Bill Plympton is freekin GOD!
Added 10/3/2009
Oh god where do I start,it only took the first 5 min. of this flick to hook me in I absolutley love this movie,in the past 3 weeks I've watched it at leats 10 times or so,I loved it and so will you!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Tell EVERYONE, just do it quiet.
Added 10/23/2006
Disney, Pixar, Miyazaki, and most other popular animation houses have nothing on this. Sometimes as few as four frames a second. Often you see all the crayon marks. Often he'll skip into another style of animation all together. Plympton is the David Lynch of animation. Gory, sexy, twisted, surreal.
Plympton is a true auteur. He designs everything himself, collaborating with as few people as possible. He has a small team of colourists, with all the animation either done or overseen closely himself. The result is always surprising, eclectic and surreal. Creating something lacking from ALL the visual art's these days which is a sense of its own logic. `Where Tears Come From' is a perfect example. We all know it's not true, but which is more fun to believe? Does your average man on the street ever REALLY need to know what causes a tear? So why is it important for Bill to let us in on the facts when the version here is so much more fun.
I was first introduced to Plympton via the adapted version of one of his shorts or Plymptoons as they are dubbed. Used to advertise Nik-Nak's- a British snack. I loved it but thought it was a one off. Then one night I was trying to sleep with the TV on, and The Tune was being screened as part of Animation week on Channel 4, it woke me up, and I stayed up to watch it. Surprised to find that the original version of the Nik-Nak advert was part of The Tune, as well as a short in it's own right.
A lot of criticism towards Plympton is aimed at the fact that his storylines are thin and pointless and badly executed, but this is in itself a pointless criticism as something important has been missed. This ain't Hollywood. Linear narrative can sit perfectly well as second to invention and imagination. His style can often put people off, due to it's often jerky delivery, and rough style. But this is once again part of the charm. After all it's animation, and that makes no apologies, unlike Miyazaki and Disney who try to give you the impression your watching a version of reality with all the cutesiness turned up to eleven. Big eyes, big sighs, and big heart. Plympton's heroes are often confused, emotionally impotent characters, full of insecurity and self doubt and more relatable to for it. Always coming through at the end giving us something more important than coherent stories, a full interior journey for the characters. The end of I Married A Strange Person is all about heart and the power of love and the doubt about yourself and your relationship that is as intrinsic to marriage itself as is the courtship which preceded it.
A rough outline of the story is about a young couple, just married, when due to a freak mishap Grant develops a lobe on his neck which allows all his fantasies to come true. When a shady business man finds out he wants it for himself, putting Grant on the run, with nowhere to turn.
The thing that I love the most about Plympton's work here, and in everything I've seen. Is it has more invention and imagination that all the Star Wars trilogy and LOTR, Costing less to produce his whole film than Gollum's animation for 20 seconds, or one swipe of a rota-scoped light sabre.
Word to the folks though, this film is not for kiddiewinks, small ones anyway. Teenagers will find it funny, but it's too sexually twisted for the little ones, if I'd thought at ten years old that a girls nipple could have my eye out, I wouldn't have turned out to be the well balanced serial killer I aspire to be now.
I can see me becoming a compleatist of Bill's and would urge you to do the same and start by buying this, since it's finally available on DVD. And I'm sure that it will soon be deleted cos not enough people have heard of him and true art like this deserves to be seen and encouraged.
Buy it, even as a curiosity. I promise you wont be disappointed. And I cant wait to see what he comes up with next- the twisted freak of a man. It'd be nice to know who out there is on the same tenterhooks as me.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Ambitious yet clever
Added 6/2/2004
Before MTV took a 180 and became reality show heavy, I had gotten a chance to watch Bill Plympton's shorts. His stylized portrayals of scenes and unique look (which the book "Masters of Animation" explained as him drawing on paper and then some one transferring it onto cell) made his work stand out on its own. So when it seemed like he had actually made a full length movie, hey I decided to give it a shot.What I saw was an ambitious yet clever attempt at exploring storytelling through animation. The plot involves an everyman gets an odd lobe in his neck that increases the imagination section of his brain, causing any thing he thinks of to come true. What better way to bring about the surreal images that follow? Many of the scenes reminded me of Ralph Bakshi's early work, especially perhaps "Streetfight (also known as "Coonskin") - except, of course, those were based on drug highs, while Bill Plympton's work is based on the limits of the imagination - to which there are none. If you want to have grass ride a lawnmower over a human, go ahead! If you want to play with women's breasts like they're balloons, fine! The only downfall to me was the narrative often tended to drag - so much that I was almost tempted to give this three stars. There are enough highlights through out the film to keep one interested, although one or two times I wondered how long such a story structure could last. However, like I said before, there were enough visuals to keep me interested the whole way out. I also was interested in some of the underlying meanings behind the story - like for example, did any one ever consider the scenario of a company trying to control imagination? In such a time when situations like at Disney where producers are taking over the jobs for which artists were responsible, I find that to be a strong statement. BTW...I have the stupid Smile Corporation anthem stuck in my head. Oh well..."We are the Smile Corps Corporation! / We bring smiles a-cross the nation!..."
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Insanity and sex and violence
Added 4/11/2004
basically this entire movie can be summed up into two words: acid trip. the film certainly seems this way as it showcases some crazy animation (a man getting chased on a lawnmower by a blade of grass, who later turns into an orange caterpillar). i reccomend you smoke or drop something before seeing this movie as it makes it funnier and more interesting, but insane either way.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Creative, inventive and side-splittingly funny
Added 4/9/2004
`I Married a Strange Person' is (I think) Bill Plympton's second full-length animated film (is that right? I'm not sure), and does not disappoint for a minute. Like `The Tune', `I Married a Strange Person' is a completely original animation film, done in Plympton's completely unique style, and is extremely visually inventive and creative. It's also incredibly funny, and creates some wonderful, hilarious characters. Even for Plympton, it's unusually twisted and bizarre, full of sex and violence at their most hilarious. Also some brilliant musical segments with songs by Plympton's old collaborator Maureen McElheron (`I'm happy, you're happy, everybody's happy...')So, for Plympton fans, and any fan of adult animation or underground cinema, this film is highly recommended. Still, to be fair, a few words of caution: `I Married a Strange Person' is extremely hard-core, with very explicit (though hilarious) scenes of sex and violence. There is, in fact, one (funny and inventive) sex scene that lasts over five minutes. The plot, also, makes very little sense, and the movie often seems to be weirdness and sickness for weirdness' and sickness' sake. If that doesn't bother you, buy it, by all means. If you have a sense of humor and are not easily offended, `I Married a Strange Person' will be a pleasure. If you're a Plympton fan, don't even think twice - this is one of his best works. If you're not familiar with his work, by all means familiarize yourself.
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Bill Plympton is freekin GOD!
Added 10/3/2009
Oh god where do I start,it only took the first 5 min. of this flick to hook me in I absolutley love this movie,in the past 3 weeks I've watched it at leats 10 times or so,I loved it and so will you!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Tell EVERYONE, just do it quiet.
Added 10/23/2006
Disney, Pixar, Miyazaki, and most other popular animation houses have nothing on this. Sometimes as few as four frames a second. Often you see all the crayon marks. Often he'll skip into another style of animation all together. Plympton is the David Lynch of animation. Gory, sexy, twisted, surreal.
Plympton is a true auteur. He designs everything himself, collaborating with as few people as possible. He has a small team of colourists, with all the animation either done or overseen closely himself. The result is always surprising, eclectic and surreal. Creating something lacking from ALL the visual art's these days which is a sense of its own logic. `Where Tears Come From' is a perfect example. We all know it's not true, but which is more fun to believe? Does your average man on the street ever REALLY need to know what causes a tear? So why is it important for Bill to let us in on the facts when the version here is so much more fun.
I was first introduced to Plympton via the adapted version of one of his shorts or Plymptoons as they are dubbed. Used to advertise Nik-Nak's- a British snack. I loved it but thought it was a one off. Then one night I was trying to sleep with the TV on, and The Tune was being screened as part of Animation week on Channel 4, it woke me up, and I stayed up to watch it. Surprised to find that the original version of the Nik-Nak advert was part of The Tune, as well as a short in it's own right.
A lot of criticism towards Plympton is aimed at the fact that his storylines are thin and pointless and badly executed, but this is in itself a pointless criticism as something important has been missed. This ain't Hollywood. Linear narrative can sit perfectly well as second to invention and imagination. His style can often put people off, due to it's often jerky delivery, and rough style. But this is once again part of the charm. After all it's animation, and that makes no apologies, unlike Miyazaki and Disney who try to give you the impression your watching a version of reality with all the cutesiness turned up to eleven. Big eyes, big sighs, and big heart. Plympton's heroes are often confused, emotionally impotent characters, full of insecurity and self doubt and more relatable to for it. Always coming through at the end giving us something more important than coherent stories, a full interior journey for the characters. The end of I Married A Strange Person is all about heart and the power of love and the doubt about yourself and your relationship that is as intrinsic to marriage itself as is the courtship which preceded it.
A rough outline of the story is about a young couple, just married, when due to a freak mishap Grant develops a lobe on his neck which allows all his fantasies to come true. When a shady business man finds out he wants it for himself, putting Grant on the run, with nowhere to turn.
The thing that I love the most about Plympton's work here, and in everything I've seen. Is it has more invention and imagination that all the Star Wars trilogy and LOTR, Costing less to produce his whole film than Gollum's animation for 20 seconds, or one swipe of a rota-scoped light sabre.
Word to the folks though, this film is not for kiddiewinks, small ones anyway. Teenagers will find it funny, but it's too sexually twisted for the little ones, if I'd thought at ten years old that a girls nipple could have my eye out, I wouldn't have turned out to be the well balanced serial killer I aspire to be now.
I can see me becoming a compleatist of Bill's and would urge you to do the same and start by buying this, since it's finally available on DVD. And I'm sure that it will soon be deleted cos not enough people have heard of him and true art like this deserves to be seen and encouraged.
Buy it, even as a curiosity. I promise you wont be disappointed. And I cant wait to see what he comes up with next- the twisted freak of a man. It'd be nice to know who out there is on the same tenterhooks as me.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Ambitious yet clever
Added 6/2/2004
Before MTV took a 180 and became reality show heavy, I had gotten a chance to watch Bill Plympton's shorts. His stylized portrayals of scenes and unique look (which the book "Masters of Animation" explained as him drawing on paper and then some one transferring it onto cell) made his work stand out on its own. So when it seemed like he had actually made a full length movie, hey I decided to give it a shot.What I saw was an ambitious yet clever attempt at exploring storytelling through animation. The plot involves an everyman gets an odd lobe in his neck that increases the imagination section of his brain, causing any thing he thinks of to come true. What better way to bring about the surreal images that follow? Many of the scenes reminded me of Ralph Bakshi's early work, especially perhaps "Streetfight (also known as "Coonskin") - except, of course, those were based on drug highs, while Bill Plympton's work is based on the limits of the imagination - to which there are none. If you want to have grass ride a lawnmower over a human, go ahead! If you want to play with women's breasts like they're balloons, fine! The only downfall to me was the narrative often tended to drag - so much that I was almost tempted to give this three stars. There are enough highlights through out the film to keep one interested, although one or two times I wondered how long such a story structure could last. However, like I said before, there were enough visuals to keep me interested the whole way out. I also was interested in some of the underlying meanings behind the story - like for example, did any one ever consider the scenario of a company trying to control imagination? In such a time when situations like at Disney where producers are taking over the jobs for which artists were responsible, I find that to be a strong statement. BTW...I have the stupid Smile Corporation anthem stuck in my head. Oh well..."We are the Smile Corps Corporation! / We bring smiles a-cross the nation!..."
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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