"Mondo Plympton" is a feature-length anthology of the animated shorts of Bill Plympton, whose work has been oft-showcased in previous collections. Containing animated shorts, drawings, commercials and excerpts from both his first animated feature film ("The Tune") and his upcoming live-action release ("I Married a Strange Person"), it is a forceful argument for the idea that some things are better in small doses.
Plympton's work, which he draws entirely on his own, often takes off on the fragility and malleability of the human form via a unique brand of physical punning. His Oscar-nominated short, "Your Face", presents a singer whose face becomes endlessly contorted in various permutations, while "Push Comes to Shove" presents a physical duel between two men that is carried to hilarious extremes. In "Nosehair", a man struggles with the title subject, which reaches monstrous proportions, and in "How to Kiss", a couple engage in kissing maneuvers that can only be carried out in animation.
Unfortunately, a little of this goes a long way, and the film is not helped by the inclusion of some less-than-stellar items in Plympton's oeuvre, as well as a pretentious narration in which the animator details his career with the seriousness of a Nobel Prize winner. Visually, too, Plympton's shimmering drawings lack the variety needed to sustain a feature-length effort. Still, his is a unique and darkly comic vision, and those for whom his work is less familiar will no doubt take much pleasure here.
MONDO PLYMPTON
Director-producer-screenplay Bill Plympton
Co-writers Peter Vey, Maureen McElheron
Directors of photography Gary Dealer,
F-Stop Studio, Andrew Wilson, John Schnall, John Donnelly, Metropolis
Graphics Bob Lyons
Editors June Altschuler, Stephen Barr,
Merrill Sterns, Nico Sheers, Holly Fadson
Music Timothy Clark, Maureen McElheron,
Damian Boucher, Chac-Mul
Color/stereo
Vocals: Ruth Maleczech, Chris Hoffman, Maureen McElheron, Daniel Kaufman, Bill Plympton
Running time -- 80 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Plympton's work, which he draws entirely on his own, often takes off on the fragility and malleability of the human form via a unique brand of physical punning. His Oscar-nominated short, "Your Face", presents a singer whose face becomes endlessly contorted in various permutations, while "Push Comes to Shove" presents a physical duel between two men that is carried to hilarious extremes. In "Nosehair", a man struggles with the title subject, which reaches monstrous proportions, and in "How to Kiss", a couple engage in kissing maneuvers that can only be carried out in animation.
Unfortunately, a little of this goes a long way, and the film is not helped by the inclusion of some less-than-stellar items in Plympton's oeuvre, as well as a pretentious narration in which the animator details his career with the seriousness of a Nobel Prize winner. Visually, too, Plympton's shimmering drawings lack the variety needed to sustain a feature-length effort. Still, his is a unique and darkly comic vision, and those for whom his work is less familiar will no doubt take much pleasure here.
MONDO PLYMPTON
Director-producer-screenplay Bill Plympton
Co-writers Peter Vey, Maureen McElheron
Directors of photography Gary Dealer,
F-Stop Studio, Andrew Wilson, John Schnall, John Donnelly, Metropolis
Graphics Bob Lyons
Editors June Altschuler, Stephen Barr,
Merrill Sterns, Nico Sheers, Holly Fadson
Music Timothy Clark, Maureen McElheron,
Damian Boucher, Chac-Mul
Color/stereo
Vocals: Ruth Maleczech, Chris Hoffman, Maureen McElheron, Daniel Kaufman, Bill Plympton
Running time -- 80 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/25/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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