Adventures in Plymptoons!

An For Me production. Produced by Alexia Anastasio. Executive producers, Anastasio, Edward A. Anastasio, Katy Anastasio, Ken Mora, Mark Steiner. Directed by Alexia Anastasio.With: Bill Plympton, Terry Gilliam, Erection dysfunction Begley Junior., Ron Jeremy, Keith Carradine, Marilyn Zornado, Maureen McElheron, Jerry Beck, John Anderson Geoffrey Gilmore, David Silverman, Jay O. Sanders, Jonathan Caouette, Take advantage of Bakshi, Will Vinton, Strange Al Yankovic, Matthew Modine, Martha Plimpton, Moby, Tom Kenny."Adventures in Plymptoons!" pays tribute to Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton, greatly within the kind of their very own gleefully impudent work. Filled with clips and interviews with celebrity fans and co-employees, Alexia Anastasio's documentary could attract the identical small but loyal niche audience the subject themselves has extended won via self-distribution to theaters and home formats. Using art from an early on age to draw women, the Or native started his professional existence drawing scatological pictures for Al Goldstein's "Screw" together with other skin magazines -- additionally to more legit guides -- inside the freewheeling '70s. Early short "The FaceInch clicked up Oscar attention, stunning Plympton (and composer-singer Maureen McElheron). It established his usual ultra-low-tech, hands-attracted-pencil style and fondness for inventive, frequently disgusting physical grotesquerie. His work increased to become fixture of MTV station-break spots and packages like "Spike & Mike's Festival of Animation." Always resourcefully independent -- he once switched lower a $millions of offer from Disney to help keep complete control of his work -- the cartoonist became a member of features with 1992's "The Tune." He's made five more since (including one compilation), all created inhouse at his barely staffed NY studio, which handles marketing/distribution chores too. It's a remarkably prolific output in the typically painstaking medium, supporting one colleague's report that he's "the fastest animator in the market.In . Some might argue less may well be more, as Plympton's features pay scant concentrate on such niceties as plot and character development they're virtually extended strings of gags, the majority of the gross-out type. (A critic here who damns a great deal "twisted" violent and sexual imagery as "just lots of ugliness" is really Plympton themselves, disguised as pretentious alter ego W.P. Murton.) "Adventure's" format of short-designed sections that mingle excerpts (including more recent and much more effective material) with behind-the-moments glimpses and interviews is an ideal showcase that can induce viewer fatigue over an unbroken 70- or 80-minute haul. People speaking about his work -- sometimes tongue firmly grown in mouth area -- change from fellow artists (like the similar-minded Take advantage of Bakshi), studio staff and voice talents to fans, family people and ex-female buddies. Like its subject, the docu turns its slim means right into a benefit utilizing a cheekily assertive DIY aesthetic.Camera (color), Kevin Sean Michaels editors, Anastasio, Michaels music, Bruce Balmer, Hank Bones, Parson Brown, Didier Carmier, Keith Carradine, Corey Jackson, Maureen McElheron, Smokey Miles, Nicole Renaud, David Silverman. Examined away Area Docfest, March. 23, 2011. Running time: 85 MIN. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com