The London International Animation Festival presents Cheatin' (Bill Plympton)

Event information

Bill Plympton’s 'Cheatin' '(76 mins) is his first feature in five years and is about love, which of course leads almost immediately to strife and loads of sexual humour. It’s a glorious energetic romp with oodles of Bill’s distinctive, freewheeling visual imagination on giddy display.

Lured into an amusement ride by a carnival barker, beauteous Ella is saved from a dire accidental fate by musclebound Jake, and next thing we know they’re married. Mattress-pounding connubial bliss, however, is derailed when a jealous female admirer hands Jake faked evidence of Ella’s infidelity. Sobbing in agony as he recklessly drives home, Jake promptly moves out and into a motel, and even more promptly commences shagging the astronomical number of women who throw themselves at him. More than a little piqued, Ella unsuccessfully hires a hitman to off her hubby in retaliation, then uses a magician’s “Trans-Soul Machine” to inhabit the bodies of the ladies he’s having revenge sex with. Bill Plympton’s pulsing, pencil-etched, pastel-hued animation style is a pleasure to behold as ever, and Nicole Renaud’s score (featuring her own wordless vocals) has a traditional Gallic feel in line with the setting’s vaguely European air.