Bill Plympton’s Cheatin’ In Colour
UPDATE: Less than 24 hours after this piece went up, Cheatin’ reached its Kickstarter goal. Coincidence? Well, probably, the guy’s a legend after all. But don’t forget there’s still time for you Plympton enthusiasts to get your hands on some goodies before the end of January!
Bill Plympton‘s animated feature Cheatin’ – the latest of many hugely ambitious personal projects the indie animation legend has taken on – is set to be completed by June of this year.
You may be aware of Plympton’s work by his wealth of animated shorts that have been notorious amongst the animation festival world for over twenty years. Spanning surreal (Your Face), slapstick (Guard Dog), satirical (Spiral), educational (How To Make Love To A Woman) and even poignant (The Fan & The Flower), his prolific output is made all the more staggering by his ability to write, direct and animate a series of feature-length films. The most recent of which – 2008’s Idiots & Angels – was a masterclass in itself of visual storytelling, taking his trademark style and dark humour to a new level. His current film Cheatin’ is set to take things even further, and with all the animation finished Plympton has turned to crowdfunding to get the end result as slick as possible.
“It’s a digital experience kind of using the same method as watercolours,” Bill tells Skwigly, “Just using an electronic brush rather than a real brush. It’s a very special look I used to do when I was in illustration; pen and ink that I would watercolour on top of. I love that look, it’s so luscious, so rich, so hand-made, very anti-computer. So I want to try and recreate it with this film, but it’s very painstaking and time-consuming.”
Prior Plympton-related projects which relied on the support of their audiences via Kickstarter have been met with considerable success, including his bold restoration of the obscure Winsor McCay short The Flying House and the Alexia Anastasio-directed documentary film Adventures In Plymptoons. With less than $2000 to go, there is no doubt that the goal will be met by its end-of-month deadline, but that isn’t to say that fans can’t get in on the action. Continuing the trend of fantastic incentivising, the rewards on offer are a highly desirable assortment of Plympton paraphernalia, amidst which is the opportunity to pre-order a signed copy of the film itself. The higher rollers amongst you can get your hands on animation cels, lithographs, his superb coffee-table autobiography and personalised caricatures!
For those unfamiliar with Plympton’s sophisticated, bizarre and enticing style, the opening five minutes of Cheatin’ have been posted online to give you a taste of the atmosphere the final, fully-polished film will aim to achieve:
View the opening scene of Cheatin’ online
The story, told with music and sound but without dialogue, is a love story harkening back to the days of film noir fiction:
“James M. Cain was a Hollywood screenwriter in the 30s and 40s who wrote such films as Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce and The Postman Always Rings Twice, which are very sordid, dark, romantic, lusty, sexual films. So this is along those lines. It’s a couple who are madly in love but outsiders try to break them up for their own selfish reasons. So there’s a lot of cheating and backdoor shenanigans.”
Plympton in the studio
Cheatin’, when released, will be Plympton’s seventh animated feature, following on from The Tune, Mondo Plympton, I Married A Strange Person!, Mutant Aliens, Hair High and Idiots & Angels. As well as these he has directed over forty animated shorts, five music videos and three live-action films.
“The animation seems to sell a lot better than live action. I’ll probably stick with animation because I love to draw, there’s total freedom, I can do all the drawing myself. It’s much more gratifying and fulfilling to do animation.”
You can view the film’s fundraising process (and possibly throw some sheckels its way) at the Cheatin’ Kickstarter page. To get a behind-the-scenes look at the film itself you can follow its production updates and video series as part of Scribble Junkies, the animation blog shared by Plympton and fellow animator Patrick Smith.
Keep your eyes and ears open for our full interview with Bill Plympton coming soon, in the meantime here’s the man himself sketching out the female lead Ella during our first interview with him back in May 2011: