• LUCAS THE EAR OF CORN (1977) (4:00)
  Through the charming use of colorful cut-out animation, Lucas, a young ear of corn, finds out about growing up, and the meaning of life. It's a children's story, with a dark and humorous ending.
  
  
• BOOMTOWN (1985) (6:00)
  Originally a song by Jules Feiffer for National Public Radio, this is Bill Plympton's first released animated film. "Boomtown", as sung by the Android Sisters, is a musical about the absurdities of military spending from the Cold War to the present.
  
  
• DRAWING LESSON #2 (1988) (6:00)
  Bill Plympton's first use of live-action with animation, this quirky story is about an ill-fated romance between a drawing line and his model, using a rare technique of drawing the animation under the camera as a unique way to tell a story.
  
  
• YOUR FACE (1987) (3:10)
  This is the film that set the style and started the career of Bill Plympton. One of the most profitable short films ever made, it's still showing all over the world. As a second-rate crooner sings about the beauties of his lover's face, his own face metamorphosizes into the most surreal shapes and contortions possible. The music was written and sung by Maureen McElheron, then slowed down to sound like a man's voice because Mr. Plympton was too cheap to hire a male singer. 1988 Academy Award nominee for Best Animation.
  
  
• LOVE IN THE FAST LANE(1987) (3:00)
  This pilot for a T.V. series was never picked up, although it's the prototype for Bill Plympton's much more successful "I Married a Strange Person". It uses the animation style of "Scooby Doo" to tell the story of a newlywed yuppie couple hosting a dinner party for the husband's boss and his wife - only the yuppie wife has just accidentally taken a love potion!
  
  
• ONE OF THOSE DAYS(1988) (7:50)
  What would it be like to live the most violent and accident-filled day imaginable? Through the clever use of P.O.V. color-pencil animation, this short lets you experience the pain without feeling it. Known internationally for the famous "hair on the toast" sequence.
  
  
• HOW TO KISS(1989) (6:35)
  One of the wackier "How To" films ever made. This short shows all the violent and bizarre pitfalls of "sucking face". One of the most outrageous of Bill's shorts, this film uses his classic colored-pencil technique.
  
  
• 25 WAYS TO QUIT SMOKING (1989) (5:00)
  This crazy short was inspired by a book proposal of Bill's entitled "101 Ways to Quit Smoking" and although the book never sold, this film has gone on to be his biggest money-maker. A few of the demonstrated smoking "cures" - wear a heat-seeking missile hat, hire a sumo wrestler to jump on your head, and use a flamethrower as a lighter. Bill claims that his mother, who smoked for 40 years, quit after seeing this film. Excellent for lung and cancer groups.
  
  
• PLYMPTOONS (1990) (6:45)
  Bill Plympton started his cartoon career as a gag artist for Rolling Stone, Playboy, Penthouse and National Lampoon. In 1990 he decided to animate his funniest and strangest gag cartoons and compile them into a short film. Two examples - "Furniture Love", in which a guy exits his living room and all the furniture turns into sex crazed maniacs, and "Car Alarm", in which a burglar attempts to break into a car and the auto morphs into a hellish man-eating demon.
  
  
• TANGO SCHMANGO (1990)
  A haunting tango song, with guitar by Marc Ribot, inspires this dancing couple to try steps and moves that Fred and Ginger never imagined.
  
  
• DIG MY DO (1990) (4:00)
  What would happen if Elvis Presley were reincarnated as a dog? In this animated short, the hip-swiveling canine can't control his overactive pompadour and each time he combs it, bizarre things start to happen.
  
  
• THE WISEMAN (1990) (4:30)
  One of the most popular interstitials ever on MTV. To create the wacky dialogue for this film, Bill researched Hare Krishna and New Age Living brochures, and even used dialogue from soap operas. "The Wiseman" is one of Bill's most bizarre short films.
  
  
• PUSH COMES TO SHOVE (1991) (6:30)
  Laurel and Hardy were the inspiration for this madcap escalation of physical humor and violent brutality. The two combatants in this film went on to further fame in two Nik-Naks commercials in England, a CD-Rom game called "Take Your Best Shot" for 7th Level, and a T-shirt. Be sure to check out the scene where a car pulls a large rock through every orifice in the man's head.
  
  
• DRAW (1993) (2:00)
  Winds moan across the desert, empty save for two desperadoes. A shot reverberates the still air and finds its target. Unwilling participants in this horror, we become the bullet to experience the cowboy cliche from a whole new perspective.
  
  
• FADED ROADS (1994) (2:30)
  A country song about life on the highway, searching for lost love. This short is a wonderful blend of Bill's classical surreal animated style and a more spare rotoscoped look.
  
  NOSEHAIR (1994) (7:00)
  This short is an exercise in how much emotion, humor and sex can be wrought from one single line. This epic battle between a man and his nasal follicle escalates to world-war proportions.
  
  
• HOW TO MAKE LOVE TO A WOMAN (1995) (5:00)
  This film makes "How to Kiss" look like "Sesame Street". Now we're talking naked bodies and hot emotions here. Sections of this film were used in Bill's feature "I Married a Strange Person". Watch for the famous and outrageous erect nipple scene.
  
  
• SMELL THE FLOWERS (1996) (2:00)
  A busy executive gets a visit from a nature-loving bird who introduces the harried office worker to the joys of flora and fauna, with a surprise ending. The style of this very short film is Bill's most primitive use of the colored pencil.
  
  
• BONEY D(1996) (3:00)
  In 1995 Bill was invited to North Carolina to do animated excerpts for a Savoy film called "My Teacher's Wife" starring Tia Carrere and Jason London. Although the film has yet to be released, Bill was able to put the excerpts together in an amusing chase short starring a hipster dog named Boney D.
  
  
• PLYMPMANIA (1996) (8:00)
  In 1992 Bill was commissioned to do interstitials for the Fox TV show "The Edge", starring Julie Brown and Jennifer Aniston. In 1996 Bill put all the best wacky surreal pieces together with some very strange music, and voila - Plympmania!
  
  
• SEX &VIOLENCE (1997) (8:00)
  Many of Bill's sex print-cartoon ideas that were too extreme for the men's magazine market are put into animation in this powderkeg short. The quick, 20-second gag shorts push the boundaries of good taste and bad humor.
  
  
• THE EXCITING LIFE OF A TREE (1998) (7:00)
  Inspired by a trip through the historic battle fields of France, this dare-I- say-it "politically sensitive" short chronicles the POV of a tree throughout centuries of human and animal events.
  
  
• MORE SEX &VIOLENCE (1998) (7:00)
  With the unprecedented success of "Sex &Violence" Bill put together "More Sex &Violence", a collection of even more outrageous visual short gags. Watch for "Dyslexic Sex " and "Air Bags".
  
  
• SURPRISE CINEMA (1999) (7:00)
  An outrageous parody of "Candid Camera" featuring, among other wacky stunts, a man having sex with an octopus.
  
  
• CAN'T DRAG RACE WITH JESUS (2000) (2:00)
  A religious choir sings an ode to Jesus and drag-racing.
  

Many of Bill's earlier animated shorts are available on the Plymptoons cassette, and his later shorts are available on the Mondo Plympton cassette, both of which can be ordered on-line. "The Exciting Life of a Tree" and "More Sex &Violence"can currently be seen in many film festivals around the world.

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Last Updated June 1999 Email: plymptoons@aol.com

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