AFI's blog

By Marc Lee
AFI FEST Daily News Editor

Everybody who attended Saturday’s Bill Plympton TALK/SHOW received a free, signed drawing from the cartoonist. And everybody who didn’t go missed out on way more than that.

Plympton’s IDIOTS AND ANGELS screened at AFI FEST, but the audience got an extra screening of many of his short films—his latest, HOT DOG; the sad and romantic THE FAN AND THE FLOWER; a music video for the Norwegian band Parson Brown, MEXICAN STANDOFF— and an sneak screening of SANTA’S FACIST YEARS.

His talk was as educational as it was entertaining. He talked about how, as a kid, he would draw on used butcher paper and incorporate the blood stains into the cartoons. Later he became a political cartoonist. “The entire time I did that, I never once heard anybody laugh at my work.” So he tried short films.

“One day, I saw a man who had a weird nose, and I thought, what would it be like if it just sucked in his entire face?” The film became YOUR FACE and he continued with shorts like LOVE IN THE FAST LANE and 25 WAYS TO QUIT SMOKING.

“My mother was a smoker, and she actually quit after she saw that one,” he cracked.

He recalled origin of one of his favorite characters, the dog who’s been the subject of GUARD DOG, GUIDE DOG and the upcoming HORNDOG.

“I saw a dog barking at a little birdie, and I thought, why is that dog afraid of a little birdie? I went into the dog’s head and found the dog thought the bird was going to kill his master and he would lose his meal ticket.”

Throughout the discussion he offered tips on how to make short films quickly and cheaply. He calls it the Plympton Dogma.

He went through a primer on his style of animation, drawing the dog three times on one sheet of paper to illustrate how it bounced along the sidewalk.

“Here’s the dog in the air; here’s the dog as it hits the ground—its face is scrunched— and here it is in the air again. At Disney there would be 200 dogs on the page. But I do it in three and viewers minds can follow it.”

He gave advice on the best places to sell shorts and the best festivals to submit to. Basically, it was an hourlong class on how to support yourself on independent  filmmaking presented by a really tall guy in a T-shirt and shorts

Throughout the hour and a half, he drew his characters, from the very first drawing that got him sent to the principal’s office in grade school (Marylin Monroe) to his latest, “Angel,” the foul, opportunistic main character in IDIOTS AND ANGELS.

Maybe the funniest story of the night came when he recalled how he approached Paul Giamatti to do the voice for THE FAN AND THE FLOWER.

“I was nominated for an Oscar and I saw Paul Giamatti sitting at one of the parties. I thought, “He’d be perfect.” So I took a few drinks and got the nerve to go ask him.

“I introduced my self, ‘Hi, um, I was wondering if you’d like to do the voice in one of my, uh, films … My name is Bill Plympton.’”

Without a pause, Giamotti said, “Bill Plympton! Holy Shit! You’re great!”

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