Famed animator Plympton's book released

The two-time Oscar-nominated animator launches his book tour for "Independently Animated: Bill Plympton: The Life and Art of the King of Indie Animation" in Broomfield this Thursday. The filmmaker is the only person to have drawn every frame of animation for a feature film himself, and has been hailed as "God" by Simpsons creator Matt Groenig. One would think that would make him better known, but Plympton shunned Hollywood and continued to animate on his own terms without ever making his own TV show. He does, however, managed to fund his projects by doing advertisements for Trivial Pursuit, Windows 95 and the Mtv logo.

Plympton has always had difficulty finding a distributor, and has made his living traveling the Film Festival Circuit. As Westword put it:

On some level, perhaps that’s because he’s made his career on his own terms: Far from the treacle and family-friendly sentiment we generally expect from animation, Plympton’s works are bizarre, surreal exercises that, while often violent in an exaggerated way, retain the playfulness and sweetness of that five-year-old boy. And while he sometimes struggles to find distribution, it’s made him a legend among those willing to look.

Though Plympton has authored many books, this is the first one that really delves into his art and career. For a certain generation "[d]ue to his MTV presence in the pre-YouTube world, he may have been the only animator whose name was currency in a high-school cafeteria," said one reviewer, who called the book "long past due":

Few artists have had the impact on animation which Plympton can claim. In his recent output—the Oscar-shortlisted “The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Hamburger” and the feature-length Idiots & Angels—his work continues to move in new and more ambitious directions. So it may be that this book is really a little premature.

So, Plympton has managed to both be revered and fly under the radar. But the most groundbreaking artists don't tend to be the most successful; it is the generation they inspire that creates the superstar who brings those cutting edge advanceents to the masses.

"The most important thing for me is to show people you don`t have to be a big Disney Pixar corporation to make a feature film," Plympton told the Broomfield Enterprise. "There is a new era starting now, where anyone on their home computer can sit down and make a feature film."

And so it seems Plympton is the animator's animator, which is precisely where he wants to be.