October wrap-up - Simpsons, NYCC, Tucson FilmFest

Hey all you Scribble Junkies, I'm sorry it's been a while since I posted, but I've been busy working on the rough cut of "Slide".  It's been a very busy month with everything going on, all while I'm trying to edit this feature, record some of the voices and try to get some of the music for the film in place.  

First off, I hope you caught my new couch gag for "The Simpsons", which aired on October 2. It's called "The Rug", and it's the EIGHTH couch gag that they've let me animate, and I'm truly thrilled, and proud that I probably have the most guest animator segments on the show!  What an honor, seriously!  If you missed it, the episode is called "One Angry Lisa", and it's episode 2 of Season 34.  

You can catch it on YouTube here (I didn't post it...):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tij2iVNIqmA

On my YouTube channel I made a playlist of (almost) all the couch gags I've animated over the years, you can find that here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL022D27CB9866EEBA

Then I spent four days in Artist Alley at New York Comic Con, I had a great time meeting fans and selling art, they gave us a great table very close to the entrance of Artist Alley.  The number of people attending was up this year, because last year they were still limiting attendance because of COVID.  However, this year I think there were a lot more panels and screenings going on, because there were times where it felt like nothing was going on down in Artist Alley. Oh well, I still had a blast signing things for fans and drawing caricatures, and we made some sales. Oh, and I got to meet Eric Appel, who's the director of the "Weird Al" Yankovic movie that's about to be released!  

with Eric Appel

A week later, I was off to the Tucson Film Festival - Herb Stratford, the director, arranged for me to fly out there and do two shows, one that was a collection of my recent short films and music videos, like "Demi's Panic", "Odd Duck", "Voodoo Doll" and "Lipstick of the Brave", then I did a second show with clips from "Slide" and a presentation about the making of the new feature.  I got to attend a couple parties there, so that was a nice little break for me.  

But since I got back from Tucson I've mostly been working on "Slide" around the clock.  I'm getting all of these notices for Academy screenings of animated movies like "Wendell & Wild", "My Father's Dragon" and the new "Puss in Boots" movie, plus a lot more, and I wish I could go to all of them, but I'm just too busy!  Maybe now that I have a rough cut almost done, I can sneak out to one or two of these this weekend, and take my son Lucas along.  

Lucas is also very excited about Halloween - and it's just about that time, too!  I may not have time to do much, but here are some photos of people in costume at New York Comic-Con, that were taken by my office manager, John H.  I hope you enjoy them, and have a great Halloween!  

Check out his whole Flickr album here:

https://flickr.com/photos/66064297@N00/albums/72177720302743125/with/52412922727/

--Bill P.

Updates

I'd like to tell you all about what's happening at the Plymptoons Studio.  I'm frantically trying to get the work done on "Slide". As you probably know, I'm finished with drawing all of the animation - and I'm very happy with it.  It looks very different and very close to my illustration style, pen and ink with water color on top.  So now I'm editing a rough cut - putting all my composited shots together - what fun!

But, as I do that, I realize how much more work needs to be done.  There are gaps in the animation that need to be filled, and the storytelling needs more attention.  And when the rough cut is done, then I'll need to add the voices.  I'm having Maureen McElheron, Tom Racine and the epic Jim Lujan create 90% of the voices.  Then I must finish the coloring.  It's a hell of a lot of work but it looks so good!  

Then I'll move on to the music by Maureen McElheron, with the guitar wizardry of Hank Bones.  I'm looking for a Hank Williams sort of sound - and then, finally, the special FX and final edit.  The goal is to finish it by March 2023 but the big problem is, because of the COVID pandemic, I lost a lot of work (movie screenings, film festivals, lecture appearances and such) so my studio is bare bones, with the great assistance of interns (God bless them). 

But, luckily, we sent out word that I'm offering my older animation artwork for sale.  I'm also running out of room in my tiny studio, so it makes sense to sell as much art as possible - I have to make room for storing all the "Slide" artwork.  Fortunately, we found out that there are a lot of collectors of Plympton artwork out there (YEAH!) and so my office manager has been putting in extra hours posting about the sale on Facebook and Instagram, and dealing with all of the requests to buy specific images from my films.  The money that's been coming in from these sales has been financing the post-production of "Slide" and keeping the studio's bills paid, so if you want to buy some art from "Your Face", "How to Kiss", "25 Ways to Quit Smoking", "The Tune" or my couch gags for "The Simpsons", now's the time to check out our sale or get in touch with us by e-mail.  

Speaking of "The Simpsons", my brand new couch-gag for them will be premiering this coming Sunday, October 2, it's pretty crazy so please check it out.  It's called "The Rug" - and I want to thank everybody at the Simpsons, Matt and Al and Tom, for letting me put my crazy animation on national TV. 

Also, I've got a short animated music video in the Woodstock Film Festival this weekend, it's called "Lipstick of the Brave", the song is by Tripping Jupiter, and this music video has been getting some attention on the festival circuit lately, because it references David Bowie and Tim Curry and Marc Bolan and other LGBTQ icons, so if you can get to the Woodstock Festival for the animation screening, please check it out!  My co-blogger Pat Smith also has a film in the program, and Signe Baumane will be showing her 2nd feature, "My Love Affair With Marriage" at the Woodstock Festival, which runs September 28 to October 2.

https://woodstockfilmfestival.org/

Also, remember that I'll be appearing in Artists Alley, Table H-05, at the New York Comic-Con, offering my original animation artwork for sale.  That runs October 6-9 at the Javits Convention Center in NYC.

https://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/

Final thing, last week I took my 10-year-old son, Lucas to see "Luck", John Lasseter's new production from Skydance Animation.  It's directed by Peggy Holmes, who oddly comes from a dance background.  It's not really my kind of film, it's geared for the kiddie audience - But my real problem with it was that 90% of it takes place in the magical world of good luck & bad luck, and trying to understand how luck works there was so complicated, I thought my brain would blow up. I truly expected something better from the great John Lasseter, who I usually rank in the pantheon of animation geniuses: Winsor McCay, Walt Disney, Tex Avery and Chuck Jones.  

--Bill Plympton

Back from Oregon and Upcoming Events

 Dear Scribble Junkies fans, 

It's been a while since I posted, sorry about that.  In the hot summer I tend to slow down a bit.  In any case, summer's almost over and fall's coming, so there's a lot to report on.

The production of "Slide" is coming along very well.  I'm extremely happy with the finished artwork (see examples below) and the animation (drawing) is done.  I just watched a rough cut and I think it's a great movie.  But I still need to record voices, add sound and music.  We're shooting for a completion date in March 2023.

I just got back from Oregon, where I did a Q&A at the premiere of "Claydream", a new documentary about Will Vinton, the legendary Oregon claymation mogul.  It's really a wonderful and fair documentary about his career in animation, and there's a wonderful cameo from Phil Knight and his son Travis, the head of Laika Studios.  So watch for the film in your local theaters.  

Here are a few events coming up that I want to promote:

I'll be making an appearance at the fantastic Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival, Sept. 10 in Vineyard Haven.  Daniel Leonard, the writer of "Demi's Panic" and I will be there to do a Q&A with the animation program, screening at the Martha's Vineyard Cinema at 4 pm.                         

Then, the following weekend, September 17 + 18, we're throwing a mega Open House Party and Animation Art sale at my studio, 151 West 30th St., 4th Floor, from 10 am to 4 pm, here in Manhattan. I'll be there signing cool stuff - we're selling all my animation art, DVD's, everything - and if you buy anything you get a free poster.  So please come by, say hello, it should be a blast.  Please spread the word among the animation community!

And then in October, the New York Comic Con is roaring back, bigger and better.  I'll have a table somewhere in Artists Alley, so be sure and stop by for a free sketch, at least.  It's October 6 to 9 at the Jacob Javits Center in NY, NY.  See you there!

--Bill Plympton

Upcoming Studio Art Sale and two film reviews

I've got two film reviews and a major announcement to cover today - 

If you saw my review of "Cryptozoo" you probably remember I voted it the worst animated feature of the year.  Well, now I believe it's got stiff competition.  I just saw "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" at an Academy screening and apparently the producers have hopes for an Oscar.

As I was watching this technically pretty film, I was wondering,"How the hell did they get the money to make this piece of crap?" It's about a talking sea shell (with a very ugly design) who lives in an empty house and he talks about his mundane life.  The only event in the film worth mentioning is when Lesley Stahl visits to interview Marcel for "60 Minutes". 

Who would invest money is a script like that?  I was fuming, why can't I get money to make my films?  Is Lesley Stahl a big investor?  Is there a huge body of snail fan backers?  Then, after talking to people I found out that apparently Marcel began as a star on the internet with a huge fan base and the investors figured "It's a ready-made audience."  

In any case, apparently it's doing well in the cinemas and has already made a million bucks!!  Imagine that?  My next film will be called "Snail's Face".  I give it a D-

The other film I watched was "The Gray Man" directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.  And it was a gas!! The story has Ryan Gosling's character being recruited from prison to be a U.S. Special Ops hitman who has morals. However, another branch of the Special Ops needs a pendant (McGuffin) that Ryan has, so they send an immoral hitman, played by Chris Evans, with an unlimited budget to retrieve the pendant any way possible.  

What's really unique about this film is that there's so much crazy surreal action.  These set-piece battles are like mini-features that build and build and climax in glorious and surprising ways.  I would guess there is about ten times the action of a James Bond or "Mission: Impossible" film.  It was interesting that the Russo Brothers showed up for a Q&A after the screening and they talked about what fans they are of Hollywood action films and how they were influenced by their predecessors.  I give "The Gray Man" an A.

The last bit of news I want to talk about is a Studio Art Sale I'm having in September to offer a lot of my artwork and merchandise for sale.  This will include art from my classic shorts "How to Kiss", "25 Ways to Quit Smoking", "Guard Dog" and "Your Face", plus original art from my features, from "The Tune" to "Revengeance".  I haven't done this for a few years, but now that my work is a big hit at auction houses I feel like it's time for me to cash in on the many fans I have.  More details will be posted here soon, but we're shooting for the weekend of September 17-18 at my studio in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.  

I hope to see you there - I have to warn you though, I'll probably have Matt Groening and Steven Spielberg on the phone. 

--Bill P

Film reviews - "Lightyear" and "The Sea Beast"

I've been able to see a couple of films recently, despite my busy deadline schedule.  Both of these films were preview screenings, in order to get some buzz going - so, I took my son, Lucas, with me, and we got free soda and popcorn!

The first film was "Lightyear", from Pixar/Disney, directed by Angus MacLane.  It's the back-story for Buzz Lightyear (from "Toy Story") and his adventures as a young space commander.  It measured up to Pixar's beautiful visual standards - but the film took place over many years, and for me, that took away a lot of the potential in-the-moment excitement. 

The only character I really loved was the cat robot - he was kind of a synthesis of R2D2 and C3P0.  In a film without much humor, he added a lot of laughs, which I appreciated. 

But my big problem with the film was at the end, it got very confusing as to what was going on, there were so many rules and characters that my brain kind of shut down and I just watched the visuals - which were very nice. 

I give "Lightyear" a B-minus.

The next film I watched with my son - to get a little children's perspective - was "The Sea Beast", directed by Chris Williams ("Moana", "Big Hero 6", "Bolt).  Immediately at the beginning of this film, I could feel that this was something very different from your usual Pixar/Marvel-type movie. 

The visuals are exquisite.  I saw elements of Herman Melville and N.C. Wyeth, and characters straight out of an Errol Flynn film from the 1930's and I was hooked.  The action and battle sequences were fantastic - and the point of the film was very meaningful.  I'm sorry, I'm going to give away the ending - but the monster is really a hero and everybody sings "Kumbaya" at the end.  

The hint at the beginning that the beast is really a good guy was that the design of the monster fish was way too cutesy and pink.  That was not a scary monster. But, nevertheless, I loved this film and my son kept yelling throughout the film, "I love it!"  

So I'll give "The Sea Beast" an A. 

If you're looking for some more movies to watch on this long holiday weekend, I just found out that 
"Adventures in Plymptoons", a documentary that was made about me back in 2011 is available on Tubi for FREE.  It was directed by a friend of mine, Alexsiya, and it's really a fun watch, but you didn't hear that from me...

Here's the link:

https://tubitv.com/movies/169474/adventures-in-plymptoons

My distributor, the wonderful Shout Factory, has also made most of my animated features available on Tubi, and they're also FREE, so if you've got some extra time this weekend after the BBQ and the fireworks, you can make a whole movie marathon out of it!  

"The Tune"

https://tubitv.com/movies/506244/the-tune

"I Married a Strange Person"

https://tubitv.com/movies/506258/i-married-a-strange-person

"Mutant Aliens"

https://tubitv.com/movies/506254/mutant-aliens

"Hair High"

https://tubitv.com/movies/506256/hair-high

"Idiots & Angels"

https://tubitv.com/movies/506255/idiots-angels

"Cheatin'"

https://tubitv.com/movies/506265/cheatin

"Revengeance" (co-directed with Jim Lujan)

https://tubitv.com/movies/506250/revengeance

Well, I guess you don't have to ask me what my new favorite streaming service is... (It's Tubi.). My thanks to Tubi and Shout Factory for making all of these films available for FREE!  I think you have to watch a few ads, but so what?  You could watch all my features in a day, instead of waiting for the DVDs to arrive in the mail!  But if you still like DVDs, too, which is OK, I sell them on my web-site...

Boy, when did the Fourth of July get so commercialized?  Anyway, if you can't make it to the movie theater this weekend, I've given you another great option!  

--Bill Plympton

Mendocino Film Festival, June 2-5

I've just returned from my exciting trip to Mendocino, CA - 

I was invited by the great Herb Stratford to do some programs at the Mendocino Film Festival, in this Northern California gem of a town, which was made famous by the classic 1969 hit by the Sir Douglas Quintet.  Also, it was the filming location of the famous 1950's James Dean movie, "East of Eden" (along with Salinas and Monterey).

But my first stop was in Sacramento, where two of my cousins were promoting their business, Nitty's Cider, by having a lively party at their tasting bar in downtown Sacramento.  Since I designed the company's logo, I was invited to do caricatures of all their guests.  They had a great lap-steel guitar band, which seemed very appropriate since that's the favored instrument of Slide, the main character in my upcoming animated feature, also named "Slide".  

By the way, their cider was delicious and next year, they'll name a cider for Yours Truly.  Yum yum!

The next day, I drove the winding narrow back roads, 200 miles to Mendocino.  It's a charming, historic, cookie-cutter town overlooking a cliff above the shark-infested Pacific Ocean below.  Herb put together a great list of films.  He also kept me busy, with an animation panel, a work-in-progress screening of clips from "Slide", a Master Class, and finally a screening of 10 of my favorite Plymptoons.  

I was lucky to stay at the Stanford Inn, a delightful hotel nestled in the forests of Mendocino.  I even got my own fireplace - lah-de-dah!

The opening night gala was terrific!  And even though I knew nobody there, and the weather sucked, it was all rain and fog - they had unlimited fresh oysters and wine, now THAT'S how to throw a party.  I eventually met a lot of people and fans, and had a great time there. 

Even though it was a crazy drive to get there - it was still worth the trip.  I love the Mendocino Film Festival!  

--Bill P.  

"Demi's Panic" in Boston, "Lipstick of the Brave" , Mendocino FF and Weird Al

Last weekend I was up in the Boston area, at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA.  Danny and Lorena Leonard of Rock Farm Productions, who wrote and produced "Demi's Panic", arranged a show to thank their Kickstarter backers, where we screened "Demi's Panic" and a curated selection of my other short films.  The extra tickets were available to the public - I introduced the shorts and then after we took questions about the making of "Demi's Panic" and we talked about how great it is to be back in theaters, doing live events again.  

Also, Danny announced that "Demi's Panic" is now playing on YouTube, on a channel called Omeleto.  So please, if you can, check the film out on YouTube and please post a message there about how much you liked it, or what you liked about it, that would really help us out.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt2gDo1rLtQ

"Demi's Panic" won another award in May. while I was traveling - a Gold Remi award from the Worldfest in Houston, TX.  This means the film has won four awards now, including the First Place prize for animation at the USA Film Festival in Dallas.  

"Demi's Panic" will be playing at three more festivals in June - 

1) The Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, May 29 to June 5, in the "States of Reverie" shorts section of "Bloque Dos". For tickets and schedule please visit:

https://www.phlaff.org/festival/2022/film-guide/demis-panic

2) The New Media Film Festival in L.A., June 1-2, For schedule and tickets, please visit:

https://www.newmediafilmfestival.com/demis-panic/

3) The Southside Film Festival in Bethlehem, PA, June 14-18.  For tickets and schedule (coming soon), please visit: 

https://southsidefilmfestival.com/festival/tickets/

If you're near any of these cities, please check these festivals out!  

Speaking of festivals, this week a new music video from Tripping Jupiter played at the Big Apple Film Festival's spring edition here in New York, it's called "Lipstick of the Brave".  I animated it a few months ago, and it's just starting to get some festival appearances - I wasn't able to make it to the screening on Thursday, but I love the Big Apple Film Festival, "Demi's Panic" won an award there last year in their fall edition.  "Lipstick of the Brave" is a video that pays tribute to David Bowie, Lou Reed, Tim Curry, Lady Gaga and Marc Bolan and how inspirational they've been to music fans and the LGBTQ community.  If you want to catch "Lipstick of the Brave", please follow Tripping Jupiter on Twitter or Instagram for more news about screenings. 

And next week I'll be off to California, I'll make a stop in Sacramento and then drive up to the Mendocino Film Festival - on Saturday, June 4, I'll be on an Animation Panel in the Cafe Beaujolais Garden at 9:00 am, then I'll show clips from my upcoming feature "Slide" in Crown Hall at 10 am - then later on Saturday at 2 pm I'll host an animation Master Class in Preston Hall.  Finally, on Sunday June 5, a special screening of my classic animated Plymptoons shorts in the Festival Tent at 10:00 am.  If you find yourself in Northern California that weekend, I hope to see you there!  

https://mendocinofilmfestival.org/festival/artist-spotlight/

The news also broke this week about "The Illustrated Al" - this is going to be a large-format comic book - or perhaps "graphic novel" is a better term, because it's going to be GRAPHIC.  Z2 Comics is hiring a bunch of famous illustrators and cartoonists to interpret the lyrics to some of "Weird Al" Yankovic's greatest songs!  And I'm so excited to be part of the project, because I made two music videos for Al in the past, "Don't Download This Song" and "TMZ", and they were both so much fun to animate!  But this is going to take me back to my illustration roots, and the project is going to focus on Al's ORIGINAL songs, not the parody songs.  I think Al's out on tour right now, performing those same songs, on something called "The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour".  If you want to go see Weird Al on tour, and you KNOW you do, please visit:

https://www.weirdal.com/tour/

Oh, yeah, the illustration.  I don't think I can talk about which SONG I'll be illustrating, but I can't wait to get started on it.  (You know the one. No, not THAT one, the other one. Yeah, that's it.). I have to confess that my office manager helped me pick the song, because John H. is a huge Weird Al fan - I think maybe he only started working for me 28 years ago because he thought it might get him closer to Al.  It turned out he was right, because John got to go see Weird Al in concert at the Beacon Theater after I did those music videos, and he got his picture taken with Al, and really, he shows it to everybody and won't shut up about it.  He even left my booth at San Diego Comic-Con 2 hours EARLY one day in 2016 because Al was playing a concert up at SD State University.  I probably should have fired him for that. 

I'm getting off track again.  You can pre-order "The Illustrated Al" at the link below, in standard, deluxe or super-deluxe editions.  Super Deluxe editions will be HAND-SIGNED by Weird Al and come with a bunch of other cool goodies.  The cover art is by Drew Friedman, the foreword is by Emo Philips, and the other interior artists include Peter Bagge, Sam Viviano, Danny Hellman, Aaron Augenblick and more!  Order now at:

https://z2comics.com/products/weirdal

Sorry, no gag cartoon this week, I've been too busy drawing other projects while my staff is coloring and compositing scenes for "Slide".  But I hope everybody has a great Memorial Day weekend, get out there and enjoy some BBQ but watch out for monkeypox!  

--Bill P.

Anifilm, Czech Republic

Yeah! The film festivals are back in operation!  I'm starting to get invitations to far-flung festivals again, and that's very important to me for a number of reasons: I get to travel, I get to reconnect with my international animation friends plus I get income from screening fees and merchandise sales. 

The last time I was in the Czech Republic was years ago, when it was held in a cool spa town called Trebon.  This year, it was moved to a larger town, Terebec.  I stayed at an 18th century chateau - I felt like an Austrian prince without the sword.

The best part was hanging out with two of my best animation friends, Michaela Pavlatova, who was there with "My Sunny Maad" - a wonderful feature about emigrants in Afghanistan.  And then I got to hang out with my rock-star animator buddy, Hisko Hulsing - he's now the director of a smash Amazon hit, "Undone".  It's a very surreal drama using rotoscope in every frame - it's very cool!

If you're living in Northern California, I'll be making an appearance at the Mendocino International Film Festival from June 3 to June 5.  I'm doing a bunch of shows, one's a retrospective of my previous animated shorts and another one is a sneak peek at my upcoming feature "Slide", a country musical comedy along the lines of "Blazing Saddles". 

And I'm sorry if this is late notice, but I wanted to remind you again that this Sunday night, May 22, I'll be at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, Massachusetts for a special screening of the award-winning short film "Demi's Panic", written by Danny Leonard and produced by Danny and Lorena Leonard, preceded by a curated selection of my classic animated shorts.  It's going to be a fun film event with lots of guests - I hope you can all make it.  I'll do a free sketch (on a postcard) for everybody who attends, so buy a ticket now, there are still some available.

Again, it's the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington MA - Sunday, May 22 at 7 pm.  You can buy tickets at regenttheatre.com or use this link:

https://ci.ovationtix.com/36186/production/1120877?performanceId=11066006

Hope to see you there!  

--Bill P.