The Tune

The original songs for this movie are amazing, but not nearly as amazing as Plympton's animation. Well worth shutting yourself in to watch, perhaps with other examples of excellence in feature length, independent animation. This ranks with the work of Bakshi, and it's worth supporting animators who don't work for Disney, simply for the fact that their work is not homogenized or dictated by the studio. Plympton gave us this twelve years ago, and we haven't had many animators of note since who could give us a quality product like his. It begs the question, "why not?" I think this film is a must-see for any aspiring animator, to show them that it can be done, and done well.

This is a story about a song writer called Del (voiced by Daniel Nieden), who's working on the latest hit for his boss, Mr Mega (Marty Nelson). However he's suffering from creator's block, and couldn't find the inspiration to finish the tune. At the same time, his relationship with Mr Mega's secretary, Didi (Maureen McElheron), may start to fall apart should he not be able to complete the tune, and this just adds to the pressure.

What follows is something like an adventure in Alice's Wonderland, as Del, en route to submitting his incomplete work to Mr Mega, finds himself on the wrong end of a highway, and gets transported to the extremely weird world of Flooby Nooby, where it seems like everyone is able to hold their own tune. The secret of course is to write from the heart, and he embarks on this quest within Flooby Nooby to learn just how to do that.

There are more than 10 songs featured in the movie, which just gets better and better with each song being played, ranging from pop to folk and even the blues. The songs are naturally the highlight of an animated film hinging on them, and Maureen McElheron certainly created the tunes that combined perfectly with Bill Plympton's visuals.

Del encounters different folks with different strokes, and I'm still in awe at the immense creativity that Bill Plympton has featured in the characters of this movie. Infusing great humour, there are plenty of mini episodes which could stand alone as comedic animated shorts, like the two violent men, the sad story of a taxi driver, and of course my personal favourite, probably the precursor to The Matrix Reloaded's Architect in the Wiseone (Chris Hoffman).

What's amazing too is the different animation styles adopted by Plympton within the film, and truly, this is great stuff. You have animators who, after discovering a style they're comfortable with, sticks to it and you can see the style replicated in their drawings. Plympton's so diverse, you can hardly classify his works as they are extremely wide-ranged. The shorts who have provided this hint, but I didn't expect him to combine the styles into one coherent feature length movie so seamlessly.

Before the screening began, Bill Plympton shared with the audience that The Tune costed around US$150-175K in those days, and it took him about two and a half years to make the film. You see, rarely does the creator animate his own stuff, but Bill probably is the first who did it, for a feature length animation. Though he prefers to admit that he's not too diligent and likes to spend time travelling, which of course, adds to the production schedule.

He's been able to recoup the cost of production only recently, thanks to the advent of technology like the Internet and DVD sales. He also shared that his stuff is wildly popular in Korea, that it is a huge market for him. And for budding animators, his advice would be to own their own creations. When asked a question about opportunity cost between working independently, and for a studio / production house, he highlighted his preference for having the creative freedom to do what he wants, instead of having someone else provide the directions and nagging if something is too politically incorrect or too violent.

I watched this years ago when I must have been twelve or thirteen, and then saw it again when I was about seventeen, and although there was a gap of no more then five years I felt as though the time in-between was far greater. I am now twenty two and recently saw a trailer for this movie and in one frame everything that I loved about the film returned, I can't honestly remember the details of this movie but a few songs and some great images have stayed in my head ever since I saw it the for the first time. I have yet to see it again and to be honest am resisting trying to seek it. It seems strange to say but on the couple of occasions that I watched this movie both times were purely by chance, channel surfing at about two in the morning and on both occasions I was almost reduced to tears by the end (Yes guys do cry as well).

How we view this movie is purely subjective, it is a simple story of a man and his 'tune' but there seems so much to take away from it, it mirrors the French story 'the little prince' in many ways in that to watch it you have to be detached from any sense of realism, you have to put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist and feel what the artist is trying to convey. I'm sure if I rented it now and got all my friends round telling them this was the best movie I ever seen, halfway through it they would ever laugh their ass's off (with good reason) or say it was 'OKAY', I don't want that to happen, this movie has to be seen on your own circumstances to be understood, meaning you have to be taken away by it, The Tune can not be approached as a movie which is objectively a 'great movie', it is for you to decide and enjoy.

I hope for the day when I'm grey and old and this movie will like an old pal appear on the screen and I'm whisked back to my strange teenage years, yes I know it is a totally whimsical view of life, but that is what The Tune means to me, a small insignificant part of my youth, a part which I'm sure will surface to then disapear again countless times through out the years. "Alas this old timer sure does rattle on".

The Tune is an animated musical made by Oscar winning animator Bill Plympton (Your Face) who also did every single drawing in this feature. A first for animated movies. With Bill Plympton's drawings and music by the talented Maureen McElheron, The Tune becomes a unique classic. The story follows songwriter Dell on a journey to write a song so he could live happily ever after with the girl of his dreams, Didi, also played by Maureen McEhleron. He travels through the wonderous place of Floobynooby and learns to write songs with his heart, and not his pancreas. Drawn solely in a style that looks like colored pencil, the look of the film tends to be uneven, but Bill Plympton's style itself is so unique and invitingly strange that one tends to ignore the style shift as each song in the story is presented with a unique look. The music is in this movie is what really makes the film. Mauren McElheron juggles so many styles that it's hard to believe that she's the sole composer. We go from Old Broadway to Country, to 60's Beach Rock. We even get some Rhythm and Blues and a Tango Piece. The music in The Tune really celebrates the old American Classics. The Tune really suffers during some long drawn out sequences and songs that do garner laughs, but many might seem to think that they detract from the story. (Namely a scene with a wise man and another scene with two business men inflicting torture upon each other's faces.) Still, even with these scenes, it's very easy for me to recommend a viewing of this film.

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The Tune is a truly great film for any age. Funny and even (in places) sophisticated for adults, with plenty of wackiness and crazy Bill Plympton stuff. The music is also great, in fact I started out looking for a soundtrack and ended up here bragging on this film. It's silly fun in the traditional 4-frames-per-second that Plympton if famous for, as well at a few bits similar to his famous "How to Quit Smoking" cartoon. A plot synopsis is sort of a requirement to fill enough space here on IMDb, but the plot is really less than half the point. As far as the plot goes, it's pretty thin. A songwriter has a bunch of adventures getting from his home/office to the Mega Music building where evil corporate scumbag Mr Mega waits like a spider in its web. The main character, Del, is a dweeb, and his apple-cheeked girlfriend Didi is Mr Mega's secretary. The point of the movie is to enjoy some crackin' animation, hear some weird but great songs, and in general have fun. The subplot of Del's struggle to gain his lady love by collecting these songs is nice, even poignant in places, but still secondary. Mostly just have fun. My DVD has a weird place near the end where the sound drops a good bit for that last number.