July 24–31, 1997

movie shorts

Mondo Plympton

recommended

If you've watched a lot of MTV or been to an animation festival in the past few years, you've probably seen Bill Plympton's work. His characters tackle everything from How to Kiss to 25 Ways to Quit Smoking and usually end up imploding along the way. The Oscar-nominated short, Your Face, gives a whole new meaning to the term mushmouth, and Draw! provides a bullet's-eye view of a cowboy shootout. Some of the humor, like How to Make Love to a Woman, borders on sophomoric, but bear in mind that this guy made a living during the lean years drawing cartoons for Penthouse and Screw. The shorts compiled here span the animator's 20-year career, including commercials he did for Soloflex and the Oregon Lottery that were banned from TV for being too violent. In between the goofy bits, Plympton answers frequently asked questions about inspiration (uh, drugs have something to do with it) and if he uses computers to make his work (no). Plympton's scratchy drawings are a little hard to look at for over an hour straight, but thankfully things are broken up with excerpts from his live action features J. Lyle and Guns On the Clackamas. Plympton's moments of personal reflection are good times to run to the concession stand; they aren't nearly as hilarious or insightful as his cartoons.

—Neil Gladstone