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Slide:

I couldn't call myself a Bill Plympton fan, although I wrote of him from his art style and as one of my inspirations towards my artist statement. In truth, I only knew of him through his mainstream contributions from the Simpsons and Red Bull, and only used him as an example through his mainstream appeal as the “King of Indie Animation” when writing of him. After reading his book, studying Eastern European and Indie American Animation, I couldn’t really see the title fit towards him. His newest works show his strength in distorting the human form, but his overall piece Slide shows faults due to his ambition. 

To set the scene, I volunteered as a staff member for the 31st Underground Film festival last Friday, believing I could watch strong shorts along with wanting to invite my younger brother. I came in blind, not sure what to expect in terms of quality or even theme, and at best wanted to situate myself as a film critic. Although I had mixed feelings on the presenting films and artists, one artist caught my eye, and he was the same one who was my “hero” in my college entrance paper. 

Many artists, for exposure, submit their work to film festivals and cannot be in person for the premiere. This was no different for Plympton, but I sacrificed my time hoping at the off chance he may come. I wouldn’t call myself a fan, but a celebrity could exist in the same space, and I was inspired by his story. Even outwardly, I told the other staff I could invite him to my home, and hoped to open a door to mentorship. A lovely fantasy, and of course it had to be broken by reality. My brother, there for me, would sit down with me to watch Slide without any other information on the piece. 

Often what I feel is damaging to an older animator is the misplacement of new computer programs to recycle visuals to continue the story. Ambition we should always support in any art, and without there may never be new forms of exploration. Plymton holds ambition with his latest film, as often it drags it down because of his choice to lengthen the film. Through the length, he would recycle animation, mis-dub the characters, and place scenes within the story which affect the rhythm and pacing. I wouldn’t call this a strong film, only an ambitious one. The highlight of course is the visuals with his specific style, reminding me that it works best when it stares at you rather than having a conversation. 

However, I am still always captivated by the parts of the film, and what I see as the purest form of an adolescent mind. One which plays sex off as constant, where absurdity exists through the adventure presented in the story, where everyone is caricatures on people to push that absudity to ultimate heights. Besides the main character, who fails to separate himself from the world, no one acts seriously. Everyone is ugly with all their flaws which replaces the emotional expression presented by characters in any other film. You are not supposed to relate to the characters, only be in awe in the wacky circumstance they are forced in. What separates Plympton from many indie animators is how he grabs the viewers through absurdity and is able to keep that investment through his creative visuals. His color pencil style evokes a child-like chaos working alongside the facial expressions to present feelings of anarchy to the human form. Yet in the film he wouldn’t abstract the space too much, keeping it as recognizable and still. It is the actions of the characters that create his work, not his work always being fluid in movement. In this particular case, his main focus is always keeping the screenshot of the characters to imply an emotion rather than demonstrate it.

A height of the film lies at the very start, in which the main character Slide Rides down his horse in the desert. Starting almost seriously with the calming slow music created diegetically. The audience immediately enticed, however contradictions show themselves such as the form of the horse looking doopy, and the film highlighting the simple shapes of the characters through the camera angle. Then, as the rain slowly pours into the desert, the action immediately escalates to a full tsunami. An entertaining experience in which you still feel worried for the protagonist, but you're laughing at the same time. Through the first scene unrelated to the rest of the film, does the film show Plymton’s silent weapon: pacing and build up. How the audience is tricked into thinking differently of the tone, yet still doesn’t feel jarring as the drawing style already invites humor. 

Slide is a hard film to stomach from its flaws. It’s amazing for certain parts, and I believe Plympton wanted that to be the focus. But often it keeps dragging because it repeats visuals and scenes, and doesn’t connect with the focus of the story. The film could feel disoriented at times through trying to tell its story, and one could get lost while watching. I do believe a Plympton fan or anyone trying to remember a pre-teen years will enjoy this. But this film only shows the ultimate struggle of an Indie artist's quest for a feature film.

Wild Robot:

I was anticipating Wild Robot for a long time due to its potential. From the original trailer , I thought the film was going to be silent except for the robots. As the second trailer dropped, that was not true. But I still kept my hopes up regardless because it seemed like a contained story, one in which the actions in the film only acted towards a personal level similar to a film like Encanto. Broad reaching implications do not exist within the film supposedly. As I watched the film, the trailer was the most true I had seen in a long time.

Once again, I watched the film with my brother and I realized my own flaws when reviewing a film. I was more caught up in the last third and what they could have done differently rather than what they did in the film. My brother thought it was fantastic, but I kept wanting a more bittersweet ending to the film. Perhaps it was because the film was already amazing to me for the first two-thirds, but I should have eased myself. I’m under the belief that a film shouldn’t address every single topic of its theme to not pressure itself, and this film should be no different.

Other aspects of the film I found troublesome was how often it used the music to make the scenes grandiose. The visuals and story already told a strong story, and a few times it felt like the film was scared of those scenes subtly. Once again, the pacing for the third felt off as the climax and villain felt rushed, and felt crossfire towards how slow the start was with the audience unsure of where the film would go. 

These are my only major complaints, as this film for the first 2/3s takes its time in experiencing a very familiar world of the woods. It shows directly the disadvantages of nature in a comedic but dark way, and has Ross the robot learn to understand them. The main character themselves, for a Robot on discovery, differs from many others of a similar narrative because its humanity doesn’t come from discovering humans. Rather the programming of humans allows an opening of opportunity to learn, and their choice to “self learn” brings them to parenting and understanding compassion. To myself, the actions and goals of Ross makes sense within the film, and often Robot characters in differing films break their own rules in service of the narrative. 

When going into the narrative, the strongest aspect of the film is their conflict on going back to their factory, wondering about their belonging in their space, and rejecting it after realizing the impact they had on their community. Discovery of one’s self in an adjacent community is nothing new, but it works strongly when the theme of compassion is added, and logically works well with their role as a helping robot. A strong scene is when Ross rebuilds a broken model like themselves, and they are able to see an advertised video of their brandl. It striked interesting because, similar to another character seeing their species, it shows what Ross could have been through mere chance, and then being juxtaposed to their choice now. Although the audience understands the potential danger of what might happen, Ross doesn’t and thus the audience understands strongly the conflict and why both choices could lead towards a different form of satisfaction. 

Besides the narrative and character choices, the film looks great. The music does take away from the subtle, but how nature is portrayed as this paint-acrylic background makes the world feel calming yet ancient. But the strongest aspect of the nature portrayed is the use of elements, How Ross fumbles in the water with paint brush strokes, seeing the weight of the character clash against this force. How the pink fire consumes the forest to create a beautiful danger. How moss grows on Ross overtime, showing how the film uses time to its advantage and how Ross has metaphorically and literally become more accustomed to the world around them.

One final aspect of the film I like to congratulate is the use of world building with climate change. Such as seeing the San Francisco Bridge underwater, or having the farms of the civilization in domes. These details are never mentioned as these are the perspective of animals, and despite having the largest scale in this world these structures feel subtle along with how it frames. The film knows climate change is a danger, and uses it to the climax with what I think is a strong payoff. It shows the film knows its audience's intelligence, and doesn’t overframe the devastation or backstory.