There are few artistic voices I respect more than that of Bill Plympton, a man whose belief in his vision is so strong, that he didn’t even allow studio rejections and stringent conventions of the mainstream industry to deter him from making the films that interested him, instead taking their refusal to produce his work less as an outright rejection, and more as a challenge to see if he could do it by himself. His fervent independence led to his films being some of the most impressive feats of animation ever produced, allowing the director to amass a small but meaningful body of work, each film an achievement in its own right. Hair High is one of his most celebrated works, and perhaps the closest he has come to making a mainstream film, not only due to the calibre of his cast (with several high-profile individuals lending their voices to this film), but in the story it told, and the audience it reached. While it may not have the cult following of something like I Married a Strange Person! or Idiots and Angels, this film does have many credible merits that make it such a compelling and layered work of contemporary animation. As one of the more peculiar entries into the small but meaningful corpus of adult-oriented animation films, Hair High commands a very distinct place without the director’s filmography and the industry as a whole, and while it may time some time for newcomers to acclimate to the director’s style (despite it being one of his more accessible productions), it all becomes extremely worthwhile once we are fully on Plympton’s wavelength, which is truly an extraordinary place to be when it comes to pure, unhinged artistic expression.

When watching a Plympton film, the viewer is struck by one of two emotions – repulsion or awe. A few of us were fortunate enough to experience both, which is very likely the entire intention of his films. The animation is bizarre and unsettling, but it is also achingly beautiful, mainly due to the fact that these images are produced under circumstances that allow the director to pay attention to every detail. Not many contemporary animators warrant the term “every frame a painting” when it comes to describing their work, but Plympton is certainly amongst the most viable candidates, which only makes the fact that his work has yet to be widely recognized by a larger audience all the more unfair. Many tend to view Plympton’s work as needlessly strange and unsettling, and while his films are often extraordinarily unhinged, there is still an abundance of artistic merit that underlie every frame – a director doesn’t commit multiple years of his personal and professional life to produce something that doesn’t have meaning. Once we move past the unsettling imagery (or rather, learn to embrace it – it isn’t difficult to adore the visual landscape of such a film when you realize that there is an unconventional beauty that persists throughout it), you are very likely to find that this is as effective as any other comedy, whether live-action or animated, and that it warrants our attention, regardless of how small it may appear. One of the more essential entries into a genre that has gradually been growing smaller when it comes to film (most modern adult-focused animation being produced for television), Hair High is a work of immense artistic importance, especially in terms of how the director uses small details for the sake of a more cohesive, interesting narrative experience.

Many of the traits that govern Plympton’s work are embedded in the story – it’s not enough that the animation is stark and frightening (albeit in a very constructive and interesting way), it also possesses a narrative that allows the director to use his own irreverent sense of humour to comment on contemporary America. Structured as a high school comedy in the vein of the films produced in between Rebel Without a Cause and Clueless (this stretch being the ever-changing but fascinating peak of the teen comedy), and functioning as a bizarre critique of American values, Hair High is in search of the deeper meaning underpinning our society through asserting a satirical edge over common qualities that we don’t often find reflected with such keen and interesting narrative complexity. If we look at it from a purely narrative standpoint, there isn’t anything particularly unique about the story – had this film been produced as a live-action comedy, it would be seen as a decent but relatively unimpressive teen-oriented comedy. This may seem like a criticism of the storyline, but it is actually immense praise to Plympton’s craft, since his directorial flourishes lead to a film that is incredibly beautiful and outrageously funny, all through taking advantage of the freedom offered by the medium of animation. Anything is possible on the other end of a pencil when it is wielded by someone with the right artistic vision, and Plympton has not ascended to the being one of the most important animators of his generation by being anything other than an inventive genius when it comes to his craft, making Hair High a fascinating and enthralling work of contemporary animation, produced by someone with a real flair for the absurd.

The beauty of Plympton’s work is that there is often not much that we can say about them, outside of what we’ve spoken about already – noting the discomfiting but alluring nature of the animation (which is often detailed to the point where it becomes creatively bizarre), remarking on the off-the-wall humour that underpins the film and makes it such a uniquely strange work of fiction, and just generally commenting on how Plympton is a director with a singular artistic vision, one that he is so passionate about asserting, he will readily embrace the obstacles that come with independently-funded animation for the sake of getting his work completed on his own terms. Hair High is one of his greatest achievements, and would probably be the most accessible of his work, particularly for those looking to explore his fascinating career. It contains all of his unique quirks, but in a form that is much more each to embrace and understand, the more repulsive surrealism (which is undeniably one of his most captivating qualities) being toned down in favour of a more outwardly endearing comedy that reminds us of what an exceptionally gifted storyteller he is, something that not many animators working in contemporary American cinema can attest to all on their own. In a world driven by animation that is often made for the sake of financial gain and audience approval, it is heartening to know someone as imaginative and revolutionary in his perspective as Plympton is still working, producing works that will undoubtedly come to be seen as definitive of this particular era in animated filmmaking, perhaps even more than it has already.