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Your Face

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Wikipedia article




'Your Face' is a 1987 animated short film by Bill Plympton.[https://www.criterionchannel.com/films-by-bill-plympton Films by Bill Plympton - The Criterion Channel] It involves a man seated in a chair crooning about the face of his lover, and as he sings, his own face starts to distort in various ways. His song ends abruptly when a mouth opens in the floor and swallows him and the chair whole; after the closing credits, the mouth reappears and licks its lips.

Music



The vocals are by Maureen McElheron, known for composing the songs in 'The Tune', also by Bill Plympton. After the song was recorded,[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emUtR-WuNcI Maureen McElheron - Your Face (speed version)-YouTube] it was slowed by one-third, giving the desired and unusual effect, also making the voice more masculine.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY9lt6bW3kM Your Face by Maureen McElheron- Topic on YouTube] His face is distorted into many different shapes, such as a balloon, a cube and an ice cream cone.

Lyrics



The song is all original,[https://www.criterionchannel.com/films-by-bill-plympton/season:1/videos/your-face Your Face - Films by Bill Plympton - The Criterion Channel] made specifically for this short film, and the lyrics depict a metaphorical description of someone's face by using musical vocabulary to describe the beauty of their features.[http://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/2016/05/metamorphic-cinema-meditations-on.html Oddball Films: Metamorphic Cinema: Meditations on Transformation - Thur. May 12th - 8PM]

Legacy



The short received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film[https://www.shoutfactory.com/blog/bill-plympton/ Shout! Factory Announces Acquisitions of Bill Plympton Library|Shout Factory] at the 60th Academy Awards.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUrE-PO5J0U The Man Who Planted Trees Wins Animated Short: 1988 Oscars]

A variation of this short was used as the couch gag on 'The Simpsons's 29th season episode "3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage", with Homer Simpson's face replacing the original man, and Dan Castellaneta singing the vocals. This version ends with the Simpson family sitting on their living room couch.

'Your Face' was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015.

References




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