Footprints

The latest entry in animator Bill Plympton's checkered line of surrealist short films is Footprints, which concerns an old man searching for a mysterious monster amongst his village. For four minutes, a humble sense of dread builds up as the old man tries to track down a mysterious figure that has been disturbing the peace of his neighborhood for a while now. Plympton's visual style is pleasantly surreal, but the sense of mystery and dread here is remarkably little, and given there's no dialog nor any real immersive atmosphere, Footprints falls far short of its goal to captivate. The style here is attractive enough, but just remarking on that alone as a positive makes this short an empty candy wrapper as a whole.

Directed by: Bill Plympton.

Footprints has a few things I love in short films, even if those films aren't necessarily my cup of tea or the best out there: 1- A clearly distinguishable style. I love Plympton's style, that mix of children illustration and hallucinated surreal oneiric world in pastel and subdued colours. 2- A clear idea or concept. Of course there is story in this short film. Are you kidding me?! It is just that is not a story that goes from A to Z, is a story that goes from A to A. It is not a linear story, it is a circular story. It is not a story of the conscious, it is a story of the subconscious. 3- The presence of some intriguing elements that make me ponder, watch the movie again and ponder again, or just say aha!

Footprints is a very short and simple film, as short as a joke can be. However, it is able to explore some elements of the unconscious in a simple understandable way.

'FOOTPRINTS': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Another crazy cartoon from Portland animator Bill Plympton (featured in theaters as a 'Highly Commended' animated short; played with the '2015 Oscar Nominated Animated Short Films'). It tells the story of a man trying to track down a monster, and kill it. It's just 4 minutes long, contains no dialogue and was directed by Plympton. It's another really dark and bizarrely odd animated movie, from the creative mind of Bill Plympton. I didn't get it, and I couldn't really tell you what it was about; without reading the synopsis. It is somewhat amusing though, for 4 minutes, but kind of forgettable.

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"Footprints" is an odd little film by Bill Plympton. I am a huge fan of this wonderful artist and have seen most of his shorts. This is why I found it odd that Footprints was chosen for the program, as it's among the poorest of his films I have seen--mostly because the animation seems more rushed and lacks the care that you'd seen in his best works--such as hit "Guard Dog"/"Guide Dog"/"Hot Dog" series or in my personal favorite, "One of Those Days"*. The story also is a bit lacking. Now I am not saying it's a bad movie but Plympton simply has done so much better.

*Several of these films HAVE been nominated and/or included in this special showing in the past. But I could probably name at least 10-15 of his shorts that are vastly superior to "Footprints". Please try to see these other films--the guy is a genius with the pencil!