I caught this movie by accident at 2am and found it highly entertaining. It dashes from one scene to the next at a rate of knots. The animation is good and it is very refreshing to see an adult oriented cartoon despite the bizarre nature of the story. I'll be watching out for more by Bill Plympton in the future.
23 Reviews
Waaaa hooo!!!
ejr-28 November 1998
Yes, there are a few dull parts. I will admit that. However, there are also parts that will make you wish you had gone to the bathroom a few minutes ago, before you started laughing so hard that your bladder's about to burst. And then you start thinking about you bladder bursting. And just what it would look like. And you laugh harder. Then you want to go home and check what's really in the back of those wall sockets...
Good movie. Not the greatest in the world, but very good.
Jason
Good movie. Not the greatest in the world, but very good.
Jason
Well, love IS strange...
RobT-222 June 2000
I've been a fan of Bill Plympton's ever since first seeing his Oscar-nominated short "Your Face" about 12 years ago as part of the traveling International Tournee of Animation. Plympton started out as a magazine cartoonist (an early version of "How to Kiss" was published in "Rolling Stone" in the early 80's), and his early short films were based around single gags or concepts. On the basis of these shorts I knew Plympton's animation was kind of primitive, that he had excellent timing, and that he had a flair for metamorphosis and the grotesque that recalled such distinguished predecessors as Otto Messmer and Tex Avery. Unfortunately, I found Plympton's first feature, "The Tune", rather disappointing. The story was weak, and the best parts were the shorts that were incorporated into the feature ("Wiseman", "Push Comes to Shove").
With this in mind, I approached "I Married a Strange Person" with some trepidation. I'd heard some good things about it, and it was such a shock to find it for rent here in Tulsa that I snatched it up right away. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise, so much so that I had a hard time figuring out just what I liked about the movie. All the usual virtues of Plympton's animation are there, and the story starts out nicely enough-a new bridegroom gets zapped in an accident involving a satellite dish and a pair of over-amorous birds, giving him strange and wondrous powers.
What made the story work at first were the appealing characters set within it, the new husband Grant and wife Kerry. Most of the time their actions and reactions were very believable, whether the situation was realistic (the sexual tension between the newlyweds at the beginning-she's in the mood for love, he feels he's got to work overtime to support them) or fantastic (Kerry's alarm, and later anger, when Grant's stray imaginings begin coming to spectacular life). The quality of the animation and design helped, giving depth and texture to Plympton's characteristic style without making it unnecessarily slick. Tom Larson and Charis Michelsen, who voiced Grant and Kerry respectively, deserve considerable credit as well. Maureen McElheron's songs don't hurt either; where much of "The Tune" seemed to be an excuse for the songs, here the songs served the story by setting the mood. I especially liked "Honey How'd You Get So Cute", which (along with Plympton's animation) effectively captured some of the playfully absurd aspects of eroticism.
Unfortunately, the quirky romantic fantasy at the beginning gets shunted aside when an unscrupulous media mogul learns about Grant's new powers and sends a paramilitary squad to capture him. This plot device reminds me of Disney's old comic fantasies-not the animated ones, the live-action ones, the ones with Fred MacMurray or Dean Jones or Kurt Russell as the hero and usually Keenan Wynn as the villain and they also had sentient-or-flying cars or teenaged computers-or-sheepdogs or stuff that bounced higher than the height from which it was dropped. Actually, I dug those films when I was a kid, and I bet Bill Plympton liked them too, but he does little to vary their formula when he applies it here, apart from dollops of sex and violence and a bit of satire.
The plot also threatens to derail the characterizations that were established so well in the first part. Simply, all scenes where the characters' actions follow from their previous behavior work; when a scene doesn't work, it's usually because a character's integrity has been violated for the sake of a gag or the convenience of the plot. I don't know if this means Plympton and/or his collaborator P. C. Vey are still learning how to maintain a story at feature-length, or if they just couldn't resist their impulses to go for quick and dirty laughs, or both.
Nonetheless, despite its flawed or hackneyed aspects, "I Married a Strange Person" is very watchable as a whole film. It is also evidence that Plympton and company have a really great film in them somewhere. Let's hope they put it all together next time.
With this in mind, I approached "I Married a Strange Person" with some trepidation. I'd heard some good things about it, and it was such a shock to find it for rent here in Tulsa that I snatched it up right away. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise, so much so that I had a hard time figuring out just what I liked about the movie. All the usual virtues of Plympton's animation are there, and the story starts out nicely enough-a new bridegroom gets zapped in an accident involving a satellite dish and a pair of over-amorous birds, giving him strange and wondrous powers.
What made the story work at first were the appealing characters set within it, the new husband Grant and wife Kerry. Most of the time their actions and reactions were very believable, whether the situation was realistic (the sexual tension between the newlyweds at the beginning-she's in the mood for love, he feels he's got to work overtime to support them) or fantastic (Kerry's alarm, and later anger, when Grant's stray imaginings begin coming to spectacular life). The quality of the animation and design helped, giving depth and texture to Plympton's characteristic style without making it unnecessarily slick. Tom Larson and Charis Michelsen, who voiced Grant and Kerry respectively, deserve considerable credit as well. Maureen McElheron's songs don't hurt either; where much of "The Tune" seemed to be an excuse for the songs, here the songs served the story by setting the mood. I especially liked "Honey How'd You Get So Cute", which (along with Plympton's animation) effectively captured some of the playfully absurd aspects of eroticism.
Unfortunately, the quirky romantic fantasy at the beginning gets shunted aside when an unscrupulous media mogul learns about Grant's new powers and sends a paramilitary squad to capture him. This plot device reminds me of Disney's old comic fantasies-not the animated ones, the live-action ones, the ones with Fred MacMurray or Dean Jones or Kurt Russell as the hero and usually Keenan Wynn as the villain and they also had sentient-or-flying cars or teenaged computers-or-sheepdogs or stuff that bounced higher than the height from which it was dropped. Actually, I dug those films when I was a kid, and I bet Bill Plympton liked them too, but he does little to vary their formula when he applies it here, apart from dollops of sex and violence and a bit of satire.
The plot also threatens to derail the characterizations that were established so well in the first part. Simply, all scenes where the characters' actions follow from their previous behavior work; when a scene doesn't work, it's usually because a character's integrity has been violated for the sake of a gag or the convenience of the plot. I don't know if this means Plympton and/or his collaborator P. C. Vey are still learning how to maintain a story at feature-length, or if they just couldn't resist their impulses to go for quick and dirty laughs, or both.
Nonetheless, despite its flawed or hackneyed aspects, "I Married a Strange Person" is very watchable as a whole film. It is also evidence that Plympton and company have a really great film in them somewhere. Let's hope they put it all together next time.
Nearly Split a... laughed myself silly
NBulanski29 April 2000
I feel sorry for the people that said they were bored during this movie and that was the only thing they had to say about it. This movie was a wonderful fantasy in which Plympton used the animated media to its highest potential. This movie does have something to offend just about everyone, from extreme profanity, extreme violence, to bizarre (but funny) sex scenes to quoting Hermann Goring?? The bird sex scene in the opening probably did a good job offending most of the population and let you know there was a really raunchy good time ahead; the facial expressions were great! Another great part to look for is when one character watches the "How To Make Love To A Woman" video. There was one segment I rewound the tape three times and STILL couldn't hear what was said because I was laughing SO HARD! WONderful movie and such an improvement over "The Tune".
If You Could Do Anything, What Wouldn't You Do?
boblipton3 September 2020
Bill Plympton's feature-length cartoon is about how Our Hero gets a boil in his neck that permits him to change things into other things. Because he is newly married, this upsets his bride (even though the sex is great), and she rushes home to her parents. Meanwhile, the CEO of minor TV network Smilecorp hears of this ability and orders its military division to seize the person, or at least the boil, using all sorts of armaments.
At this point, the story, such as it is, loses any sign of coherence; with the ability to change anything into anything else, how can it be otherwise? Still, there are some fine Plympton gag sequences, and the animation is a little fuller than it usually is for his work; apparently he got more money for this production than usual.
None of which serves to make it a great cartoon. Although the gimmick suits Plympton's wild sensibilities, the open-ended nature of it seems to have overwhelmed the film maker.
At this point, the story, such as it is, loses any sign of coherence; with the ability to change anything into anything else, how can it be otherwise? Still, there are some fine Plympton gag sequences, and the animation is a little fuller than it usually is for his work; apparently he got more money for this production than usual.
None of which serves to make it a great cartoon. Although the gimmick suits Plympton's wild sensibilities, the open-ended nature of it seems to have overwhelmed the film maker.
A definite watch-looker
DaJ12 October 1998
I find Bill Plympton's animation on MTV to be interesting. Having said that, I think this theatrical release proves that his work is best limited to the short format. Numerous times during the screening, I found myself looking at my watch and marvelling that only five more minutes had passed since the last time I looked. The jerky animation had only a little to do with it; it was just simply not all that interesting as a whole. Not bad, but definitely not all that good either.
Likely Bill Plympton's best work
Dan_Harkless17 August 2001
I've been a fan of Bill Plympton since I first saw one of his shorts in a late-80s animation festival, and to me, "I Married a Strange Person!" is his best work. It's possible that I've missed something better -- I've seen many/most of his shorts, but only one other of his long-form works, "The Tune". This film, to me, is much funnier and more memorable than "The Tune", though not as deep, I suppose.
Fans of the "splatstick" horror/comedy genre should enjoy this film, as it uses over-the-top gore to similar comedic effect. Don't get the impression that this is a film in the vein of "Lupo The Butcher" or something, though, with ultra-violence being used for ultra-violence's sake. Plympton's imagination is FAR too vivid for that to be the case.
I'd have to say, in fact, that Plympton has the most unique and active imagination of any visual artist I'm familiar with, and this film is a great showcase for it, since the plot concerns a special brain lobe that causes imagination to become reality.
Apart from the comedic gore, there are hilarious looks at sex. What Plympton has done for quitting smoking and other topics in his shorts, he does here for sex. Everything from people to animals to inanimate objects are seen engaging in the act here, to comic effect. One of the most imaginative images is the upper receptacle in an electrical outlet banging the lower receptacle from behind (with the three-prong receptacles having become faces).
Another thing to mention is the film's great score. Funny, catchy, toe-tapping tunes that you'll feel like you've heard somewhere before.
To sum up, buy this film! If you're at all a fan of animation or semi-risque comedy, you're sure to love it.
Fans of the "splatstick" horror/comedy genre should enjoy this film, as it uses over-the-top gore to similar comedic effect. Don't get the impression that this is a film in the vein of "Lupo The Butcher" or something, though, with ultra-violence being used for ultra-violence's sake. Plympton's imagination is FAR too vivid for that to be the case.
I'd have to say, in fact, that Plympton has the most unique and active imagination of any visual artist I'm familiar with, and this film is a great showcase for it, since the plot concerns a special brain lobe that causes imagination to become reality.
Apart from the comedic gore, there are hilarious looks at sex. What Plympton has done for quitting smoking and other topics in his shorts, he does here for sex. Everything from people to animals to inanimate objects are seen engaging in the act here, to comic effect. One of the most imaginative images is the upper receptacle in an electrical outlet banging the lower receptacle from behind (with the three-prong receptacles having become faces).
Another thing to mention is the film's great score. Funny, catchy, toe-tapping tunes that you'll feel like you've heard somewhere before.
To sum up, buy this film! If you're at all a fan of animation or semi-risque comedy, you're sure to love it.
Why the Exclamation Point?
gbheron19 August 2000
I didn't understand the point to this feature-length animated movie. The premise, that a young, newly married suburbanite suddenly discovers that he can bring his thoughts to reality, shows great promise. It's just that the premise is not developed, and the film does not explore too deeply the possibilities. It's played for cute, and doesn't deliver up too much beyond its novelty. That barely holds the movie together.
An exploding piñata of animated wackiness
cgearheart26 March 2019
In one of the most absurdly funny films of the 90s, a man discovers he has omnipotent powers through a wart on the back of his neck. What proceeds is a colorful extravaganza of violence, sex, song and dance, and wild action in this totally out there movie about love. Don't miss it!
Funny but too long
Gitte23 January 2000
I've always found Plympton's animations intriguing (and at times a bit disgusting, but I mean that in the nicest possible way). I agree with other reviewers on this page that Plympton's style may not be too well-suited for a full-length movie, as I was quite bored at regular intervals. However, if you're into his style and sense of humour (which means that you don't mind gratuitous violence and sex scenes) you should get a kick out of this one. I found myself laughing out loud a couple of times (for instance, at the sex/balloon animals scene), and any movie that makes you do that deserves a pat on the back :).
Amazing A Must Watch!
Adam_venedam26 September 2011
This film was one of the best surreal films I actually enjoyed in a long time, great WILD style, love the way he animates the faces to its very creepy but awesome at the same time, I enjoyed the first half better than the last half though.
It seems like an hour and ten mins is very short but like other people said the pacing is a bit over the top I found, the first half kept me purley entertained and never got bored once, but then the last half it felt like there were almost no breaks, it was just a wild rollar coaster until the end which was just as amazing and unique as the first half but its not as powerful because its just so much to take in so fast, it should of had bigger breaks towards the end, one other minor thing irradiated me was how they shoot at the woman and husband at the end point blank range for like 5 minutes and they just dodge them all, I know its not taken seriously but that just felt so dragged out and took away from the overall ending experience.
But thats just the negative, go watch this film IT IS AMAZING its like nothing I have ever seen before, best words to describe it....
Fantasia on speed and acid.
It seems like an hour and ten mins is very short but like other people said the pacing is a bit over the top I found, the first half kept me purley entertained and never got bored once, but then the last half it felt like there were almost no breaks, it was just a wild rollar coaster until the end which was just as amazing and unique as the first half but its not as powerful because its just so much to take in so fast, it should of had bigger breaks towards the end, one other minor thing irradiated me was how they shoot at the woman and husband at the end point blank range for like 5 minutes and they just dodge them all, I know its not taken seriously but that just felt so dragged out and took away from the overall ending experience.
But thats just the negative, go watch this film IT IS AMAZING its like nothing I have ever seen before, best words to describe it....
Fantasia on speed and acid.
Weirdness for weirdness' sake
Captain Ed3 January 2002
I love Bill Plympton's animation. I remember going to animation festivals in the early-to-mid 80's and his short-shorts being a staple. He has an active imagination, his work shows movement at all times, and his artwork even approaches beauty in its own way.
That all being said, this is a movie that could have been. The trademark Bill Plympton weirdness is all there, and it's really all the film is about. This could have easily been a twenty-minute short, and probably should have been. The same plot actions are repeated over and over again, simply to give Plympton opportunities to be more weird. These pieces -- in themselves -- are fascinating, but it makes the entire movie crawl. There IS a plot, it's just very underdeveloped.
I'd still recommend it to Plympton fans, but anyone else will be extremely annoyed.
That all being said, this is a movie that could have been. The trademark Bill Plympton weirdness is all there, and it's really all the film is about. This could have easily been a twenty-minute short, and probably should have been. The same plot actions are repeated over and over again, simply to give Plympton opportunities to be more weird. These pieces -- in themselves -- are fascinating, but it makes the entire movie crawl. There IS a plot, it's just very underdeveloped.
I'd still recommend it to Plympton fans, but anyone else will be extremely annoyed.
Pure Plymptonian Madness!
Cowman6 March 2001
After newlywed businessman Grant Boyer is electrocuted by his satelite dish, he develops a strange lump on the back of his neck that gives him the power to bring his crazy thoughts and fantasies into reality. Of course, since this is a Plympton film, you can safely assume that this is merely an excuse to load the movie with lots of blood, sex, talking animals, bulging eyeballs, and more detached limbs than you can count. While extremely imaginative, well-animated, and generally fun to watch, the film runs its course within the first half-hour or so. Plympton is an amazing artist, but his art is best viewed in short-film form.
Creative, inventive and side-splittingly funny
itamarscomix24 May 2005
'I Married a Strange Person' is (I think) Bill Plympton's second full-length animated film (is that right? I'm not sure), and does not disappoint for a minute. Like 'The Tune', 'I Married a Strange Person' is a completely original animation film, done in Plympton's completely unique style, and is extremely visually inventive and creative. It's also incredibly funny, and creates some wonderful, hilarious characters. Even for Plympton, it's unusually twisted and bizarre, full of sex and violence at their most hilarious. Also some brilliant musical segments with songs by Plympton's old collaborator Maureen McElheron ('I'm happy, you're happy, everybody's happy...') So, for Plympton fans, and any fan of adult animation or underground cinema, this film is highly recommended. Still, to be fair, a few words of caution: 'I Married a Strange Person' is extremely hard-core, with very explicit (though hilarious) scenes of sex and violence. There is, in fact, one (funny and inventive) sex scene that lasts over five minutes. The plot, also, makes very little sense, and the movie often seems to be weirdness and sickness for weirdness' and sickness' sake. If that doesn't bother you, buy it, by all means. If you have a sense of humor and are not easily offended, 'I Married a Strange Person' will be a pleasure. If you're a Plympton fan, don't even think twice - this is one of his best works. If you're not familiar with his work, by all means familiarize yourself.
Graphic nuance, subtle explosions, how to kiss.
setaside213 January 2007
Genius. Pure, sleight-of-hand-animated, single cel by single celled organ... genius. If only more people could refer to their movies as "labors of love" and truly mean LABOR as in... giving birth. The blood couldn't be more ever-present.
Five things for me: the themes of government over individuality (that is to say that money and might makes right), the theory of what I REALLY want to do to my in laws (if I had them), how to hum a happy little tune of some random order all the while, what's really going through a guy's head during sex, and how DID you get to be so cute?
Please note that the complexity and intellectuality of the most important things were presented in a descending order. The movie moves a bit more erratically, though with a lot more color and sound.
Watch it. If only to say you did. If only to turn to someone else the previous day and say, "I watched this flick last night. I don't know if I'll sleep properly for a week but I've got to own it."
It's like being the guy who drinks something out of a cup that's been sitting out for three days, gagging furiously and then looking to your roommate and saying, "Man, this stuff tastes like s#!t. You've got to try it!"
Only in a good way.
The movie looks gorgeous, is captivating as only lovingly tendered sick humor (with a certain political morality) could be, and is easily one of the most originally sketched visions in motion picture history.
Enjoy. Bill Plympton is the man.
Five things for me: the themes of government over individuality (that is to say that money and might makes right), the theory of what I REALLY want to do to my in laws (if I had them), how to hum a happy little tune of some random order all the while, what's really going through a guy's head during sex, and how DID you get to be so cute?
Please note that the complexity and intellectuality of the most important things were presented in a descending order. The movie moves a bit more erratically, though with a lot more color and sound.
Watch it. If only to say you did. If only to turn to someone else the previous day and say, "I watched this flick last night. I don't know if I'll sleep properly for a week but I've got to own it."
It's like being the guy who drinks something out of a cup that's been sitting out for three days, gagging furiously and then looking to your roommate and saying, "Man, this stuff tastes like s#!t. You've got to try it!"
Only in a good way.
The movie looks gorgeous, is captivating as only lovingly tendered sick humor (with a certain political morality) could be, and is easily one of the most originally sketched visions in motion picture history.
Enjoy. Bill Plympton is the man.
Ally McBleah! Bill has to learn some pacing.
matrix291 February 2001
Wow. I enjoy the imaginative works of Bill Plympton, but this was too Ally McBeal like. His pacing was way off. He exaggerates items lacking in humor for agonizingly long times. Bill's strength is in comic wild takes, but they cannot work without something normal to play off. In this way, he should take some note of "King of the Hill" and let some scenes relax to normality and allow a plot to progress.
Bill is great at deconstructing the norm, but this gave me more yawns than laughs. It actually had many long stretches of boredom. The scenes designed to offend or shock just were bland tedious and awkward. The scenes that worked were the ones where the music played. The only other ones I liked were the basic underexaggeration humor (like the general behaving like a kid without his favorite toy). Mostly there was too much animation looping in the midst of predictable overused gags lacking a fraction of subtlety. Yawn.
Bill is great at deconstructing the norm, but this gave me more yawns than laughs. It actually had many long stretches of boredom. The scenes designed to offend or shock just were bland tedious and awkward. The scenes that worked were the ones where the music played. The only other ones I liked were the basic underexaggeration humor (like the general behaving like a kid without his favorite toy). Mostly there was too much animation looping in the midst of predictable overused gags lacking a fraction of subtlety. Yawn.
Funniest animated movie ever
shrubbmeister6 May 2004
The freakiest funny animated movie ever. Plympton is whacked. I have seen his shorts, but this takes the cake. What a hoot. It has no redeeming value. It just makes you laugh. Total absurdity at it's finest. If you hate this, feel sorry for your comedic side. You at least have to appreciate the animation. Plot aside, or plot against, just too creative for words. If you like Monty Python's animation, you'll love this.
Dear God, Why?
selfparody13 July 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I couldn't believe Plympton managed to get this mess past the drawing board stage. I admired THE TUNE for it's extremely bizarre but beautiful animation, but here, he throws all taste or thought out the window, and makes what I guess is about fifty percent a spy movie parody that makes AUSTIN POWERS seem high brow, and fifty percent random crap that show how apparently Plympton has not got over a childish glee of drawing naughty bits or internal organs. People in this movie are basically seemingly composed of organs held together by crazy glue, because almost everyone gets mangled in a way that lets the red stuff spill around. But this, initially nauseating for its gore, then becomes nauseating for its boredom and lack of drive. What really irritates me is that, well, there's some good dialogue. Plympton was fully capable of making an infinitely better movie, but got mired in his obsession with trying to gross the audience out.
Clever, but...
Kevin-9426 April 2001
Plympton is a genius and his film has more imagination than a hundred Hollywood film combined. Nevertheless, this film is a hard one to stick with. Even at an hour and 13 minutes, it feels long.
My objections are not the ones you might expect. I was totally open to Plympton's original and surreal take on life. I wasn't offended at all by the gross or sexual stuff. For the first fifteen minutes or so, Plympton's "anything goes" style of animation is both hilarious and thrilling. Inanimate objects come to life. Bizarre "what if" notions are suddenly played out for us in vivid color. We've entered a new universe.
The first half is very promising. I loved the scene of the main character having a tension filled dinner with his wife and her parents. (The in-law's house includes a framed photo of the young couple, with the son-in-law's image cut out!) These scenes show great promise of a man wrestling with the anxieties most new husband wrestle with (sex, in-laws, life in the 'burbs, balancing a demanding job with a wife who wants attention.) Sadly, the wife and these other elements are almost immediately swept aside so that we can have a series of belabored battles between our hero and the military-entertainment complex. These battles take up the entire second half of the story, and always end in a stalemate.
Plympton's universe, where the laws of physics don't apply and anything can and will happen, is ultimately a mixed blessing. At first, the freedom is funny and liberating. You don't know what's going to happen next. But after half an hour or so, it becomes repetitive and dull. If anything can happen, and no actions have any consequence, then why do we care? Nothing really matters here. Nothing is at stake. No one seems to want anything or care about anything. It's so unreal it ceases to be relevant. Our interest wanes. As cool as Plympton is (and he is cool), at some point the novelty wears off, and when it does, there's nothing to come in and fill the gap (The experience is kind of like that of watching an adult film.)
In the end, IMASP is about nothing but its own cleverness. I hope that for his next project, Plympton will put his considerable talents to work in a good story with strong characters. good story with stron
My objections are not the ones you might expect. I was totally open to Plympton's original and surreal take on life. I wasn't offended at all by the gross or sexual stuff. For the first fifteen minutes or so, Plympton's "anything goes" style of animation is both hilarious and thrilling. Inanimate objects come to life. Bizarre "what if" notions are suddenly played out for us in vivid color. We've entered a new universe.
The first half is very promising. I loved the scene of the main character having a tension filled dinner with his wife and her parents. (The in-law's house includes a framed photo of the young couple, with the son-in-law's image cut out!) These scenes show great promise of a man wrestling with the anxieties most new husband wrestle with (sex, in-laws, life in the 'burbs, balancing a demanding job with a wife who wants attention.) Sadly, the wife and these other elements are almost immediately swept aside so that we can have a series of belabored battles between our hero and the military-entertainment complex. These battles take up the entire second half of the story, and always end in a stalemate.
Plympton's universe, where the laws of physics don't apply and anything can and will happen, is ultimately a mixed blessing. At first, the freedom is funny and liberating. You don't know what's going to happen next. But after half an hour or so, it becomes repetitive and dull. If anything can happen, and no actions have any consequence, then why do we care? Nothing really matters here. Nothing is at stake. No one seems to want anything or care about anything. It's so unreal it ceases to be relevant. Our interest wanes. As cool as Plympton is (and he is cool), at some point the novelty wears off, and when it does, there's nothing to come in and fill the gap (The experience is kind of like that of watching an adult film.)
In the end, IMASP is about nothing but its own cleverness. I hope that for his next project, Plympton will put his considerable talents to work in a good story with strong characters. good story with stron
I Saw a Strange Film!
NoDakTatum5 October 2023
Bill Plympton, the animator I always associated with nice little cartoon pieces usually consisting of people having their facial features exaggerated in some way, gets out all of his frustrations in a full length effort that blows the doors off of any Japanese anime. Grant and Keri are newlyweds. They begin having problems with their marriage right away. Keri's parents hate Grant, and at dinner one day, Grant begins imagining horrible things happening to his new family. A small lobe develops in his neck, thanks to a misplaced satellite TV signal, and when he imagines a giant blade of grass trying to lawn mow his neighbor, it really happens. This interferes with Keri and Grant's sex life in what must be the funniest cartoon sex scene ever filmed. Grant goes on a talk show, and shows off his new power. He becomes the target of Smile Corp., who want his power in order to bolster their sagging television ratings. The rest of the film consists of one giant running gun and tank battle between Grant and Keri and the uniformed goons from the corporation.
This film is not for children. The whole thing is animated in the Plympton style, but he seems to cut loose here, resulting in a wild ride that never lets up. Barely 73 minutes, the action will leave you exhausted. The gore is intense resulting in hilarious, disgusting scenes. One split open corpse is used as a skateboard, and Grant's daydreaming usually consists of violence. There are more guns fired here than in all the Rambo, Lethal Weapon, and Terminator films combined. The giant goons sent after Grant are hilarious, and the constant sound of automatic gunfire that takes up the last half of the film takes on its own humor. The sexual scenes are also explicit, and very shocking for an animated film. The best scenes involve Keri's parents. If you have ever been married, or in a serious relationship where you have met the significant other's parents, you can totally relate to Grant's experiences. Keri's father's foul-mouthed prayer before the meal is classic. I loved this film. Plympton boldly stomps into an area recently dominated by bland Japanese anime and memories of the overrated Ralph Bakshi, and kicks the ink out of both genres, reducing them to shallow, quirky cartoons. If you find this and watch it, you will not believe your eyes. If you finish it, and are completely offended, then I think Plympton succeeded. This is one marriage I am glad works out. Definitely seek "I Married a Strange Person" out, and take my word for it.
This film is not for children. The whole thing is animated in the Plympton style, but he seems to cut loose here, resulting in a wild ride that never lets up. Barely 73 minutes, the action will leave you exhausted. The gore is intense resulting in hilarious, disgusting scenes. One split open corpse is used as a skateboard, and Grant's daydreaming usually consists of violence. There are more guns fired here than in all the Rambo, Lethal Weapon, and Terminator films combined. The giant goons sent after Grant are hilarious, and the constant sound of automatic gunfire that takes up the last half of the film takes on its own humor. The sexual scenes are also explicit, and very shocking for an animated film. The best scenes involve Keri's parents. If you have ever been married, or in a serious relationship where you have met the significant other's parents, you can totally relate to Grant's experiences. Keri's father's foul-mouthed prayer before the meal is classic. I loved this film. Plympton boldly stomps into an area recently dominated by bland Japanese anime and memories of the overrated Ralph Bakshi, and kicks the ink out of both genres, reducing them to shallow, quirky cartoons. If you find this and watch it, you will not believe your eyes. If you finish it, and are completely offended, then I think Plympton succeeded. This is one marriage I am glad works out. Definitely seek "I Married a Strange Person" out, and take my word for it.
I Loved This Movie
Droz-423 October 1999
I watched this movie with my sister last night on Cinemax and I must say this was absolutely brilliant! I am a big fan of Bill Plymptons animation which can be seen on Cartoon Sushi on MTV. OK it starts off with two birds having sex (which right there tells you that this movie is gonna be hilarious). The movie itself is about a guy with some kind of object lodged in the back of his neck that gives him all these crazy powers, and the government is trying to find him. Not only does this movie have a lot of funny sex scenes. It also has a lot of gratuitous violence, with brains and c**p coming out of peoples bodies. Bill Plympton is the master of animated violence. I recommend that everybody see this movie. It's so hilarious that you'll be laughing at it for days to come. Oh yeah the little songs in it are cute too
Like watching a preschooler who thinks the word "Dookey" is hysterical
Orcini23 February 2001
I am a big fan of Plympton, and I was excited when this film was released. Perhaps that's why I felt so let down. I can only imagine that B.P. was sick of critics saying his `The Tune' was too corny. But while that film was creative and interesting, this movie is full of dirty jokes that just aren't funny. A soldier performs oral sex on another man's shoe, two tanks get it on, a woman's body is used to make balloon animals. the list goes on and on. The dialogue is patchy at best: `Have YOU ever tried to stop two tanks from having sex?' And the songs are annoying and completely unnecessary. The film pretends to be shocking but is really very boring. The timing is horrible- there is a long pause before every incident, then `screaming' cells are cycled for a few seconds. Afterwards, the story can continue. The film isn't even an hour and a half long, but I checked my watch many times throughout. It isn't downright horrible- there are a few genuine rib ticklers in here. But mostly, based on what B.P. has done before, it was a major disappointment.
Barmy. Absolutely barmy.
Kinitawowi22 September 1999
This film is quite mad. The balloon animal sex scene is completely nuts. I watched this film in a quiet room with about five of my mates, and we were sat there laughing our heads off throughout. Watch it, if only for the aforementioned sex scene.
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