Hair High
Directed by Bill Plympton
Considering that a record number of animated features will be released to cinemas this year, you’d think there’d be a wider variety of genres from which to choose. Studios claim that their movies are intended for “everyone,” but creatures resembling living plush toys and action figures inhabit every mainstream animated flick, leaving little for adults looking for edgy material.
The tendency to pander exclusively to the juvenile sensibility is an odd choice, considering that many of the most famous, classic cartoons were fueled by sex, violence and other kinds of mature subject matter. So, while American studios continue to push the idea that animation is for children, animation directors like Bill Plympton opt for a different approach.
An Academy Award winner with almost 30 years of experience on the independent scene, Plympton has produced more than 30 animated short subjects and four animated features (with a fifth in production). He’s a traditionalist who sticks to the classic, hand-drawn technique, and he’s known for drawing every frame of his product himself.
His fourth feature-length cartoon, Hair High, premieres at Pioneer Theater Oct. 18 as part of the theater’s month of horror series. The film was completed three years ago but, until now, it was only available on the festival circuit. Hair High is markedly different from Plympton’s previous films since it’s intentionally geared toward mainstream audiences—well, as mainstream as possible while retaining Plympton’s licentious, bawdy storytelling.
It’s a gothic ’50s tale about two young lovers, Cherri and Spud, who seek revenge after being murdered on their prom night and left for dead at the bottom of Echo Lake. The film’s rife with excessive humor and sex gags—blended with the horrific tone of Carrie and the visual appeal of Grease.
While the current studio system insists on big name talent and state-of-the art technology, both of which drive the cost of production beyond the $100 million mark, Plympton manages to self-fund all of his pictures and markets them through festival screenings and DVD sales, sort of an Ani DiFranco for the cartoon set. Yet he also understands that celebrity talent can get people to take notice. So, with the help of actress Martha Plimpton (a family friend of a distant relation) he has assembled an all-star cast that includes Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Silverman, Beverly D’Angelo, Keith and David Carradine, Ed Begley Jr., along with animation greats Matt Groening and Don Hertzfeldt.
While a clearer, more traditional narrative makes the film more accessible to mainstream audiences, Plympton isn’t about to tarnish his reputation by selling out entirely. As the poster child for indie animation and a legend on the New York scene, he continues to participate in festivals, collect awards and compete against big-budget studio schmaltz and humorless Japanese imports with his popular offbeat style. Hair High contains all of Plympton’s outrageous antics and cartoony characterizations but in the guise of ghoulishly gleeful comedy about Zombie Love—just in time for Halloween.
