Bill Plympton came to town! I prepped by rewatching his Dog Days DVD, various shorts from other sources, and the feature Idiots & Angels.
Guard Dog (2004)
One of the first films he made without a film camera: colored pencil on paper, scanned into computer.
Guide Dog (2006)
Inspired by Charles Addams, a cartoonist who focused on death and violence. The DVD commentaries seem straightforward, but then he says he assumes he didn’t get complaints from blind people about Guide Dog because they didn’t see the film.
Hot Dog (2008)
Don’t know why I was harsh to some of these shorts in past posts, since the Plympton dog is one of my favorite animated characters. Think I overdosed on Plympton shorts a few years back and had to decompress.
Shut-Eye Hotel (2007)
Cops check in to Shut-Eye Hotel to figure out why clients who stay on the top floor wake up without heads. The culprit: a pillow with teeth. Bill says this was his first use of computer animation, but it didn’t work out financially, and he was testing out a color scheme he’d use in Idiots & Angels.
Spiral (2005)
“You think it’s easy bein’ abstract?” A circle, square and triangle are performing a repetitive abstract dance until the audience starts shooting at them. Inspired by an exasperating (and state-funded) screening of a Paul Glabicki short twenty years prior.
Santa, The Fascist Years (2008)
“They called it blitzenkrieg.” Narrated, animated newsreel of when Santa turned to weapon manufacture, invading neighboring countries to obtain raw materials. Nice Great Dictator reference.
The Fan and the Flower (2005)
Great love story from sitcom writer Dan O’Shannon.
How to Make Love to a Woman (1995)
First, finding the right woman. Then body parts, kissing, hugging, etc, all calmly explained by a narrator, always ending in grievous harm to the man onscreen.
Push Comes To Shove (1991)
Two guys hurt each other in ever more inventive ways.
Didn’t this used to run on MTV?
One of my favorites.
The Exciting Life of a Tree (2000)
Tree’s-eye-view of dangerous forest life.
Luv Race (2008)
Live event combining a dating game with a track race. Where’d this come from? Apparently a commissioned film, no credits. Chrome tried to translate the page at gauguins.com, came up with “Bill Plympton (Bill Plympton). This is the American NY resident, but is not Bill Clinton, you can find those.”
Also watched a couple musical segments from The Tune (1992) including No Nose Blues (“Talk is cheap, oh but so are you”) and Flooby Nooby (all puns, with a huckster singer who hilariously can’t handle the song’s whistling chorus) … a 2001 TV special for Cartoon Network called 12 Tiny Christmas Tales … and a great Weird Al video.
Don’t Download This Song:
