Well once again here's our spy from STAY TOONED and this time it's with a review of that crazy insane man's work... Bill Plympton. Bill was affected by Tex Avery so strongly that today he constantly exists in a drawn enviroment consisting of obscenely funny violence and mayhem. Any Plympton project is a project that deserves your eyes... you won't regret it. Well, except when the bills come from the doctor's office for resetting your ribs. For additional pics click to Stay Tooned below!!!
Sir Moggy here from Stay Tooned Creations at Stay Tooned with a review of Bill Plympton's second animated feature which comes out on Friday (8/28) in New York and Los Angelos. I also have for you some great pencil shots of the film that Plympton himself sent me. You can also get the images HERE or hopefully Harry can post them.
Now for the review:
Sex, violence, and dullness. Three words that quickly summarize Bill Plympton's newest full featured animated film, "I Married a Strange Person." The seventy-five minute film is Plympton's second animated feature, the first was the 1993 G-rated musical, "The Tune." "I Married a Strange Person" is far from the children-friendly G rating; although the film is rated R, it truly belongs closer to the NC-17 rating. The gratuitous sex scene (one in particular, you'll know which one) is the trigger for the high rating, with the most outlandish sexual innuendoes that could possibly be imagined. This is not to say its on the brink of porno. Oh, no, you'll be bawling with laughter!
As you would have expected, the film starts out with a sex scene - between two birds amid high altitudes, who, after a few minutes of intense bird-action, are distracted and crash into the satellite dish of freelance accountant, Grant Boyer. This causes radiated beams to zap the him in the back of the neck, germinating a lobe which gives the accountant supernatural powers. Soon after, his newly married wife, Kelly, finds out about his strange behavior and begins to worry about their marriage. So, she complains to her parents, and soon after, both Grant and Kelly visit his in-laws, in one of the most drudgingly tedious scenes of the film. Plympton's ideas were right on target, but his executions failed miserably. The scene was to portray a typical dull family eating dinner where nobody has anything to say, but Plympton took it to a bitter extreme, quickly pulling the movie away from its "ultra funny" slogan.
Don't worry, it picks up - for about 5 minutes. Within this five-minute interlude, the newlyweds engage in one of the funniest sex scenes ever on film. Even the household appliances go at it.
After that, the film switches gears and changes to an action/adventure flick that is packed with eye-popping violence, and, I'm afraid to say, but more dullness. To give light upon Grant's supernatural powers (and not on the story), Grant envisions a single blade of grass attempting to kill a greedy neighbor, who enjoys torturing his lawn by mowing it to the brink of nothingness. That's not to forget Grant's television appearance on the "Jackie Jason Show" to act out his illusional powers. In a blend of immature humor and shock violence, we steer towards the long haul. Keep in mind we're only at the thirty-five minute mark, and we've still got a tiring forty minutes left.
Media mogul, Larson Giles, the brain behind Smilescorp Network, discovers Grants' powers after watching his stunt on the "Jackie Jason Show." Giles, who is saturated with would-be writers and low ratings, decides to send out his army to capture Grant, but more specifically his lobe. Although there are a few memorable moments, I can't understand why Plympton wanted to stretch the plot, only to display stale violent scenes and half-ass humor. At about the one hour mark, one will easily give up on this film, giving little concern to whether or not Grant saves his marriage, and if Giles becomes the king of media. As Plympton stated in a recent interview, he believes the film didn't have enough sex in it. And he's right. Not because we want to get excited by his explicit drawings, we want to barrel out tears of laughter, because sex is Plympton's best attribute.
Keep in mind while reading this review that Plympton drew the entire 75 minute film himself, a lingering fact that makes me want to take back any criticizing comment. Although this is quite an impressive fact, it really shows. Many shots are shown repeatedly, and a number of them are still frames. Plympton covers this up by using a LOT of camera movements, which slows the film down greatly. By far the most annoying aspect of the entire feature is Plympton's camera angles to avoid drawing the speakers' mouth. With back-shots, silhouettes, and body parts in front of the mouth, the voice tends to fall flat with no emotion, a problem that drags the films excitement. Even when the camera is on the speaker, Plympton does a terrible job of forming the lips to make words look like its coming out natural. This baffles me because Bill has shown in many of his previous films that he can perfectly animate a person speaking.
I'd like to add that the animation is beautifully done; the old Plympton style of jagged lines and scratchy features is purely classic. When the action is pumping, Plympton captures the moment with fantastic camera angles, a characteristic that Plympton has improved upon greatly in this film.
After years and years of enjoying Bill Plympton's cartoons, we've come to a point where we expect so much from him, and every time his performance rises to a new level. Plympton excels at short animated films, including his most recent, the 1997 short, "Sex and Violence" which sums up a lot of the scenes in "I Married a Strange Person," but in a 9 minute form. With "I Married a Strange Person" he took a step forwards and then a step backwards. The independent animation genius is still one of the best out there, but I already miss his old work.
Go and see this film, it'll definatly be worth the experience.
Cheers,
Sir Moggy
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