THE TUNE, I had a lot of ideas I realized wouldn’t work with animation,
but would be lots of fun with real people! I took those ideas and made J. LYLE.
Besides, my hand needed a rest after drawing THE TUNE." After a successful
festival circuit, J. LYLE was released in theaters around the country. Like THE
TUNE, J. LYLE was financed entirely by the animator himself.
Plympton’s second live-action feature, GUNS ON THE CLACKAMAS, a behind-the-scenes
look at an imaginary disastrous Western, was shot in Oregon and New York. Plympton
says the idea came from the 1937 movie "Saratoga", in which star Jean
Harlow died during the filming and a stand-in was used to finish. "It was
supposed to be a drama," says Plympton, "but it ended up being funny.
Every time Harlow was in a scene, a box or something blocked the view."
In 1998, Bill completed another animated feature, titled "I MARRIED A STRANGE
PERSON". It's a heartwarming story 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
has single-handedly drawn and financed an animated feature extravaganza - only
this time it's for adults and the unpolitically correct.
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.
Bill is working on his next feature film, "HAIR HIGH", a gothic '50s
high-school comedy about a love-triangle that goes terribly bad, with two young,
murdered teens returning to their prom to get revenge. Plympton is still charting
new territory in animation, this time by broadcasting all of his drawing for
the film live on the web at www.hairhigh.com. The new film will be completed
in late 2003. |
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