Two bad breakups, a blues song and the Indian epic Ramayana inspired Nina Paley to create Sita Sings the Blues. All Sita images © Nina Paley.

What's that? You want to know how I feel about the increase in animation features? Well, let me tell you just what I think.

Most of it stinks. These clods can't even make short films, so why are they on about features now? Me? I forgive them. So should you. They can't help themselves. They are the victims of a horrible disease that's infested their sponge-worthy carcasses. This blinding disease of the featuretwitus insinuates itself into the body (often through the penis opening or nasal passage) and saturates the sponge's noodle, convincing it that LOOOOOONNNNNGGGG is RIGHT. MUST MAKE LONG. Make 'em long and they will come (with money, praise, sunglasses and coke). Make' em short and they will yawn and forget.

Some are immune to this soul-sucking mind-twist; others are only partially affected. There have been some recently reported cases where some good has come from this viral bitch of a killer. Unconfirmed reports state that at least two (deux) mutants actually make 'em long AND make 'em good. These mutants, miraculously, think first, make second. It's a God damn miracle (who else's miracle could it be, praise ye all). Praise Wayne Gretzky for Persepolis, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly (puritan animators be damned for your perverse perfection puddyfutting).

While traveling through the sick ward at the civic hospital, I located two of these mutant creatures: one of each sex. The female created Sita Sings the Blues, a multi-layered mother of a film that deals with Indian mythology, getting dumped, and the sweet sounds of torch song divas. The male, who has made a number of good 'uns, made a dark and rather mature film called Idiots and Angels about a jackass who awakens to find that he has wings growing out of his back.

Bill Plympton's off-the-cuff story idea in which 'an asshole guy wakes up one morning with wings on his back' eventually became Idiots and Angels. All Idiots and Angels images © Plymptoon Studios.

Thanks to the friendly administrators at the hospital, I was permitted to interview the two weirdos so that I might uncover the dark and delicious secrets of their miraculous success stories and convey them to you.

Sorry? What's that? You DIDN'T ask me what I thought about animation features? You want to know how Nina Paley and Bill Plympton made their new features. Shit, why didn't you say that instead of making me waste all these good people's time. Umm... okay... if that's what you want. Here it is. But it's not nearly as exciting as my science fiction/zombie thesis (which is rooted in fact, mates).

Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues harkens back to a hot summer day in Trivandrum, India in 2002. While working on a daily comic strip, The Hots, Paley had the idea to make a comic strip of the epic Indian book Ramayana. "I designed the main characters then," says Paley, "but never intended to animate them; I was thinking of making a little Ramayana comic strip, something small and easy. I had my laptop with me, and figured the easiest way to lay out a comic would be in Flash, which I was already using for laying out and lettering The Hots. I read my first Ramayana in Trivandrum, the Amar Chitra Katha comic book version. Perplexed and affronted by Sita's role, I sought out text versions in hopes of better understanding why she is so revered."