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Hello there, and welcome back to
the disc Connected. I'm here with legendary

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animator Bill Plimpton. Bill, thank
you so much for doing this today.

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Hello. How is everybody today?
I'm sure that they are well because we

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were all just graced with this wonderful
new release of the tune from Deaf Crocodile.

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It has been totally remastered by the
Academy, so they did a great

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job. It looks so beautiful.
It was gorgeous. I gotta admit I've

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watched it twice since it came out, which is crazy because it literally just

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came out and it looks so much
better than you could imagine something like this

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could possibly look more than thirty years
later on such a unique style of animation.

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I imagine you're very proud of the
way that it was restored. Yeah.

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Well, one of the interesting things
about it is that I didn't know

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it at the time, and I
well, let me go back and start

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for the beginning. I started doing
animation when I was a lot older.

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I think it's forty when I did
your Face and that was a huge hit,

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and then I went on to I
quit my print illustration jobs and went

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on to do more shorts, twenty
five Ways Quit Smoking, how to Kiss

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one of those days, platoons,
a whole bunch of and commercials and stuff,

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and I put it in a video
cassette and when I looked at it

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all together, it was an hour
of animation. I went, Wow,

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I've done a feature film in the
last few years. And then the thought

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occurred to me, why not do
a feature film, because that was my

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goal when I was younger. I
saw Sleeping Beauty and I said, oh,

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man, I would give anything just
to do some of the drawings on

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Sleeping Beauty. You know, I
really love feature animated feature films. And

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for me to come to the realization
that, hey, why not do the

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whole film, I thought that was
wonderful. So I talked to Marine mckellarin,

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who was my musician. We played
bars and clubs around New York.

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I did pedal steel and she sang
and played guitar, and I said,

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let's do an animated feature film along
the lines of Yellow Submarine, which is

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one of my favorite all time films, but using American music. American music,

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you know, surfing, country,
western rockabilly, jazz, you know,

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all sorts of styles of music.
And she said yeah, let's do

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it. We tried to sell it. Even though I was nominated for an

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Oscar, nobody wanted to buy it
because it was kind of an adult film

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and a lot of distributors, you
know, are afraid of adult animation.

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So I said, we'll do it
ourselves, and I I financed it because

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at that point I was making money
doing commercials. Your Face was such a

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hit, such a big hit,
that I was picked as an animator for

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a bunch of commercials, big time
commercial so I had money. So for

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about an hour a year and a
half, I financed my film and it

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came out, and little did I
realize that this was the first time anybody

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had ever hand drawn their own animated
feature film. And what happened was then

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the whole digital explosion was kicking in, and people realized they don't need to

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hire a cameraman or go to a
Kodak and buy film, or get the

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pro film processed and all that garbage. They can just do it at home

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on their laptop. And for now, I see all these people making their

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own animated feature films, and they
say, yeah, Bill Plimpton did it,

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why can't we do it? And
so I kind of started in my

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mind, I kind of started a
revolution in animation that people on their own

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DIY make their own animated feature films. And I think that's that's fantastic because

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there are some great films out there
with people doing it themselves. And I'm

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absolutely happy to say, proud to
say that the tune kicked off this revolution

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that's going on now. Well.
I mean, one of the things that

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I did want to get into is
the fact that it is so difficult to

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get distribution for so many things,
and you've not to you know, worship

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at the feet of Bill Plimpton,
but you've made yourself this subset of things

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that are even harder to get distribution
for animation. Animation is already difficult.

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Adult animation is even further difficult than
Yeah, shorts are even difficult beyond that,

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which is also where a lot of
the successes come from. So as

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somebody that made such an impact.
One of the things I'd really love to

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hear about is that first Oscar nomination. How'd that feel? How'd that affect

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you? Well? The weird thing
is I never entered it in the Oscars.

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I think it was with either the
Spike and Mike's Show or the Tournay

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of Animation, and they entered it
in the Oscars and I got a phone

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call from this guy from the Canadian
Film Board one morning saying, this is

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Bill Plimpton. I said, yeah, did you know you got nominated for

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an Oscar this morning? I said, what are you kidding me? And

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I had to call someone else to
confirm that this wasn't a prankster, and

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sure enough I did get nominated,
and it really did change my life completely.

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I mean, for my first animated
film to be that successful, it's

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very rare. A lot of it
had to do. I was forty,

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and I had experienced doing comic strips
and I knew how to, you know,

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make people laugh with my drawings.
That helped a lot. But still

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for my first film to be that
successful, it's really really amazing to me.

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And going there to the Oscars was
incredible, meeting all these people and

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it was just changed my life completely. I spent an evening this week with

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this brand new disc of the tune, watched all of it, which is

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a wonderful release. We've got a
bunch of the shorts on here. We've

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got an hour long interview with you
and some of your collaborators from the tune.

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We've got a new audio commentary,
We've got an essay by Walt Shaw,

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who's a wonderful film critic. But
I was astonished because my wife had

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never seen anything from Clinton, and
I loved sharing it with her. And

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what's funny is everything still works.
Something about this animation. Yeah, he's

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so timeless. Yeah, yeah,
And animation is like that. And I

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did it purposely. I didn't want
to bring in any Reagan jokes or you

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know, contemporary humor. I just
wanted to be like a universal, a

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universal story. Can I tell you
one story? I tell you what mean?

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Yeah, you were talking about getting
distribution for animation. Not only is

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it independent animation, but it is
for adults, it's not for kid And

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I was at sun Dance for I
believe it was around two thousand something like

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that with my film I Married a
Strange Person. Maybe it's earlier, right,

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nineteen ninety nine, And the audience
loved the film. It's probably my

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most bizarre film. It's a really
crazy film. But nobody was picking it

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up. Nobody was buying this film. And this was the film I did

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after the two and I was very
frustrated. And then I was on the

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school but not school by the bus
of Sundance. It goes around and drops

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people off with all the movie theaters, and I saw the head of Lionsgate

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Films there and I said, oh, I know that guy. I met

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him once. So I walk up
to him and say hello. I think

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his name was Tom and I said, I'm Bill Plimpton. I have a

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new film here at Sundance. It's
called I Married a Strange Person. You

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got to see it. It's really
people are loving it. He said,

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well, you know, I'd love
to see it, but I got a

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stack of films, you know,
this high to watch. I'm really busy.

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I just don't have time to see
another film. So I was really

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frustrated and I have book PS pissed
off. And then the doors to the

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bus open and this young guy twenty
years old jumps on the bus and he's

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got that little knit cap, you
know, with snow coming down the side,

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and he had a snowboard and he'd
just come down the hill and he

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was covered in snow. And as
he gets on, he says, dude,

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you're Bill Plimpton. Yeah, you
made I Married Strange person that rocked

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my world, though, you are
God. And then he jumps off the

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bus and heads on down the hill
on the snowboard and that was it.

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And I know what to do.
And so the guy from Lions guy says,

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well, I guess I better look
at this film. And he looked

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at it, and he bought it
for a lot of money. And I

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even get royalty checks from that,
and that is rare. It's really rare

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when you get royalty checks from a
big studio, especially when you're a small

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guy like me. You know,
I'm not Brad Pitt or anything like that.

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So it was and that's the that's
the business. That's how it works.

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The weirdest connections can can change your
career, you know. And that

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kid, I never I don't know
who he is. I should have paid

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him for that. He should get
royalties. Yeah, that's the business.

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You got to be on a bus
and hope that this random skier gets on

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with dripping water and snow all over
all of us, you know, that's

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that's what Anyway, that was my
I love that. And one of the

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things that has to, you know, for a certain generation, be the

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you know, some of the fine
you know, references for Plinton that they

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have is you were kind of everywhere
for a little while that you were,

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you know, working working with certain
people that were perfect for my demographic.

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So I got to ask about a
handful of these, like MTV's Liquid Television.

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How was working with them back in
the day. Yeah, they saw

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my film Your Face at Anissey,
I think, and they went they kept

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going Tony's Animation Festival in France where
it's purely animation. It's it's like the

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can Film Festival of Animation, and
so they contacted me. They were there

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and they you know, invited me
out to dinner and said, we want

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to show your film on MTV,
and it was a big success with the

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channel. And then I did Twenty
five Ways with Smoking, which was really

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big success on on MTV because not
only was it funny and animated, but

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it had a real point to it, you know, I stopped smoking and

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so MTV loved that. And then
I showed how to Kiss and I think

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plimp tunes in one of those days. So my stuff was all over MTV,

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but they never gave me a credit, and I had no sense they

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cut off the credits whenever the end
of the film came, they cut it

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off, and you know, I
didn't mind. I was so happy to

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be on MTV because at that point
was hot. I mean watching MTV and

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I did too. I love watching
that channel. And I ran into some

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people later on and they and I
told them about myself on MTV and says,

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that was you. We didn't know
your name. We just said,

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oh, it's the credit, the
color pencil guy. I was the color

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pencil guy that they watched. And
apparently I had a lot of big following

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as a color pencil guy on MTV. So MTV was was very important to

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my early early start in animation.
Well, now that you brought that up,

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I'll hold on the other collaborators that
I want to bring up. But

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one of the things that is so
important for you and your style is that

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individual, almost like very textured look. It's something that no one else has

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and as somebody that you know,
as you can see behind me, I

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love tangible things. I love physical
media. I love that this can never

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be taken away from to you.
Me too, that your animation has meant

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a lot because it feels like that
and when you watch not not that the

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Disney animated stuff is bad or anything. Some of those are my favorite.

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But something about everything from Bill Plimpton
has always been special because it's like I

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can reach out and feel the shavings
of the colored pencils. Well, it's

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it's handmade right, and there are
a lot of mistakes in there, and

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I happen to like the mistakes.
It makes it a fresh feel like it

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was created by hand. And I
think that's that's why my stuff stands out.

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And you know, uh, it's
interesting everybody says as soon as they

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see their work, they say,
oh, it's Plimpton. It's I'm identified

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with that real kind of crude,
crude look of my animation. And it's

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funny because I was influenced by a
lot of people, you know, certainly

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Disney at the beginning, and tech
savery above lamp At winsor McKay, and

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then some of the current animators like
Marv Nulan and Joanna Quinn and people like

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that who I really love their work, and Tim Burton, and so you

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would think that I would I would
be repeating someone's style, but I mix

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them around in a pot and it
comes out totally a unique, unique style.

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So and I like that I want
to I want to do stuff that's

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really uh never been seen before.
Yeah, that's important to me that it's

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a totally unique style. I it's
such a unique style that there are certain

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times in my life when I've been
growing, I've been going through different periods

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and I've loved things like weird Now
and there's Plimpton out of nowhere showing up

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with things that I love. With
weird l Uh, you go into the

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Kanye West phase of loving hip hop
there there's Bill Plumpton, Like, first

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off, how did these connections get
made? Or well, Kanye was he

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grew up in Chicago, as you
know, and his mom would take him

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to see the Spike and mic show, which played at the Big Theater there,

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I forget the name of the theater
and he had huge audiences and he

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loved my animation as young kid.
And then he's you know, then he

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has this big career and MTV hired
him to uh didn't hire him, but

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asked him to premiere his new music
video on their channel t r L.

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I think it's called and Uh.
He asked Michelle Gondry to do it.

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You know who. Michelle's a big
name, big and movies and in music

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videos, and what Michelle Gondre delivered
Kanye did not like. Uh. He

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took like half a million dollars and
rented the top of Macy's and did this

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whole stop thing. Wow. And
so he was freaking out because he had

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a week to premiere on MTV.
So he called me. He said,

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I remember that guy Plimpton who did
the torn A or the Sick and Twisted

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animations. I love that stuff.
And so he called me out of the

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blues, like the middle of the
night. This is Bill Bleimben, it's

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Kanye. You do the cartoons.
So yeah, that's me that I need.

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I need you to make an animation
video for me. So to do

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a music video in a week is
really suicidal. But I knew as Kanye

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West, and it would get a
lot of a lot of circulation, so

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I said, yes, I will
do it. He didn't give me a

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number, didn't say how much money
I was getting paid, but I figured

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it wouldn't be bad just to do
it for free. Uh. And we

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I stayed up for about a week, me and my producer finishing this film

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and weed it one hour before it
was supposed to air on MTV and it

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was shown all over the world.
I mean, but I was in Finland

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doing a festival and I turned on
TV and here's my Kanye West music video.

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So I did very well. And
you know what, he was a

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great guy. He came to buy
my studio once and he looked over my

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shoulder and said. The only thing
he said was, you know, I

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think I'm more handsome than that.
You got to make me more good looking.

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I said, sure, I'll do
it. And we did a book

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together, which was nice, and
he did a gallery exhibition of all my

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artwork from the from the film.
So I have a lot of respect for

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him. He was really He treated
me very well, and I think he's

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extremely talented guy. The other stuff, you know, I can't explain that,

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but he's extremely talented. That comes
back to whirred owt for me,

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because he's one that everybody that I
know that is close with him or has

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worked with him multiple times cannot say
anything but positive about him. Any any

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super fun, weird al stories,
Yeah, well, yeah, one was

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I was working. I think I've
done two or three for him, I

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can't remember. For the second one, I went out to la to meet

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with him to talk about the project, and we went to like Hollywood and

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Vine is so so real, fifties
Hollywood kind of diner place, a bar

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bar, diner bar, and we
had nice dinner and we were walking out

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and a homeless guy came up.
Weird Well, oh my god, weird

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Hell, can I have your autograph? And he didn't have a pad,

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didn't have a pen, and you
know, weird Al is so polite.

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He reached down, he saw a
matchbook cover in the gutter. He picked

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it up, he signed Weirdell on
it and gave it to the guy.

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I mean, how many rock stars
would do that. That is just so

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absurd that he would, you know, care so much about this homeless guy

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to get an autograph. Wow,
that's amazing. And then the other big

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one. You have multiple times done
animation for the Simpsons, which yes,

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it's huge, and it's it's so
interesting to have two animation institutions collide in

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a way. That is, it
fits in the rhetoric of what the Simpsons

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do because they bring in different animators
for that. But yeah, it serves

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the way that you animate as well, because they've been doing this for so

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long in such a unique way.
Well, that's for sure. They're so

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successful. I mean nothing, there's
never been TV animation that successful. It's

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just it's just phenomenal. I do
have a Matt Grading story if you're interested,

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00:19:47.160 --> 00:19:52.119
absolutely, Okay. Uh So I
went to Porton State in Oregon.

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That's where I grew up. I
went to Porton State College and they had

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a film festival Internet Portland International Film
Festival, and I was really getting into

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the film and the movies end.
So I went to it and there there

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was this guy showing industrial. Do
you remember what an industrial is? Oh?

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Yeah, oh yeah, they were. They were big back then,

250
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and they were hilarious. They were
like money Python. They were so deadpan

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and strange. And the guy was
there and I introduced myself. I said,

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I'm Bill Plumpton. I love your
films. They're really terrific. And

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he said, and I think you
might have seen some of my cartoons,

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and so he kind of knew who
I was. He said, well,

255
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I live right up on the hills
there. Why don't you come up.

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I'll show you some more of them. I said, oh my god,

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that'd be wonderful. And when he
drove me up there, I walked in

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the door and there's this little kid
laying down on the on the on the

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carpet doing cartoons, drawing cartoons.
And I said, oh, you're a

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cartoonist too. Wow, that's what
I'm I'm doing cartoons too. And that

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was matt Uh And we became friends
ever since. And you know, we

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don't hang out a lot together,
but usually we'll runn into each other at

263
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Anniecy or at the Annie's or some
film festival and we have a beer and

264
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stuff. And he is really a
super nice guy too. He goes to

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Annisy. I used to go every
day every year, and him and David

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Silverman, you know David Silverman.
I never met him, but yeah,

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I know about him. He directed
a bunch of the Sins of the movie.

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And they would go there and you
know, when I would go,

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I would do sign to autograph my
DVDs or my books or something like that.

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They would go and they just autograph
paper and they would line would be

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all the way around the block out
to the lake, and I swear him

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and David would sit there for four
or five hours as long as the line

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took of autographing this stuff. And
you know, to think he's a spoiled,

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rich guy, it would be absurd. He really believes in his art,

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he believes in his cartoons, and
he really wants to make people happy,

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and that that's an inspiration for me. Really. He's a workhorse too,

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like he's one of the busiest people
out there. Yeah. Yeah,

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And he does the Futurama and he
does he produces short films and so he

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does really work hard for for his
his career. You brought up a couple

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of the things that inspired you at
the very beginning, but I would love

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to hear if there was anything that
inspired your specific style, because obviously inspired

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your specific style because it's so unique. Yeah. Well, like I say,

283
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it's it's really I steal from a
lot of people. You know.

284
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Our crumb was a big influence,
Ralph Bakshi. You know, the Beatles,

285
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Milton Glazier and see why if uh
and I really I copy of them

286
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all. But the style for my
new film it's called sly. I guess

287
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I shouldn't talk about that, should
I should know? We can't. I

288
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was going to bring it up in
just a minute. Actually for a totally

289
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different style, and that's the style
I used when I was doing illustrations for

290
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magazines and newspapers. And it's I
go with a ballpoint pen and do the

291
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character, draw the character, and
then I go in with the colored pencil

292
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and build up the volume and the
shading and all the detail work. And

293
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I never did it in animation simply
because it's a lot of work. I

294
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mean, every drawing I have to
draw twice and I have to get into

295
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the detail. So this it was
a a new thing for me. And

296
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it just seems like people really respond
to this new technique. And I mean,

297
00:23:51.839 --> 00:23:56.319
you'll never see the Simpsons done like
this, or Disney or Pixar really

298
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handmade and rough and sketchy. It's
very impressionistic. I like to call it

299
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impressionistic because it looks like a drawing
you might see in an art museum.

300
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You know, It's very rough and
the edges are not sure, and everything's

301
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kind of kind of crude. And
I love that style. And that's why

302
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I want to be independent and not
work for Disney, because they would they

303
00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:25.160
would definitely get rid of that in
a second. But I don't want to

304
00:24:25.160 --> 00:24:27.799
saying against Disney. I love Disney. I wouldn't be here today without Disney.

305
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As a kid, I was obsessed
by Disney and I still love their

306
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stuff, so I don't want to
be negative on Disney. Well, and

307
00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:41.759
there's been a handful that have left
Disney that they started with Disney and that

308
00:24:41.799 --> 00:24:45.720
they found their way. Don Bluth
is one of my favorites from when I

309
00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:48.759
was a kid, and I mean
he's probably one of the bigger names that

310
00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:52.759
made an imprint in Disney and could
have been very successful with Disney. But

311
00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:56.000
yeah, yeah, I mean arguably
he went and made his own thing,

312
00:24:56.079 --> 00:24:57.559
probably bigger than he would have been
able to be at Disney. Yeah.

313
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And Jim Burton was a huge success
for sure from starting out with Disney.

314
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And he's another one that influenced me
because of his independence and his weird weirdness

315
00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:15.279
factor. He doesn't do happy films, you know, kids and songs and

316
00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:19.000
stuff. He does stuff on the
edge and I like that. I like

317
00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:22.920
doing humor that's on the edge.
Well, and a lot of your stuff

318
00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:26.720
is that way. It's on the
you know, not like death necessarily,

319
00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:32.880
but like dark humor and black humor
done in a way that is almost essentially

320
00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:38.160
like British humor. That's funny.
Yeah, I see a little muddy python

321
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in the very dead pan but very
surreal, extremely surreal, and that's where

322
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I find my humor. There is
in the tune there's one scene about,

323
00:25:49.119 --> 00:25:52.319
oh, I don't know, three
quarters of the way through and there's two

324
00:25:52.359 --> 00:25:57.039
gentlemen just beating the hell out of
each other. Yeah, And my wife

325
00:25:57.119 --> 00:26:00.920
again saw that, this time for
the this week, for the first time,

326
00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:03.559
and after about three rounds of them
going back and forth, she said,

327
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this is still going on, and
I said, yeah, it's perfect,

328
00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:12.640
isn't it. That's very Mondy python. That was, And then I

329
00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:18.279
released that. While I was making
the tune, I started running out of

330
00:26:18.279 --> 00:26:22.480
money. I don't know, I
wasn't getting enough commercials or something, and

331
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so I decided to release that film
and The Wise Man where the guy says

332
00:26:30.440 --> 00:26:34.000
to cut one loaf into two,
you have three. You real kind of

333
00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:40.000
magical stuff. And they were both
very successful as short short films. In

334
00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:44.720
fact, the one Push Comes to
Shove the two guys beating up on each

335
00:26:44.759 --> 00:26:52.880
other were won the prize It Can
the critics choice, and that was.

336
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And I wasn't there. I was
I was shooting a live extra film at

337
00:26:56.559 --> 00:26:59.799
the moment, and I was I
was really tired of shooting all day.

338
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And I came home Tron on TV
and they had the broadcast of the can

339
00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:08.759
Film Festival and Madonna gets on.
She was a judge then, and the

340
00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:14.359
winner is Bill Blimpton. Mister Blimpton, please come up and get your prize,

341
00:27:14.640 --> 00:27:18.559
and I go, I want to
why am I not in you know?

342
00:27:18.680 --> 00:27:25.680
And can getting a prize from on
it? So that was a big

343
00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:27.680
mistake. But yeah, that was
that was. That film got me a

344
00:27:27.680 --> 00:27:34.680
lot of commercials too, and I
think I did a game, a computer

345
00:27:34.759 --> 00:27:41.200
game with that, with that idea, that concept there. There's another movie

346
00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:44.680
that has affected me a lot.
And the first time I shot the first

347
00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:48.839
time I saw it, I I
think I may have just laughed so hard

348
00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:52.279
that I missed like nine of the
scenes. Then I could rewatch it your

349
00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:56.240
I think it was two thousand and
four, The Dog short film. Oh

350
00:27:56.319 --> 00:27:59.960
yeah, yeah, guard Dog.
Yeah that was too hard to five.

351
00:28:00.839 --> 00:28:03.160
So I don't even remember where I
was the first time I saw this.

352
00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:11.319
But this movie, the shortest perfection, the attitude through it first. Where'd

353
00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:15.680
the idea come from for that one? Well that's interesting because I live here

354
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in Chelsea, New York, and
there's a park about a block away that

355
00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:22.799
I go running in to get healthy. And I was running around the park

356
00:28:22.839 --> 00:28:27.240
and I saw this dog barking at
a little bird, a cute little bird.

357
00:28:27.319 --> 00:28:32.000
You know, why was the dog
freaking out for the bird? And

358
00:28:32.039 --> 00:28:36.920
then I went inside the dog's brain
and realized that the dog was afraid that

359
00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:42.559
the bird would attack his master and
ruin his relationship, ruin his keeper,

360
00:28:42.759 --> 00:28:48.240
ruin his home, you know,
just ruin his life basically. So the

361
00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:52.880
dog was extremely paranoid dog, which
I think some dogs are. You know,

362
00:28:52.920 --> 00:28:56.799
they barking and well, I don't
know if your dog does that,

363
00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:02.880
but absolutely when we had a dog
when I was a kid that barked whenever

364
00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:07.359
the garbage man came, or the
mailman or the milkman came, he would

365
00:29:07.640 --> 00:29:10.799
bark him and chase him. So
I thought that was a funny idea to

366
00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:18.480
make this dog totally paranoid of everything. And the lesson is the more paranoid

367
00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:22.039
he gets, the more in endanger
his master is. And that's what the

368
00:29:22.039 --> 00:29:26.559
film is, with his master dying. And this film, I thought it

369
00:29:26.680 --> 00:29:30.160
was kind of a throwaway film.
I did it real quick. It was

370
00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:33.400
the first film I did digitally.
I didn't use a camera on it.

371
00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:41.880
I did computer scanning on computer and
compositive computer, and we screened it in

372
00:29:42.119 --> 00:29:48.559
Maryland the Maryland Film Festival, and
it was a bunch of other shorts in

373
00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:52.200
fact, and the reaction I got
I was not ready for that. It

374
00:29:52.279 --> 00:29:56.359
was just people went nuts and they
were screaming and yelling, and they all

375
00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:00.599
ran up to me and said,
I want to a stuffed all of the

376
00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:04.119
dog. Do you have any mugs
to the dog? You have any towels

377
00:30:04.200 --> 00:30:10.720
I want? I got to have
the dog. So he was really big

378
00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:14.640
from the very beginning, and clever
me. I thought, gee, maybe

379
00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:18.960
I should do another one. I
think I've done six or seven of them

380
00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:23.319
now, and I'll probably do one
next next year. Sometimes nice Well,

381
00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:27.079
one thing I would love to touch
on is how animation has changed since you

382
00:30:27.079 --> 00:30:30.920
started doing it, and you just
brought him that move to digital? Were

383
00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:33.640
you Were you anxious about that move
when you when you first made that.

384
00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:37.200
Uh. I wasn't anxious because I
always had people who worked for me that

385
00:30:37.319 --> 00:30:41.759
knew all the specifics of you know, how to make it, all the

386
00:30:41.799 --> 00:30:48.079
programs and that stuff. I was
so happy, unlike Tarantino. I was

387
00:30:48.119 --> 00:30:59.279
so happy that this happened because as
an independent buying the film stock, getting

388
00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:04.680
a camera, and getting the film
processed and screened, and doing the soundtrack

389
00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:12.480
on optical tracks. All these things
were just so expensive. In the past,

390
00:31:12.559 --> 00:31:19.440
I would spend about eighty percent of
my budget on the technical side of

391
00:31:19.480 --> 00:31:27.000
making a film. Now I spend
about ten percent of my budget on the

392
00:31:27.039 --> 00:31:30.640
technical side, and then all the
rest of money can go into the artists

393
00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:34.240
making the art. And that's the
way it should be. It should be

394
00:31:34.279 --> 00:31:40.000
that the more money goes to the
artists than to the technical labs and stuff

395
00:31:40.039 --> 00:31:45.400
like that. So I'm overjoyed by
And then also I remember carting those big

396
00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:48.920
reels you know, remember some big
reels and cans you had to take to

397
00:31:48.960 --> 00:31:53.480
the post office and ship ship them
out and that was expensive too. Oh

398
00:31:53.559 --> 00:31:59.039
yeah, So I'm really happy that
we just send a digital file and you're

399
00:31:59.039 --> 00:32:05.759
done. You know. It's an
astonishing difference. Yeah, it really was

400
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:10.119
wonderful. The the cost difference alone, especially for people inspired by work like

401
00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:15.839
yours before that was that was a
giant barrier of entry. And now you

402
00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:17.880
can basically do everything that that you
need to at home, and I love

403
00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:22.839
that. I love I can't do
it myself, but my studio can can

404
00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:28.079
facilitate my my my working on that. Well, speaking of the studio,

405
00:32:28.519 --> 00:32:30.839
Plimp Tunes is huge. I mean, you've been doing stuff for for a

406
00:32:30.960 --> 00:32:34.680
very long time. I'd love to
hear about Slide. Could you? Could

407
00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:37.839
you share with everybody what slide is? Yeah, I think I have some

408
00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:44.480
artwork here. Let's see. I'm
gonna get a good one for you.

409
00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:52.799
This is a fun Uh. These
are some of the cowboys, nice cowboys.

410
00:32:53.319 --> 00:32:59.240
And then they're they're going to kill
this woman who wants to sing a

411
00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:07.000
song. Let me find her.
Well, here's the stage. So as

412
00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:15.480
you know, animation has been in
stages. Uh's up again, all right,

413
00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:22.240
And so these cowboys are up there
on stage and they're going to kill

414
00:33:22.279 --> 00:33:25.200
the woman. Who's who she is, who's singing the song. She's the

415
00:33:25.240 --> 00:33:30.400
star of the film. Let's see. I want to get it. There

416
00:33:30.440 --> 00:33:37.200
you go? Can you see it? Yeah? Wow? And so the

417
00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:43.799
question is that she have guts to
perform with the gun to her head or

418
00:33:43.880 --> 00:33:47.680
not. And that's one of the
questions of the film. It's it's real.

419
00:33:47.720 --> 00:33:52.839
And you can see by this the
two textures I do pen and ink

420
00:33:54.200 --> 00:34:00.440
like this. Oh yeah, this
yere is a pen and ink style,

421
00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:04.920
and then I'd go in with a
color pencil and I'll do that. So

422
00:34:04.960 --> 00:34:07.480
it's a really unique style that you'll
never see anybody else do because it's no

423
00:34:07.519 --> 00:34:14.800
one enough to do that well.
I mean, there's a lot of stuff

424
00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:20.400
with the animation that you've kind of
been like the harbinger for trying new things.

425
00:34:20.840 --> 00:34:25.719
Yeah. No, Slide was influenced
by my growing up in Oregon.

426
00:34:27.239 --> 00:34:31.239
We lived in the woods and there
was a lot of lumber mills around there,

427
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:36.239
you know, because there's a lot
of forestry going on, and every

428
00:34:36.280 --> 00:34:39.840
day these logging trucks would go by
our house in the country, and I

429
00:34:39.880 --> 00:34:45.559
just thought that would be a fun
location to do a Western. I wanted

430
00:34:45.559 --> 00:34:51.400
to do a Western that had Hank
Williams music because something about Hank Wayne's music

431
00:34:51.480 --> 00:34:57.239
and animation just fits together. It's
really fun. And so I can't afford

432
00:34:57.239 --> 00:35:04.199
the Hank Wayne's music obviously, but
my writers Marie ba Keller and Hank Bones,

433
00:35:04.199 --> 00:35:08.920
they can mimic that sound, the
old old timey country Western music,

434
00:35:08.960 --> 00:35:12.920
and that's what I wanted to do
well, and you've been doing that for

435
00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:15.559
years. The tune does that quite
a few times, that's right. And

436
00:35:15.599 --> 00:35:21.400
I have so many favorite parts on
that. I love the blues No Knows

437
00:35:21.480 --> 00:35:24.960
Blues is one of my favorites,
the surfing song. I remember we were

438
00:35:25.079 --> 00:35:31.679
recording the surfing song. It's called
Dance All Day, and it was going

439
00:35:31.719 --> 00:35:37.559
so well. We had the surfing
guitar and everything, and we realized that

440
00:35:37.639 --> 00:35:40.639
it was too short, and so
Marine was there to sing. She was

441
00:35:40.679 --> 00:35:45.639
singing, and I said, Marine, we need another verse. So she

442
00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:50.000
sat down in five minutes and wrote
another verse and it was funnier than any

443
00:35:50.039 --> 00:35:52.280
of the others. I don't know
how she does that. She really is

444
00:35:52.320 --> 00:35:54.559
a genius. So she gets a
lot of credit for this film. She

445
00:35:54.679 --> 00:35:58.440
did a lot of the sound,
she did a lot of the voices,

446
00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:04.360
a lot of the music, and
she was really an important part of this

447
00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:08.719
baking of this film. Well.
And she is in the hour long interview

448
00:36:08.719 --> 00:36:14.639
with Dennis Bartalk from Deaf Crocodile on
this highly recommend watching that. Uh,

449
00:36:14.719 --> 00:36:19.800
the conversation is great between the four
of you. Thank you Deaf Crocodile.

450
00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:22.599
They're close friends of mine, and
I got to hear how is it working

451
00:36:22.639 --> 00:36:25.880
with them? Are they good people? We really enjoy it. We're very

452
00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:31.719
excited about it. We I do
have other films that we may also release

453
00:36:32.360 --> 00:36:38.000
on DVD, so they're definitely somebody
we want to keep in touch with in

454
00:36:38.039 --> 00:36:43.079
the future. And you've, I
mean a lot of that you've been doing

455
00:36:43.119 --> 00:36:46.760
throughout the years. Has the has
the physical media side of Plimpton's been important

456
00:36:46.760 --> 00:36:51.119
to you that entire time because it's
it seems like it really is. And

457
00:36:51.400 --> 00:36:54.320
the media, the physical media being
able to release the films and something we

458
00:36:54.440 --> 00:36:58.119
can have a home and be able
to watch it. I love I have

459
00:36:58.199 --> 00:37:01.480
a big library of DVD's. I
love DVDs there so great. And then

460
00:37:01.480 --> 00:37:07.039
there you have all the extras,
you know, the documentaries, interviews,

461
00:37:07.199 --> 00:37:12.239
the voiceovers, that kind of stuff. So for me, it's it's really

462
00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:16.159
an important part of you know,
my releasing, getting the films out there.

463
00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:21.679
Do you remember any of your favorite
titles with some great extras on it,

464
00:37:21.800 --> 00:37:25.679
like those interviews and documentaries. Yeah, I like some of the foreign

465
00:37:25.719 --> 00:37:31.159
ones. Those are really cool.
You know Ardman. Ardman does great animation.

466
00:37:31.360 --> 00:37:37.960
I love their stuff, the Tim
Burton films, Nightmare Before Christmas,

467
00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:44.360
I mean that's fantastic. Yeah,
so I love that's Mark Newland, one

468
00:37:44.400 --> 00:37:47.800
of the great, great animators.
He did Bamby Beats Gotzilla if you ever

469
00:37:47.880 --> 00:37:55.360
saw that, and to me,
that is the perfect animated film because he's

470
00:37:55.800 --> 00:38:01.000
I think there's maybe twelve drawings in
the whole film, and he spent five

471
00:38:01.039 --> 00:38:05.760
hundred dollars to make it. He
did it in a weekend, and it's

472
00:38:05.800 --> 00:38:09.440
probably one of the most popular animated
films ever made, and it's probably made

473
00:38:09.480 --> 00:38:13.320
him over one hundred thousand dollars.
And I went, oh my god,

474
00:38:13.320 --> 00:38:16.920
I wish I could do that again. I do that. So Marvel was

475
00:38:16.920 --> 00:38:22.159
a good buddy of mine, and
I use his films as examples. I

476
00:38:22.159 --> 00:38:25.280
mean he made other great films too, not just Bamby Meet Scott Zilla.

477
00:38:25.960 --> 00:38:31.519
So he's one of my influences.
I would also love to hear some thoughts

478
00:38:31.559 --> 00:38:37.039
from you on modern animation because obviously, with such a unique, very very

479
00:38:37.079 --> 00:38:42.920
personal, old school tangible design style
that you have, how do you feel

480
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:45.280
about the polish that we're seeing an
animation today? Well? I like it,

481
00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:51.119
you know, if the story is
good, I like it. Chris

482
00:38:51.119 --> 00:38:57.480
Miller, who did a lot of
the Lego movies, yeah, used to

483
00:38:57.480 --> 00:39:00.920
work for me. He worked for
me one summer and he was a college

484
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.920
kid I he was a sophomore or
something like that, and I just thought

485
00:39:04.920 --> 00:39:08.719
he was a guy who liked animation, But apparently he was really he's really,

486
00:39:09.440 --> 00:39:15.320
really smart, very funny. I
wish I could work with him at

487
00:39:15.320 --> 00:39:20.760
some point, but that'll never happen. He's up in the stratosphere. He's

488
00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:27.840
grown a little bit. Yeah,
a big time now. But going back,

489
00:39:27.960 --> 00:39:31.440
like to the earliest days, how
difficult was it for you to start

490
00:39:31.440 --> 00:39:36.800
getting your work into publications? Because
I think the hard part nowadays for people

491
00:39:36.840 --> 00:39:39.880
inspired by stuff like yours, A
lot of those publications just don't exist anymore.

492
00:39:40.119 --> 00:39:44.639
It's super difficult to compete. Like, what publications are you talking about?

493
00:39:44.800 --> 00:39:49.119
Anything like magazines or newspapers or any
of that. It's not even an

494
00:39:49.119 --> 00:39:52.039
outlet anymore. Yeah, a lot
of my illustrator friends are having a tough

495
00:39:52.079 --> 00:39:57.639
time, and I feel bad for
them because their work is brilliant. I

496
00:39:57.639 --> 00:40:01.360
mean, it's really gorgeous stuff.
So yeah, when I was doing it

497
00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:06.000
in the seventies and eighties, illustration
was big time. You know, you

498
00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:08.679
can make a lot of money.
Now it's very difficult. So I'm glad

499
00:40:08.679 --> 00:40:13.760
I moved to an animation. Quite
frankly, that was My initial goal was

500
00:40:13.800 --> 00:40:16.039
to be an animator. It wasn't
to be an illustrator. The only reason

501
00:40:16.039 --> 00:40:22.920
I became an animator was because that
or an illustrator. Rather, it was

502
00:40:22.920 --> 00:40:30.519
because the animation business was dying.
It was really it was Hanna Barbera,

503
00:40:31.039 --> 00:40:35.239
and I hated Anna Barbera. I
didn't think that was animation and that was

504
00:40:35.280 --> 00:40:37.800
the only way to place to get
a job. There was no really really

505
00:40:37.840 --> 00:40:43.199
good openings for that. So I
said, well, I'll be an illustrator

506
00:40:43.280 --> 00:40:49.400
and maybe something will come along.
And then in nineteen eighty seven, I

507
00:40:49.480 --> 00:40:52.960
was contacted by a client of mine. I had done a brochure with her,

508
00:40:53.719 --> 00:41:00.639
and she said, we have this
song by Jules Sniper and we want

509
00:41:00.679 --> 00:41:04.320
to make a music video out of
it. And I said, yeah,

510
00:41:04.360 --> 00:41:07.920
that's great, but I don't know
how to do animation. And they said,

511
00:41:07.960 --> 00:41:10.199
oh, we'll get someone to teach
you. Her name was Connie de

512
00:41:10.239 --> 00:41:15.440
Antonio, and she walked me through
every step of making the film. And

513
00:41:16.719 --> 00:41:22.519
that was my school. That was
my animation school. And that film was

514
00:41:22.559 --> 00:41:25.679
called Boomtown and it was kind of
a semi hit. It got distribution all

515
00:41:25.760 --> 00:41:30.199
across America and got some really good
reviews. So that's when I said,

516
00:41:30.239 --> 00:41:32.400
Okay, now I know how to
do it. I'm going to make my

517
00:41:32.440 --> 00:41:38.960
own film. And that was your
Face, which changed everything. And your

518
00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:45.280
face is so there's something so iconic
about it. Looking back now, it's

519
00:41:45.320 --> 00:41:50.280
so so interesting that that caught like
it. It was everywhere, it seemed

520
00:41:50.280 --> 00:41:52.320
like for a little wi. Yeah
it was, and even today people are

521
00:41:52.320 --> 00:41:59.679
making sort of variations on it.
You know, they use their face and

522
00:41:59.760 --> 00:42:04.719
do to digital weirdness to their face
and sing that same song. And Homer

523
00:42:04.760 --> 00:42:09.039
Simpson sang it too, he did
your face cameo. So yeah, that

524
00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:19.039
that stupid three minute film is successful. Looking back on when you were first

525
00:42:19.039 --> 00:42:22.360
getting started, what is that first
moment that you felt like, wow,

526
00:42:22.599 --> 00:42:29.320
I'm making it. That's a good
question because I distinctly remember that I had

527
00:42:29.360 --> 00:42:34.280
finished your Face. For me,
it was just an exercise. It really

528
00:42:34.360 --> 00:42:37.280
wasn't supposed to be a film.
It would just see how many ways I

529
00:42:37.280 --> 00:42:43.159
could distort the human head. And
someone told me I should enter it in

530
00:42:43.199 --> 00:42:47.519
the a SIFA Awards, which is
a organization of animators around the world.

531
00:42:47.599 --> 00:42:53.320
There's different chapters, so I entered
it in a SEFA. I went there

532
00:42:53.480 --> 00:42:59.000
and it was a room of about
forty people something like that, and I

533
00:42:59.119 --> 00:43:02.320
was very nervous because it was a
stupid film. There was no plot,

534
00:43:04.639 --> 00:43:10.360
no editing, one character crudely drawn, who sings a very bad song.

535
00:43:12.800 --> 00:43:21.360
Who's going to want to watch that? And after about four seconds the room

536
00:43:21.480 --> 00:43:27.760
was in convulsed and laughter. It
was It was just crazy. I've never

537
00:43:27.840 --> 00:43:32.119
heard so many people laugh at one
of my drawings before. And that's when

538
00:43:32.119 --> 00:43:38.440
I realized that this was what I
was born to do. And it just

539
00:43:39.599 --> 00:43:44.079
was was like a drug. I
was floating on air hearing this laughter.

540
00:43:45.599 --> 00:43:52.880
I just could It was unreal.
It was totally unreality, Like am I

541
00:43:52.920 --> 00:43:54.760
in a fantasy right now? You
know? This is too weird. And

542
00:43:54.800 --> 00:43:59.559
then afterwards they all came by and
said, are you Bill Plumden? Did

543
00:43:59.599 --> 00:44:02.079
you make that film? Because nobody
knew who it was? Of course,

544
00:44:02.320 --> 00:44:04.920
yeah, that was me. And
I said, well, let's go out

545
00:44:04.920 --> 00:44:08.480
and have a drink and talk and
I said, yeah, I feel like

546
00:44:08.519 --> 00:44:13.400
I'm home now. This is this
is why it should have been twenty years

547
00:44:13.440 --> 00:44:19.400
earlier. That's so lovely to think
about, too, that there's just this

548
00:44:19.480 --> 00:44:23.079
supportive community for something like that.
Yes, yes, it's not so well

549
00:44:23.199 --> 00:44:29.199
organized. Now it's the SIFA in
New York has sort of dissipated. They

550
00:44:29.280 --> 00:44:35.840
don't have money or anything. But
back then it was really a strong organization.

551
00:44:37.599 --> 00:44:39.760
One thing that I've tried to really
advocate for, especially over the last

552
00:44:39.800 --> 00:44:45.480
couple of years, is I kind
of touched on it earlier too, but

553
00:44:45.639 --> 00:44:50.199
we don't see a lot of just
plain respect given to shorts. And it's

554
00:44:50.239 --> 00:44:54.159
somebody that your your life has been
a lot of it has been shorts.

555
00:44:54.320 --> 00:44:59.840
Yeah. Is there something in twenty
twenty four that you think as a society

556
00:44:59.880 --> 00:45:04.119
we should be doing to support shorts
better? Well, I don't know.

557
00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:07.079
You know, they used to have
those tournay of animation and the Spike and

558
00:45:07.119 --> 00:45:12.039
Mike used to play theaters art theaters
all around the country and those are gone.

559
00:45:12.079 --> 00:45:16.960
Now we have one small show show
of shows that does that. But

560
00:45:17.360 --> 00:45:22.159
their choices are a little more artsy, fartsy. I don't think they're very

561
00:45:23.119 --> 00:45:29.760
commercial. But it's got to be
on the internet. I mean that's where

562
00:45:29.840 --> 00:45:36.239
people like Pez make it big.
And you know, some of the other

563
00:45:36.320 --> 00:45:45.760
independent filmmakers do very well on the
internet. I I I show my films

564
00:45:45.800 --> 00:45:49.079
on the internet. I don't get
a lot of money but they do get

565
00:45:49.119 --> 00:45:53.639
a lot of audience, right,
So it's that's I think that's the future

566
00:45:53.760 --> 00:46:00.719
right there. Patrick Smith does very
well on the internet, so it's it's

567
00:46:01.800 --> 00:46:05.599
I think that's the only thing I
can think of it. I'm not a

568
00:46:05.639 --> 00:46:09.840
real tech guy. I don't really
know the programs and it's and the channels

569
00:46:09.880 --> 00:46:15.079
and everything, but that's I still
play on TV, especially in Europe.

570
00:46:15.119 --> 00:46:20.280
I'm very popular in Europe. I
still play TV there and in Asia,

571
00:46:20.639 --> 00:46:24.119
you know, Japan and China and
Korea. I do well there. So

572
00:46:25.159 --> 00:46:30.840
I hope that it builds up.
The fan base is definitely a strong one.

573
00:46:30.920 --> 00:46:36.360
And I think Slide wasn't there a
kickstorre campaign to help read for it?

574
00:46:37.440 --> 00:46:42.800
Was that was that difficult to do
well before? We made about eighty

575
00:46:42.840 --> 00:46:45.960
thousand on it, which is a
good start that lasts about half a year.

576
00:46:47.440 --> 00:46:53.880
Slide has taken about seven years to
make, unfortunately, but that's that's

577
00:46:53.920 --> 00:46:58.440
because of COVID. I had to
stop and do a lot of commercial jobs

578
00:46:58.480 --> 00:47:06.280
to pay for the bills. So
but you know, it's it's something I

579
00:47:06.280 --> 00:47:08.360
don't do for the money, as
you probably understand that seeing my word.

580
00:47:08.440 --> 00:47:15.079
Unfortunately, Yeah, but the pleasure
of seeing the audience enjoy it, and

581
00:47:16.159 --> 00:47:20.760
drawing all day long. I get
up at sometimes six in the morning,

582
00:47:21.599 --> 00:47:25.840
go right to my drawing board and
draw until ten. Then I come into

583
00:47:25.960 --> 00:47:30.119
my studio and draw here all day, and then I go home and draw

584
00:47:30.239 --> 00:47:37.239
till eight. So it's for me
drawing as an addiction. Animation. Drawing

585
00:47:37.360 --> 00:47:42.639
is an addiction, and it's a
happy addiction. I'm not complaining. So

586
00:47:42.719 --> 00:47:46.679
that's that's my life. That's beautiful. One thing I really wanted to end

587
00:47:46.679 --> 00:47:51.639
this on too, is you've always
done well to support other artists. You've

588
00:47:51.639 --> 00:47:55.559
always done well to lift up other
people. And I'd really love to hear

589
00:47:55.760 --> 00:48:01.360
like just some some quick fire answers, like it the last piece of animation

590
00:48:01.840 --> 00:48:07.079
or illustration that excited you, that's
somebody else that's maybe new in the industry.

591
00:48:07.039 --> 00:48:12.000
Yeah. Well, like I say, Joanna Quinn, it really does

592
00:48:12.039 --> 00:48:17.480
beautiful work. She's an inspiration.
She's a British animator and the people should

593
00:48:17.480 --> 00:48:22.280
look her up. She's really brilliant. Of course, Marv Newland I talked

594
00:48:22.320 --> 00:48:29.480
about him before. There's you know
a lot of young people doing animation now

595
00:48:29.519 --> 00:48:34.840
that is really exciting. And so
I'm kind of old school, old style,

596
00:48:35.599 --> 00:48:38.360
yeah, stuff, but people still
like it. So that's I'm happy

597
00:48:38.400 --> 00:48:43.519
about that. Is there a piece
of your work that you feel like is

598
00:48:43.639 --> 00:48:49.320
underrated You're surprised more people didn't attach
to it. M well, yeah,

599
00:48:49.800 --> 00:48:55.000
the film Hair High. I don't
know if you ever saw it. Anyway,

600
00:48:58.119 --> 00:49:00.639
I was complaining to Martha Plimpton and
who's a relative of mine and a

601
00:49:00.679 --> 00:49:06.360
bar she used to live in New
York. We hung out and I said,

602
00:49:06.480 --> 00:49:08.440
for some reason, my films just
don't get distribution. You know,

603
00:49:08.480 --> 00:49:14.800
they're they're they're independent, they're not
they're not for kids, and I just

604
00:49:14.840 --> 00:49:17.159
can't get distribution. And she said, you know, maybe you should have

605
00:49:17.199 --> 00:49:21.840
some movie stars in there. So
I said, yeah, that'd be great,

606
00:49:21.840 --> 00:49:24.000
but I can't afford you know these
movie stars, right, and so

607
00:49:24.039 --> 00:49:28.840
she said, don't worry, I
will I will get them, and bless

608
00:49:28.840 --> 00:49:32.360
her heart, she was. She
was very connected. She got David Carodine,

609
00:49:32.559 --> 00:49:42.280
Keith Carradine, a lot of big
name Sarah Silverman, Beverly to Angelo.

610
00:49:43.039 --> 00:49:46.840
They are really top notch people.
And I went out to LA and

611
00:49:46.920 --> 00:49:51.079
recorded them and I actually had money
then. I think I did a big,

612
00:49:51.639 --> 00:49:55.840
a big program for a country network
and so I didn't have money to

613
00:49:55.840 --> 00:50:04.000
pay them and put it together,
and it just flopped. And I think

614
00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:07.559
it's one of my best films,
hair High. It's really great music,

615
00:50:07.800 --> 00:50:13.239
great humor, great style, real
classical, sort of Donald Blues style,

616
00:50:13.920 --> 00:50:17.639
and it just really flopped. And
I think that's one of those films like

617
00:50:17.719 --> 00:50:22.039
the Tune, that will be rediscovered
and people say, geez, I really

618
00:50:22.079 --> 00:50:24.440
liked it. How Come I didn't. I couldn't see it, you know,

619
00:50:24.519 --> 00:50:30.440
how come I was movie theaters?
And so that's the one disappointment I

620
00:50:30.440 --> 00:50:34.280
had looking back on everything, and
this will be the last thing I'll ask,

621
00:50:34.280 --> 00:50:36.800
So I'll give your time back.
What are you most proud of?

622
00:50:36.800 --> 00:50:38.599
What piece of work is the one
that you go, Man, I made

623
00:50:38.639 --> 00:50:44.880
that, and I'm so ecstatic that
that's my Yeah, well all my work,

624
00:50:44.920 --> 00:50:49.000
I feel, you know, I
really respect and feel happy that I

625
00:50:49.599 --> 00:50:52.960
did it. I did do three
live action films, and those were complete

626
00:50:53.000 --> 00:50:58.039
flops, especially Jay Lyle, and
I thought that was a cool film.

627
00:50:58.280 --> 00:51:02.880
It's sort of David Lynch, kind
of David Lynch meets Bonny Python kind of

628
00:51:02.880 --> 00:51:09.360
film, and maybe it was too
David Lynch. The Guns on the Clacamus,

629
00:51:09.400 --> 00:51:13.519
which is live action I thought that
was really a funny film. I

630
00:51:13.599 --> 00:51:16.000
was surprised that one didn't get picked
up. And then I did a film

631
00:51:16.079 --> 00:51:24.199
called Hiller's Folly, and there was
a very low budget digital film. I

632
00:51:24.280 --> 00:51:30.679
think it costs about ten thousand dollars, and that one we couldn't we couldn't

633
00:51:30.760 --> 00:51:35.960
really sell it because there was a
lot of Mickey Mouse in there. Although

634
00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:40.039
now Mickey Mouse is He's probably domain, so maybe I could release it now.

635
00:51:40.920 --> 00:51:45.440
I never thought of that. Anyway. That's a pretty wacky film where

636
00:51:45.639 --> 00:51:50.239
you know, we Hiller was wanted
to be an artist, you know,

637
00:51:50.280 --> 00:51:52.920
he wanted to be a painter,
and he went to art school. He

638
00:51:52.960 --> 00:51:54.400
wanted to go to art school,
couldn't get in. What would happen if

639
00:51:54.719 --> 00:51:59.960
when he went to art school he
got turned onto animation and became an anime

640
00:52:00.320 --> 00:52:04.199
and wanted to make the greatest animated
film of all time. And Eva Braun

641
00:52:04.360 --> 00:52:09.480
was the one who was mastering all
the invasions and the military movements and things

642
00:52:09.519 --> 00:52:15.840
like that. Well, and Hitler
just wanted to make cartoons to make people

643
00:52:15.920 --> 00:52:22.000
laugh. I thought that was a
really absurd thing. But it gets a

644
00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:24.559
few hits online. But you know, maybe now that Mickey Mouse is pubbly

645
00:52:24.559 --> 00:52:30.159
domain. Maybe I can release it
theatrically well, ideas like that, or

646
00:52:30.320 --> 00:52:35.320
I've always been attached to your work
and loved it. I've been a big

647
00:52:35.320 --> 00:52:37.239
fan for years and everybody needs to
go out and pick up this brand new

648
00:52:37.360 --> 00:52:42.719
edition in tune. It is an
astonishing release. And Bill, I just

649
00:52:42.760 --> 00:52:45.159
want to say thank you so much
for your time. And it's a dream

650
00:52:45.159 --> 00:52:46.719
come true to be able to speak
to you great well, thank you very

651
00:52:46.800 --> 00:52:51.159
much. I appreciate it. Have
a good Maybe I'll be a dad the

652
00:52:51.199 --> 00:52:53.280
city soon. Yeah, well,
I'll make it. Try to make that

653
00:52:53.320 --> 00:52:58.880
contact the barbecue. Thank you for
listening to the Disconnected podcast. There's one

654
00:52:58.880 --> 00:53:00.199
big thing that you could do to
help the show, and that is to

655
00:53:00.280 --> 00:53:07.760
leave a rating and review on the
podcast service of your choice. Thank you,

656
00:53:07.760 --> 00:53:30.719
do me no