The original idea for the film was inspired by a dream that Bill Plympton had, of a skull that oozed all these scary Gothic creatures - snakes, lizards, spiders and bugs. He felt that this image was perfect for a 50's teen "revenge at the prom" film. Once he had the concept, he began making concept drawings that evolved into storyboards.
The entire process of animating the feature (approximately 30,000 drawings over a 1-year period) was captured by a revolutionary device called the "Plympton Ani-Cam". This contraption is simply a small camera, situated about a foot above Bill's drawing board, that is connected to an internet server and allows people all over the world to watch the slow, methodical process of an animated feature being created. It was an interesting innovation, because Bill found out that there were thousands of people around the globe who were tuning in daily and became obsessed watching the whole animation process so openly displayed
Bill Plympton's distant cousin and friend Martha Plimpton came on board as a producer on the film and enlisted the talents of some of her fellow thespians.
Bill Plympton used a lot of the urban myths that were prevalent in his teen years, mixed with some real experiences in high school. For example, the lead character, Spud, rides to school on a Vespa motor scooter, just like Bill did. Like Spud, Bill was also not the most popular kid in class, since being an artist ranked very low in the school pecking order, of course, with athletes and cheerleaders sitting on top.
Since the concept behind the film is the romantic mythology that pervaded American high-school culture in the 1950's, the music in the film is a mix of 50's-style ballads and period rockabilly by frequent Plympton collaborators Maureen McElheron and Hank Bones. They have worked with Bill in tandem ever since his film "The Tune" in 1991.