Reddit AMA Recap: Bill Plympton

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With Cheatin’ opening this Friday in theaters everywhere, film producer Bill Plympton had a chance to stop by Reddit and do an AMA session where he talked about his newest film, what he’s working on in the future, and what he’s doing with Patton Oswalt.

Plympton could be working with Patton Oswalt on a new graphic novel that MAY turn into a film:

I would love to do a graphic novel with Patton Oswalt.

I’m meeting with him next month to talk about this very subject.

And maybe it would turn into a film. Who knows?

On his favorite Ralph Bakshi films

Well, Ralph Bakshi is my godfather, because he pioneered so much of the grown-up animation that I’m doing today.

Fritz the Cat obviously – for all its faults, some of the drawing’s not so good, some of the coloring’s not so good – was a revolutionary film. And it made a TON of money. I liked the one, AMERICAN POP. Because it had music, it had such a great flavor for music, from my era, from the 60’s and 70’s. Those are 2 of my favorites. But he did so many great films, it’s hard to choose.

On making Simpsons couch gags:

It was delightful!

I’ve known Matt when he lived in Portland.

His father, Homer, was a wonderful filmmaker. Very funny. And I met Matt through his father.

And so we run into each other at film festivals, or Comic-Cons, and a couple years ago, he said “Would you like to work for the Simpsons?”

I said “Are you kidding? YASSS.”

And so he asked me to do a couch gag. And it was very easy, because it was only 30 seconds long. And it was seen by more people than have seen all my films put together. So it was instant fame! Hahahaha! And I’ve done 2 more since then, so I’ve done couch-gags for the Simpsons, and hopefully I’ll do more.

There were really great people working on the couch gags – Don Hertzfeldt, Banksy, John Kricfalusi, so it’s pretty good company.

On how Cheatin’ got produced and what’s the future for the release:

The film was inspired by a relationship I had a number of years ago, and I thought this was a real thing. We moved in together. After 2 months, we were ready to strangle each other, yet we still wanted to have sex.

And I just thought that was curious, that those 2 passions can coexist in the same relationship.

So about 10, 15 years later, I thought Oh, that might be a fun idea for a film.

And I started writing down ideas. I made a little list of scenes, sequences, sort of an outline. And I did a very crude storyboard. About 100 pages.

And then I did a more finished, more polished storyboard, of about 200 pages.

And these drawings were much bigger, more detailed, so I could develop the character design, the fashions, the architecture, the backgrounds, all the little details that go into making an animated feature film.

And once I finished that storyboard, I followed it pretty closely during the whole process of making the animation.

The storyboard, in fact, became my layouts.

So I used the storyboard right on top of my desk to guide me through animation. It was my bible, yeah

By the way – Cheatin’ is coming out April 3rd at New York’s Village East Cinema. It’s 76 minutes. And I will be there every night introducing the film, doing Q&A, and giving everybody who comes a free sketch (and if they want, I’ll do a high-five).

And then, starting on April 12th, I do a tour across America, hitting (I think) 20 towns promoting the film. And then on the 21st of April, the film is offered on Vimeo on-demand, and I won’t be there to give everybody a drawing on that one, haha!

On projects that Bill is working on post Cheatin’:

I’m working on 2 feature films right now.

The first one is called “Hitler’s Folly” and it’s about Adolph Hitler – the side that we don’t know. He was a lover of animation. And in fact, he started a studio, an animation studio, called “HitlerToons.”

(It’s a mockumentary)

And he made numerous animated shorts, and one feature film, called “The Ring Cycle.”

And it was Eva Braun, who actually ran the war machine. Hitler had nothing to do with that. He was just a happy-go-lucky guy who wanted to draw all day.

We’re going into final sound edit next month, so it should be around the festival circuit sometime in the fall (IF it gets in)!

And the other feature film is called “Re-Vengeance.” And it was written and voiced by Jim Lujan. And it’s about 1/3 done. I’m doing ALL the animation.

And it concerns the sleazy underbelly of Los Angeles – the corrupt politicians, the bikers, the wrestlers, the transvestites, the religious cultists, all these crazy fringe groups in LA. And that should be ready by 2016, at the rate I’m going.

Read more of Bill’s AMA here, and watch Cheatin‘ On Demand only on Vimeo along with in theaters near you.

About John Schwarz

John is the Chief Editor and Founder of Bubbleblabber.com. While at first a part-time project, Bubbleblabber quickly grew into a full-fledged operation and officially became a company in 2014. When John isn't running a business full-time, he likes to go to concerts with your mother.