The Hillbilly Philosopher is an independently produced animated short, written and illustrated by Justin Buschardt and Jonathan Hubbell, animated by Tad Catalano, narrated by Danu Uribe, and made entirely in Austin, Texas. The pilot episode, completed in September of 2014, will be screened on Sunday, March 8 at STAPLE! followed by a Q and A session with the creators.
What follows below (after the trailer) is an in depth write-up by their friend Michele Cummins, and then the rather lengthy and bizarre bios they sent me instead of something normal like normal people would do. Weirdos.
Full disclosure: I am good friends with Jonathan, know Justin less well but like him just fine, and have never met Tad. I have a very small but I daresay pivotal voice role in the film.
- Chris "Uncle Staple" Nicholas, January 2015
Watch the official trailer below and then come see the whole thing at STAPLE!
Hillbilly Philosopher Preview from Hillbilly Philosopher on Vimeo.
Hillbilly Philosopher
By Michele Cummins
January
11th, 2015
"All comic novels that are any good must be about matters
of life and death."
- a note from Flannery O'Conner in the opening of her novel
"Wise Blood"
One terribly dark night in 2002 (the year of the horse) Jonathan
Hubbell found himself where no man (or even horse) should ever be - on a
bridged section of a railroad track hearing none other than the burgeoning roar
of an oncoming train.
He didn't die. But reflecting on that experience, Hubbell
decided a good cartoon scenario could start with a character on those railroad
tracks. But this character never before had a reason to think too deeply about
anything due to his small-town surroundings. The character would suddenly be
forced to confront the possibility of his own death, making him more acutely
aware of his existence and allowing him to cultivate an overwhelming desire to
understand life.
 |
| The Train of Fate |
That is the premise of the Hillbilly Philosopher cartoon. Floyd,
a small-town southern hillbilly stereotype, has a near-death experience, and
after he must confront his existential thoughts and questions. He goes through
a coming-of-age journey, but consider age replaced by intellectual maturity.
In the first episode, we find Floyd having a nervous breakdown
on a railroad track because he sees two men kissing for the first time in his
life. The amorous act shakes up his entire insular worldview. He soon, however,
recognizes the reason the ground under him is literally shaking is that an
oncoming train is close behind him.
After the collision of these two events, Floyd's escape from
death becomes his launching point for character development. We watch Floyd
continue to confront new people and situations as his journey progresses. The
story is about transcendence of race, sexuality, differences, and a multitude
of social issues. He grows and learns while we get to laugh at him because
we've already figured out how to transcend all that stuff, right?!
 |
| Butts & Floyd |
Floyd's questions (Kantian questions) are confounding enough
that he leaves his hometown to travel across the globe in search of answers. He
embarks on this journey with his best friend Butts. "I mean you gotta have
two stupid dudes," Hubbell assures me. "It's the formula. Butts… he's
the sweetie. He's a big dude and he's also a kindergarten art teacher."
The characters may start out ignorant but they are multi-layered and strive to become
better people, which makes them both relatable and lovable.
%2B(1).jpg) |
| Immanuel Kant |
Jonathan Hubbell and his writing partner Justin Buschardt have now
logged somewhere around five years flinging their pencils, souls, and bodily
fluids (blood, sweat, & tears, that is) into the production of Hillbilly
Philosopher. The final component to their current team is animator Tad Catalano
of Mighty Coconut, who was hired two years ago (after a successful Kickstarter campaign - ed.).
 |
| A Diamond in the rough. |
"We had to get Tad drunk
to work with us." Hubbell explains. "Tad's skill level is just so
high that it was better when he was drunk because Hillbilly Philosopher is
meant to have a simplicity to it." There have been voice-acting contributions
from talented friends as well and Hubbell is slowly expanding the team as the
project grows.
Now that the cartoon is finally ready for the world, Hubbell
stays busy sharing the pilot with networks and other such avenues to see where
it can land a future as a regular series. There are open screening parties in
the works for this Spring around the Austin area and a few outside, including
one at the Original House of Blues in New Orleans on May 21st.
And now the bios!
 |
| 'sup dawg? |
Justin Buschardt – Co-Creator of Hillbilly Philosopher
Birthed through “unknown” means via the tire of a
double-wide trailer, his uncle blankly watched as he chewed his way through the
hot, semi-malleable rubber until Justin’s beautiful tarred face emerged
victoriously into the scorching desert life.
A swan then swooped down with transcendence to snip Justin’s
umbilical chord, nearly killing his tiny body (along with tiny penis) in the
gesture. The graceful bird was shot almost
immediately by the nearby uncle’s 20 gauge coach gun & the two relatives—one
recently brought to planet’s existence—ate pieces of the elegant glider for
“dinner.”
Justin’s portion was put in a blender, of course, so as to
make it bottle-friendly and more digestible to his new baby belly.
27 years later, Justin Buschardt was found in Texas
“celebrating America” by lavishly firing-off gluten-free pepper-spray in a
county courthouse restroom.
Upon his forcible (yet homoerotic, at times) escorting from
the institution—by men desperate for the perceived social structure of their
authority—and out to the streets, Justin’s overalls then “lost they main
buttons” (according to his statement), thus quickly & publicly collapsing
his already-undignified trousers down to his bare feet. This left only the tips of his tropically
painted toenails protruding from beneath the crumpled denim bottom-wear he mama
had bought him.
During this time, an animal-rights parade was stampeding violently
down the road—crushing small-businesses and emergency clinics—in front of both
Justin and his accompanying police officers as several previously-hidden fish
flapped berserk-style haplessly to ground from Justin’s ill-kempt pantalones,
flailing wildly on the sidewalk.
The fish were shot excessively to death using violent force
by nearby officers on duty and even some of the animal-rights activists and one
priest who admits to being high. This
seems to have occurred both out of confusion and, as of late, the public statement
by Texas law enforcement representatives has simply been that the act was
warranted granting the specific manner of “non-free speech” gesturing exhibited
that afternoon by the land-trapped sea life. The particular clauses utilized as legal
leverage in this case have only been alluded to as part of a soon-to-be “law
rule” in south Texas and thus remain shrouded from the public’s total knowledge
until a future election year, if then.
 |
| These here'n funny toons t'ain't gonna draw theyself! Git, now! Shoo! |
Jonathan Hubbell – Co-Creator of Hillbilly Philosopher
Found in a swamp during the Reagan years by Ronald Reagan on
a routine presidential swamp stay and getaway, Jonathan was fished out of the
murky depths with a .22 caliber rifle and petrified-wood cane.
His body covered in barnacles and several colonies of shrimp
(even his special bathing-suit region), experts later determined that it was
these very shrimp that had kept him somehow “alive” all of his years spent
submerged—though, there’s really no time to get into all of that now.
Jonathan was used as an example of “Trickle-Down” economics
by universities for years following the incident until it was widely
acknowledged that this made no sense. At
such point, Hubbell was sent on donkey (using government funding) to work at an
auto shop outside of Abilene.
He became quick friends with Buschardt—who had been working
there at the time as a “person to keep quiet, often”—but their friendship
solidified one evening when Justin observed Jonathan spraying his donkey in the
face with gluten-free pepper-spray to settle an argument that had apparently
been festering for months.
 |
| Good morning, my dear. I trust you slept well? |
Tad Catalano – Blind Animator of Hillbilly Philosopher
“On those cold, moonless nights, you will hear his sorrowful
wailings before you notice the mystical melodies he creates with his flutes,”
Justin Buschardt relayed to Jonathan Hubbell one evening at the auto shop, after
hours.
At the time, Justin was sleeping in a rusty bunk bed with
Jonathan and the idea that the two should make an animated short (that would
one day, hopefully, lead to an animated series) had just begun to poke its
seedling out of the soil, as the French say.
However, after several attempts to “animate” the story on their own,
using pieces of foil, drills and antiquated figurines they’d find at pawn shops
in west Texas, Justin began rambling about a man he’d heard about named Tad
Catalano—a man who could possibly bring their dreams into reality without any
of said supplies.
“But, he’s blind?” Jonathan inquired during twilight after
Justin dismissively uttered this fact somewhere midway through a string of 1,000
other facts, as though it were irrelevant.
Justin replied, “Yes, he is the first blind animator in history—or will
be—but I think it would be smart to work with him. “ There was a pause: “I mean, anybody can do anything, right?”
Justin asked. Jonathan replied, “No,
probably not. In fact, not at all: quite clearly. However, something deeply irrational inside
of my brain-heart knows how you mean when you say what you’re expressing this
to me when you’re saying that how you did that just a recent ago.” Hubbell continued: “We have no choice then but to discover the
first blind animator in history and we will fucking work with him. It will be our mission. It’s what God would’ve wanted.”
During the course of accommodating Tad’s disability—which
had stunningly little to do with gluten (to Jonathan’s surprise and Justin’s
disappointment)—both a friendship and newfound respect for our disabled human
came to fruition. Since Tad was unable
to see the images to which he was applying motion, much of production involved
his “caning” the two creators on their backs (and sometimes in the face or mouth)
with his exotic wooden flutes, as he screamed wildly at them: “figure out how
to make your ‘Looney Looney Mahoney Tunes’ move, and fast!!”
The motivation was needed.
Somewhere in between (1) grappling to understand the
confusing, abusive, artistic (?) process, (2) searching around Tad’s house and
yard at his behest for his “lost medication,” and (3) driving the “animator” to
Taco Bell, Hillbilly Philosopher was completed, already making its mark as the
best art ever created (in history and future).
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| THE END?!?!?!?
UPDATE: The lovely and talented comedian and actress Danu Uribe, who does the narration for Hillbilly Philosopher, will be joining the creators for the Q&A session at STAPLE! She sent in a normal, yet extraodinarliy impressive, bio:
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