This is it, the video that really started it all for Bill Plympton’s success as an independent animator.
Released in 1987, the video shows a man singing about his lover’s face and as he sings, his face starts to distort in various ways. The original song was composed and sung by Maureen McElheron, who later co-wrote the music for Bill’s feature „The Tune“ and several other films. Her vocals were slowed down by one-third to make it sound like a man was singing.
This short played at many film festivals, including the Seattle Film Festival and the Aspen Film Festival, winning First prize at both. It also won first prize at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival and a People’s Choice award at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and was the official U.S. entry for the Cannes Film Festival in 1987 and also nominated for the Palme d’Or. Then it went on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 60th Academy Awards in April 1988. The Academy Film Archive preserved the film in 2015 and created this new, color-corrected digital version.
Over the years, this simple film has become one of Bill Plympton’s most enduring and beloved shorts, and it even inspired a „couch gag“ called „Homer’s Face“ on an 2018 episode of „The Simpsons“ in the show’s 29th season, called „3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage“. Bill has been selling signed original drawings from this classic film over the last few years to animation art collectors, in order to raise money to keep his independent studio running.
As of August 2024 there are still a few dozen drawings available, you can inquire about purchasing them by e-mailing Bill’s studio at: studio@plymptoons.com