Plymptoons - Animator / Director Bill Plympton

Our interview was recorded for a tribute show at NYC's Metrograph Theatre in June of 2025...

Awarded by the Academy and the Festival de Cannes, a staple of Spike & Mike’s Festival of Animation programs, guest couch gag contributor on The Simpsons, and a fiercely independent artist, one-man industry Bill Plympton is the American underground animator par excellence, his meticulously hand-drawn style, with its fluid, distending line and voluptuous figures, one of the most immediately recognizable in the business. The legend himself will be joining us in the theater for two programs of his features and shorts—and will be whipping up sketches on the spot for any audience members who want to take home a little piece of cartooning history.

About the filmmaker - Bill Plympton, the "King of Indie Animation," is a celebrated American animator, cartoonist, and filmmaker known for his surreal, low-budget, hand-drawn style, earning Oscar nominations for shorts like Your Face (1987) and Guard Dog (2004) and directing features like I Married a Strange Person. Born in Portland, Oregon, he began as a cartoonist for The Village Voice and The New York Times, later pioneering online animation and becoming famous for his distinctive, often adult-themed shorts and Simpsons couch gags.