Oscar Month, UCB & Valentine's Day

February is Oscars month - and it's time now for me to vote for my favorite films of the year.  Most of the nominated films are wonderful - although for me, some of the "top" films aren't particularly exciting.  I guess it's kind of a bland year.  But I want to spotlight two films that I felt should have received more publicity, and perhaps even Best Picture nominations.

The first one, which I've written about before, is "Mortal Engines", a wonderful sci-fi super fantastic film from New Zealand, written and produced by the great Peter Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh.  This amazing film was directed by Christian Rivers.  The story takes place in a dystopian world where cities are movable warrior states - it's very cool and should have been a bigger hit, if you ask me.

My other favorite film was "Destroyer", starring Nicole Kidman.  This film totally blew me away. Again, it didn't get much press or distribution, perhaps because it was so dark and mean - but boy, the script was just terrific and the acting by Nicole was relevatory.  Credit also to the director, Karyn Kusama - it's about a loner cop who holds a grudge for years and becomes a rogue cop, waiting for her revenge.  It's unforgettable.

Two nights ago, I made an appearance at New York's Upright Citizen's Brigade on 44th St.  This gig was very fun and novel - they had me tell some stories from my life and then the crew of 8 improv comedians did an hour of gags and improv based on my pathetic stories.  But the cool thing was, I was able to create drawings on stage, illustrating the wacky stories.  The audience seemed to like it, and so did I.  So, if you get a chance, please check out the UCB in your neighborhood.

with the cast of ASSSSCAT at the Upright Citizens Brigade, which included Dan Fogler (Fantastic Beasts, Balls of Fury)

Now, since it's almost Valentine's Day, I'm including a Valentine-themed piece of art from Sandrine:

And since Valentine's Day falls on a Throwback Thursday, here's some art from my short film "Horn Dog", too:

Also, I'm including my newest Trump cartoon -

Wow, what a blog!  Tell your friends, and see you next week -

--Bill P.

Matthew Jaffe - "Wicked World"

I have exciting news - last month I created a music video for a wonderful new musician named Matt Jaffe, the name of the song is "Wicked World".

I'd never met Mr. Jaffe before, but when he contacted me, I checked out his live performances on-line and I was blown away by his incredible talent for songwriting and performing.  And, he's only a young kid!  He's gonna be the new Justin Bieber, I can feel it.  Look out, Justin!

So I was delighted to make his new music video.  Anyway, he just released the short online - so please check it out, I think you'll fall in love with the video, and the talented Matt Jaffe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWd_h6-sC1o

And I have another bit of exciting news.  You probably are aware that over the last few years, I've been creating and distributing a film I co-directed with the great artist and animator Jim Lujan, called "Revengeance".

My thanks to everyone who supported our successful Kickstarter campaign to get the film made. Well, now we've fulfilled almost all of the rewards and we're finally able to release the DVD to the world.  The movie itself had a limited but very successful theatrical release, it won a bunch of festival awards and got some nice reviews.

I've watched the film myself numerous times in theaters and I'm still blown away by the look and humor of the movie.  I think it's one of my favorite films I've worked on during my long career as an animator.

Now that the film is available on DVD and BluRay, please purchase the film from my web-site so we can continue to make more animated films that are unique and very different from your typical Hollywood crap.

People say that DVDs are a dead format - but I disagree. This DVD is packed with goodies, commentaries, art galleries, documentary extras about the making of the film and various conversations between Jim and me.  It's a very cool DVD, and the BluRay looks even better!  So I encourage you to support independent animation. 

You can get the DVD or BluRay from my web-store here:

http://www.plymptoonstore.com/dvdsbluray/feature-dvds/revengeance

Thanks so much!  Now, here's this week's gag cartoon - enjoy!

--Bill Plympton