by RAF KATIGBAK

Imagine that, instead of lying frozen in a cryogenic vault under Disneyland's Magic Mountain ride, Walt Disney was alive and making cartoons on a steady diet of LSD, nitrous and some sort of cat tranquilizer. Well, Bill Plympton's cartoons are kind of like that, except crazier. For the past two decades, Plympton's hellaciously bent and wildly imaginative animations have offered a hilarious insight into the human condition through the colourful lens of surreal sex, violence and assorted creepy things. A pioneer in adult animation, his entirely hand-drawn animated shorts and features (The Tune, I Married a Strange Person, Mutant Aliens) have earned him an Oscar nomination and a rabid cult following. Now, with his new feature-length Hair High nearing completion (it's a work in progress that he's presenting at Fantasia), Plympton is set to tear up the book on Gothic horror in a '50s Grease-meets-Carrie style. The Mirror caught up with Plympton at his New York studio.

Mirror: Where did you go to high school?

Bill Plympton: I grew up in Oregon City, Oregon. In fact, we were toying with the idea of putting Tonya Harding in the film, 'cause she went to high school right next to my old high school. Unfortunately she was really into her boxing career at the time, so she felt like she couldn't get away to do the voices.

M: Wow. She really needs to take a course on career management.

BP: Yeah, she only lasted 30 seconds in the ring last week, so I think she's looking for another new career. But anyway, we have a great cast - Matt Groening, Don Hertzfeldt, David Carradine, Beverly D'Angelo, Sarah Silverman, Dermot Mulroney.

M: While you're not overtly political, your films often deal with things like fascist corporations and governmental incompetence. Hair High seems different.

BP: It's more mythical. I like to think of it in terms of one of those songs from the '50s like "Teen Angel," where a car gets stalled on the railroad tracks and the boy pulls his girlfriend free from the car. But when the train comes along, she realizes that she left her ring in the car, and runs back to get it, and gets smashed. It's good 'cause that means she really loved him and they'll live together as angels for eternity. It's that mythological, super-romantic feeling that is the essence of this film.

M: This was also the first time the actual drawing of an animated film was broadcast live via Webcam over the Internet. Where'd that idea come from?

BP: Well I saw - no, I mean I heard about these girls that put Internet cams in their bedrooms so you can watch 'em dress and undress or whatever, and I thought, gee they're getting really good audiences. So maybe I should try it on my drawings.

M: So did you take all your clothes off or were you just topless?

BP: Well, my hand was naked, but I generally had clothes on.

Bill Plympton presents High Hair at the Hall Theatre (1455 de Maisonneuve W.) Friday, July 16 at 7pm

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