Thursday, August 18, 2011

Idiots and Angels

Bill Plympton is one of those singular artists so unique they should be a national treasure.  His hand drawn animation style is so uniquely warped as to be instantly identifiable.  He has won a shelf load of awards and still he's mostly unknown, such is the unfairness of mass culture.

Like most of his works "Idiots and Angels," is nearly without dialogue.  It is the story of a jerk who mostly spends his time in a no account bar drinking.  He's a violent man and constantly irritated at the world.  Then one day he starts to grow wings.  Not only do they eventually give him the power of flight but they have the conscience he lacks.  If he steals money, the wings fly him back and make him give the money back.  He tries to fight his wings (one of his earliest use of flight was to moon airline passengers), but eventually a conscience becomes contagious. 

Definitely if you've not seen a Bill Plympton animation you should see this, and if you have seen one no doubt this is already on your netflix list.

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