The Tune

Celebrated cartoonist Bill Plympton's first feature film is a surreal musical fantasy with some inspired animation. He financed it entirely by himself, raising extra money by doing work for a few television commercials (see "Plymptoons: Complete Works" on DVD). He also released early portions of the film as shorts to help generate funds ("Dig My Do" in 1990, "Push Comes To Shove" and "The Wiseman" in 1991), even winning the 1991 Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival for "Push Comes To Shove." Working again with Maureen McElheron (she scored his 1988 Oscar-nominated short "Your Face"), Plympton pieces together the story of a songwriter who, after receiving a 47-minute deadline to deliver a hit song or get fired, finds himself lost in the town of Flooby Nooby. Through the course of ten musical numbers (touching on various popular music genres) and some outstanding animation sequences, he learns to pen songs from the heart rather than by the book. This film is classic Plympton, but the light-hearted theme and often silly songs contrast greatly with the bizarre sex and violence of his second feature-length film "I Married A Strange Person."

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.

You have to give Bill Plympton credit. He is a filmmaker who, despite never gaining the commercial success that Walt Disney, Matt Groening, or Seth MacFarlane has over the years, still has churned out dozens of original animated shorts and a handful of movies. His animation style may seem archaic compared to the 3D animation that is popular today. However, unlike many animation giants, you gain a certain level of respect for Plympton when you learn that he drew more than 90% of the frames for "The Tune" himself. For a 69-minute movie, that's not an easy feat, and unheard of amongst almost all animators.

"The Tune" was not an easy movie to animate, that's for sure, but Plympton's effort to create his first full-length animated feature was well worth it. It tells the story of Del, a struggling songwriter (bearing an amusing, coincidental resemblance to Conan O'Brien) who is under pressure to write a hit single for smug music mogul Mr. Mega in order to make ends meet and win back the love of his girlfriend, Didi, who happens to be Mr. Mega's assistant. That's the plot in a nutshell, which creates a really good conflict in and of itself. The movie gets interesting when Del goes on a bizarre journey to find inspiration for his songs. He encounters along the way a happy-go-lucky mayor of a town called Flooby Nooby, an Elvis- impersonating dog, a wise prophet with strange face-changing techniques, a morose cab-driver without a nose, and other interesting characters.

The story and characters are most definitely outlandish, but not abhorrent, and are often charming and funny. The allure this film exhibits is aided by very memorable and catchy songs that you will be unable to get out of your head once the movie ends. The song "Flooby Nooby" made me laugh, and I also thought the Dolly Parton-esquire country ballad "Good Again" sung by the lonely female bartender was touching and poignant. This remark is coming from a writer who dislikes country music, too. I even thought the reprise of Del's own "My Love For You Is Equal To" brought the song from amateurish to distinguished.

The story was solid, but had its pacing thrown off a bit by some of Plympton's own animated shorts that he tied into the movie. Although I thought his shorts "The Wise Man" (1991) and "Tango Schmango" (1990) became incorporated into the movie surprisingly well, "Push Comes To Shove" (1991) ran on for a bit too long. The latter short, which involves two men standing side by side and doing strange cartoonishly-violent things to each other's faces, was funny, but slowed the pace of the story considerably. The pace picked up, however, when Del asks himself out loud, "Why am I still watching this?"

While "The Tune" has not yet gained the popularity it deserves, Bill Plympton thankfully is still working and gaining credibility for animating full-length movies, shorts, and, more recently, the music video "Heard Em Say" for Kanye West. "The Tune" is still available on DVD, and is a worthy addition to anyone's video library. It's animation may seem crude at first glance, but kids will love it. Fortunately, adults will too. It's original, well-animated, and ahead of its time even though its hand drawn. While films like "Aladdin" (1992) overshadowed "The Tune" upon its release in 1992, "The Tune" still deserves to be watched, not just heard.

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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this movie kind of sucked. the songs were kind of generic and weren't catchy at all. while i'll admit that it did have some pretty cool animation, i thought the movie itself was pretty dumb.