Eat. © Bill Plympton Studios, 2001.

Eat
Anyone familiar with the work of Bill Plympton will have no trouble identifying Eat as a product of his distinctive sensibility. Essentially a chronicle of a (typical?) evening in an elegant French bistro, the film begins innocently, even poignantly, with some nicely understated characterizations, then rapidly degenerates into sociopathic mayhem and, finally, an exercise in disgust. (This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you're going to show voluminous vomiting, it's better if it has narrative justification.) The film features the familiar Plymptonesque concern with extreme anatomical distortion, as well as several funny and imaginative tableaux along the way. Ultimately, though, Eat is too disjointed and psychologically opaque to function effectively as a narrative, and too rooted in a specific context to be successful as the kind of free-form exercise in absurdity that comprises Plympton's best work.

Bill Plympton worked for many years as an illustrator and cartoonist before making his first animated film, Boomtown, in 1983. Since then, he has made a string of highly successful shorts, including Your Face, How to Kiss and 25 Ways to Quit Smoking and the animated features, The Tune, Guns on the Clackamas and I Married a Strange Person. Eat, which was created using cel animation, received a "Best in Show" award at ASIFA-East and the Grand Prize for Short Films in Cannes Critics' Week. It has also screened at Annecy, Anima Mundi, Edinburgh, Toronto, and many other festivals.

FUV. © Marv Newland, 1997.

FUV
In FUV, Marv Newland continues to march resolutely to his own drummer with another minimalist narrative incorporating objects and events the exact meaning of which may be known only to him. With its deliberately slow pace, "poor" framing and often obscure imagery, FUV is clearly designed to test the patience of its audience, forcing viewers either simply to dismiss the piece or, perhaps, to reflect on the conventions of narrative, the nature of time, and the meaning of life (which could ultimately turn out to be the same thing if the key question becomes why one is spending 11 minutes of one's life trying to make sense of a largely impenetrable narrative). Still, one has the feeling that Newland's hand-drawn animation and Paul Plimley's subtle soundtrack are for the most part doing exactly what they're intended to do, and the director's obvious skill and conceptual ambition are admirable. Whether in the end the payoff is worth the investment of effort is a decision left to the viewer.

Best-known for the classic Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969), his first film, Marv Newland has worked in all aspects of animation in both a commercial and noncommercial setting. In 1975 he founded the production company, International Rocketship Limited, where he made Sing Beast Sing (1980), Anijam (1984), Hooray for Sandbox Land (1985), Black Hula (1988) and Pink Komkommer (1991). Recently, in addition to pursuing his own work, he has worked as a freelance director and storyboard artist, and has produced a number of films under the International Rocketship aegis. FUV has screened at Annecy, Ottawa, I Castelli Animati, and Anima Mundi, among others.