PROBE

Bill Plympton

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Interview by Alyce Wilson

Now you seem to be the sort of person who's always willing to take on a new challenge, to leap into a new form of creativity, whether it's books, animated features or live action. What else would you like to try? You've done all of the above.

Well, I would like to try a big budget film. My budgets have always been very low, and I've always had to work with very, very modest means. And I'd love to have DreamWorks or Disney come to me and say, "Here's $20 million or $30 million. Do a brilliant film." And who knows what I could do with that kind of money? Which is absurd, because something like the Pixar film, Finding Nemo, that was over $100 million. That's five times what I would need to do a really, really wonderful full-blown animated feature.

Many people tend to have initial resistance to the idea they can make a living doing what they're talented in. When did you first realize you could do that?

Well, it was in, I think, '85 when Your Face came out. And I took it to a film festival, and I got all these people coming up to me and saying, you know, "We want to buy your film for our channel." You know, MTV bought it for $5,000. And BBC bought it for $3,000.

"Wait a minute. This is much more than I paid for the film. I'm actually making a profit on this."

And so I kept doing more short films: How to Kiss, One of Those Days, 25 Ways to Quit Smoking. And each one made more and more money. So I realized that I could quit my day job and just be an animator.

And what surprises me is that more people don't do it, because it's really not that difficult; as long as you keep your films short, keep the film funny and keep it cheap, you can do it. Don Hertzfeldt is very successful doing that right now. So he's doing very well, also, with that formula.

What has he done?

He did Billy's Balloon, and Rejected was nominated for an Oscar.

I don't know if they still do this anymore, but back when I was in college, they used to have animation tourneys, they would call it. It would be two hours, two and a half hours of short films. And you get to see all kinds of things.

There's two shows now. There's Spike and Mike. Also, there's a new show called The Animation Show that's actually run by Don Hertzfeldt and Mike Judge, the guy from behind Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill.

Do you think that young animators or beginning animators don't realize that they can do that, or is it just that the studios have become so big and the major animation studios have become so big that they look at it the same way you did when you were starting out? You have to be an employee.

I think your second idea is probably the correct one, that most kids get out of art school, and they want a big job and they want to make big money. And so they go to the big studios. And I certainly applaud them for that. I think that could be a wise move. It's a good way to go.

If you're willing to kind of do what somebody else wants to do.

Exactly. Exactly.

Now you've also done a couple live action films. How is that process different for you? What sort of challenges did you encounter that were new to you?

Well, it was really difficult. I found that I had absolutely no control over what I was filming. If it wasn't the weather that was bad, it was some crazy person walking on the set, actors not showing up, costumes that wouldn't stay in place, trucks driving by, airplanes driving by. So it really was a nightmare, and that's why I probably will never do another live action film.

Understandable. And for you what would the creative payoff be for something like that, because aside from the writing aspect of it, it probably wasn't as rewarding for you creatively?

Well, I don't know. I liked working with people. The problem with animation, it's kind of a solitary profession. But also you see people like Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam who are fairly successful doing live films. And I figure maybe I could do that. David Lynch also started in animation, and he's very successful at doing live action. So it has been done a lot.

That makes a lot of sense to me, that those would be the directors that you would align yourself with, because all three of them have this visual sense that is almost like animation. It's almost surreal in the same way that yours is.

Yes.

So who knows? I guess potentially down the line, if you got the chance to do something like that, you would go back to live action?

Maybe. If the money was right.

Well, thank you so much for the time that you spent talking to me.

You bet.

photos and images used by permission of Bill Plympton from Plymptoons.com