The End of the Year

Well, it's almost time to change the calendar, so it's a good time to look back at 2016, which was a very momentous year for me.

First, I released my mockumentary called "Hitler's Folly", and as expected, I got a lot of opposition.  But also the film got a lot of fans, and in fact, it screened in both Tel Aviv, Israel and Krakow, Poland to full houses and laughing audience.  And if people in those cities can laugh about Hitler, it makes me wonder if people in other places can learn to do so, too.

If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch "Hitler's Folly" for FREE at my web-site here:
http://www.plymptoons.com/

Then we finished and released "Revengeance", a film written, designed and (mostly) voiced by the genius Jim Lujan.  It's become very popular on the European festival circuit, and has been released theatrically in France, now we just have to arrange a festival premiere in the U.S.  We're already getting requests from some cinemas, but we'd like to make an impact at some festivals first.

Also, my studio made a music video for the great musician, Maureen McElheron, famous for composing and singing in "Your Face", "The Tune" and "I Married a Strange Person".  It's called "No Snow for Christmas", a wonderful song that comments on global warming.  (Sorry, I think the correct term is "climate change" now, same thing though...)

And we're now putting the finishing touches on my latest, and I think best, sequel to "Guard Dog", which is called "Cop Dog".  This will be released in early 2017.

Also, I had some time to create a safety commercial for Ford Motors, preaching about the dangers of distracted driving.  It's called "The Importance of Paying Attention: Teeth" and it shows an extreme example of someone picking their teeth while driving - and now it's been nominated for an Annie Award!  Plus it's got over 2 1/2 million views on YouTube!

You can watch it for yourself here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL0I1P1VLMI

Finally, I'm now working on a new "couch gag" for "The Simpsons", called "The Artiste" - watch for it on some Sunday night next year!

On top of all that, Jim Lujan and I have begun pre-production on a new animated feature film, but I can't say too much about that yet.  You never know who's reading these things...but as you can see, it's been a wonderfully productive year for me - in fact, a banner year!

If all that isn't enough, I decided to re-open my celebrated Plympton School of Animation in January, and we still have a few slots left for the in-person lectures.  So if anyone out there has ambitions to learn animation from a two-time Oscar-nominated "King of Independent Animation", please sign up.   The first class will be on January 9, and the class is limited to just 15 students.

Happy New Year!  I hope to see you in my class or at a film festival in 2017!

--Bill Plympton