Bill is Bill Plympton, the older one, the one whose work most closely resembles what it might be like if someone hybridized Chuck Jones and a batch of bad acid. Don is Don Hertzfeldt, the younger one, the one whose work most closely resembles your shattered teenage heart, gleefully cynical in the face of everything. Both are groundbreaking, justly deified, and cult-like animators who give hope to those of us who dream of quitting our day jobs and holing up in a dingy flat with a raft of tracing paper and a black Thin-Line Sharpie. “Rejected,” a micro-mockumentary on Hertzfeldt’s mental wipeout in the wake of the rejection of his work by the Family Learning Channel, is downright Dada in its use of live-action, stop-motion, and traditional cel animation. It’s also jaw-droppingly funny stuff. “Billy’s Balloon,” a favorite of touring animation junkies Spike and Mike, takes Albert Lamorisse’s kidhood classic Le Ballon Rouge and gives it a little (okay, a lot) of the old ultra-violence. Who’d have thought we could laugh ourselves sick at kids getting mauled by vulcanized rubber orbs? Hertzfeldt, thank god. There’s a reason Hertzfeldt and Plympton are worshipped, and if you missed their brilliant, 10-cartoon tag-team show at the Alamo last weekend, you can at least check out their Web sites, sucka. Don’s is www.bitterfilms.com. Bill’s is www.awn.com/plympton/ . Go. Now.
This article appears in November 9 • 2001.