Bill Plympton
Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Awards-nominated animated short "Your Face" and his series of shorts featuring a dog character starting with 2004's "Guard Dog". Early life. Plympton was born in Portland, Oregon, the son of Wilda Jean (Jerman) and Donald F. Plympton, and was raised on a farm in nearby Oregon City with five siblings: Sally, Tia, Peggy, David and Peter. 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 in New York City, where he majored in cartooning. He graduated from SVA in 1969. 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. In 1988, his animated short "Your Face" was nominated  for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. He also became known for other animated short films, including "25 Ways to Quit Smoking" (1989) and "Enemies" (1991), the latter of which was part of the "Animania" series on MTV, where many of his other shorts were shown. In 1991, Plympton won the Prix Spécial du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival for "Push Comes to Shove" which was featured on MTV's animated series "Liquid Television". In 1992, his self-financed, first feature-length animated film, "The Tune" debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. His work also appeared on  the 1992–1993 Fox comedy series "The Edge". In 1993, he made his first live action film, "J. Lyle". In 1995, he contributed animation and graphics to a computer game collection, "Take Your Best Shot". He also published a comic book in 2003, "The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton". The actress Martha Plimpton, a distant relative of his, 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. Later works. "Guard Dog" (2004) was also nominated for the Academy  Award for Best Animated Short Film. In 2005, Plympton animated a music video for Kanye West's "Heard 'Em Say" and the following year, he created the music video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Don't Download This Song". Plympton contributed animation to the 2006 History Channel series "10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America", to illustrate the events of Shays' Rebellion. Together with other independent New York City animators, he has released two DVDs of animated shorts, both titled "Avoid Eye Contact". Plympton's 2008 80-minute feature, "Idiots and Angels" presented by Terry Gilliam, had no dialogue. The film  premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on 26 April 2008, In 2011, Alexia Anastasio completed a documentary on Plympton's life, "Adventures in Plymptoons!", released in September 2012 direct-to-DVD and on video-on-demand. 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. 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, "Lisa the Veterinarian" in  2016, "22 for 30" in 2017, "3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage" in 2018, and "Manger Things" in 2021; as well as the menus and packaging for the Season 19 DVD. Plympton directed the segment "On Eating and Drinking" in the 2014 animated film "The Prophet", adapted from Kahlil Gibran's book "The Prophet." In 2018, Plympton created a series of videos for "The New York Times" called “Trump Bites”. One of the series, "Trump and Putin: A Love Story", depicts Trump and Putin kissing half-naked. Critics said the video implied that gay relationships were inherently comical  and immoral. In 2020, Plympton released a Kickstarter for his new animated comedy western, "Slide". The funding was successful and Plympton plans on finishing the film by 2022. Legacy. A collection of more than 180 Plympton items is held at the Academy Film Archive. The archive has preserved Plympton's films such as "Your Face", "The Tune", "Guard Dog", and "The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger". His films have featured in the Animation Show of Shows including "Your Face", "Guard Dog", "Eat" (2001), "The Fan and the Flower" (2005), and "Santa: The Fascist Years" (2009). Personal life. On  December 23, 2011, Plympton married animator/artist/illustrator Sandrine Flament at his sister's house in Oregon. Their son, Lucas, was born in September 2012. Influences. Plympton has stated he has many influences, the biggest being the work of the Walt Disney studio with others including Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Robert Crumb, Milton Glaser, Charles Addams, Roland Topor, Quentin Tarantino, Frank Capra, Richard Lester, Bob Godfrey, Saul Steinberg, Tomi Ungerer, Jacques Tati, Milt Kahl, Carlos Nine, and Jules Feiffer. He said "I Married a Strange Person!" "was influenced by Peter Jackson, some of his earlier films ... where he used gore  and violence and blood as humor." Filmography. Animated shorts. Source unless otherwise noted: