From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. You can also hear this short, KCRW.com.

We've seen a return to 3D animation.

Well, for years, over 20 years, in fact, writer, director, animated Bill Plimpton's worked in a dimension

really not seen in regular films.

Gravity.

He gives this character's physical weight.

You feel they're trying to fight the bonds of Earth as they're trying to get out of their bodies

or whatever it is, they're trapped in.

Of course, there's also a playful side to him, too.

As you can tell from his many animated shorts with titles such as Santa, the Fastest Year,

is one of my favorites, The Exciting Life of a Tree.

His newest film, his newest feature is Idiots and Angels, and Bill is the first

animator ever to draw, hand-draw entirely a feature.

That film was, which film was that?

The tomb.

Yeah, that was in 82. 92. 92. 92.

And, but I was thinking, though, about that feeling of gravity, that feeling of weight that exists in your films.

And it's unique to you, and I wonder where that comes from for you.

I've always been fascinated by shadows.

I think shadows reveal a lot of the dimension that is not presented

when you have a flat drawing and just outlines and color placement.

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