Bill Plympton is sex and violence, but never quite as you saw it before. His usual fare are sting like snippets of animation, often only a few seconds long. Here Bill has drawn on a legion of his this earlier work to mould a full length movie. It is very surreal, bordering on anti-establishment. It tells the story of newly-wed Grant and the strange powers he has gained from a freak accident, much to the chagrin of his bride. It is not long before he is pursued by the greedy seeking to manipulate his powers. Bill takes it all to extremes, the violence pulls no punches and the sex scenes defy description (and are very funny). Despite this the film trucks along at a jolly rate and has a kind of inherent innocence. You may need to be a fan of Mr. Plympton to fully appreciate, but I recommend it. It's certainly not your usual Hollywood fare and thus a breath of fresh air. Only available on region 1 and carries no extras. As such it seems to be overpriced when this review was written which will unfortunately restrict it to fans.
Disney, Pixar, Miyazaki, and most other popular animation houses have nothing on this. Sometimes as few as four frames a second. Often you see all the crayon marks. Often he'll skip into another style of animation all together. Plympton is the David Lynch of animation. Gory, sexy, twisted, surreal.
Plympton is a true auteur. He designs everything himself, collaborating with as few people as possible. He has a small team of colourists, with all the animation either done or overseen closely himself. The result is always surprising, eclectic and surreal. Creating something lacking from ALL the visual art's these days which is a sense of its own logic. `Where Tears Come From' is a perfect example. We all know it's not true, but which is more fun to believe? Does your average man on the street ever REALLY need to know what causes a tear? So why is it important for Bill to let us in on the facts when the version here is so much more fun.
I was first introduced to Plympton via the adapted version of one of his shorts or Plymptoons as they are dubbed. Used to advertise Nik-Nak's- a British snack. I loved it but thought it was a one off. Then one night I was trying to sleep with the TV on, and The Tune was being screened as part of Animation week on Channel 4, it woke me up, and I stayed up to watch it. Surprised to find that the original version of the Nik-Nak advert was part of The Tune, as well as a short in it's own right.
A lot of criticism towards Plympton is aimed at the fact that his storylines are thin and pointless and badly executed, but this is in itself a pointless criticism as something important has been missed. This ain't Hollywood. Linear narrative can sit perfectly well as second to invention and imagination. His style can often put people off, due to it's often jerky delivery, and rough style. But this is once again part of the charm. After all it's animation, and that makes no apologies, unlike Miyazaki and Disney who try to give you the impression your watching a version of reality with all the cutesiness turned up to eleven. Big eyes, big sighs, and big heart. Plympton's heroes are often confused, emotionally impotent characters, full of insecurity and self doubt and more relatable to for it. Always coming through at the end giving us something more important than coherent stories, a full interior journey for the characters. The end of I Married A Strange Person is all about heart and the power of love and the doubt about yourself and your relationship that is as intrinsic to marriage itself as is the courtship which preceded it.
A rough outline of the story is about a young couple, just married, when due to a freak mishap Grant develops a lobe on his neck which allows all his fantasies to come true. When a shady business man finds out he wants it for himself, putting Grant on the run, with nowhere to turn.
The thing that I love the most about Plympton's work here, and in everything I've seen. Is it has more invention and imagination that all the Star Wars trilogy and LOTR, Costing less to produce his whole film than Gollum's animation for 20 seconds, or one swipe of a rota-scoped light sabre.
Word to the folks though, this film is not for kiddiewinks, small ones anyway. Teenagers will find it funny, but it's too sexually twisted for the little ones, if I'd thought at ten years old that a girls nipple could have my eye out, I wouldn't have turned out to be the well balanced serial killer I aspire to be now.
I can see me becoming a compleatist of Bill's and would urge you to do the same and start by buying this, since it's finally available on DVD. And I'm sure that it will soon be deleted cos not enough people have heard of him and true art like this deserves to be seen and encouraged.
Buy it, even as a curiosity. I promise you wont be disappointed. And I cant wait to see what he comes up with next- the twisted freak of a man. It'd be nice to know who out there is on the same tenterhooks as me.
I never like to reveal too much about the movies I buy just in case someone is reading this review that hasn't seen them yet but I can say this is a great movie and I highly recommend it!
5つ星のうち5.0If you like *very* odd movies than this is the movie for ...
2014年10月4日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済み
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I saw this movie years ago. I've been looking for a DVD copy of it off and on for years. If you like *very* odd movies than this is the movie for you. It's bizarre and I love it.
The Seller was fast and prompt and the DVD was in perfect condition for used quality.