Whidbey writer’s animated whale film makes waves

Published 1:30 am Friday, April 24, 2026

An award-winning animated short has ties to Whidbey Island.

Whidbey resident Edward Jordon wrote and produced “Whale 52 — Suite for Man, Boy and Whale,” animated by Academy Award-nominated animator Bill Plympton. After winning Best Short at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, “Whale 52” is bound for the Tribeca Film Festival and set to be screened at The Clyde next month.

“Whale 52” gets its name from the legend of the 52-hertz whale, said to swim through the ocean vocalizing at a frequency inaudible to other whales. That loneliness is the same which inspires the characters of the animated short.

Thousands of hand-drawn animations illustrate the story of Kaufman, a grieving widower and a volunteer at a school, and Enam, a young boy with selective mutism. Kaufman fosters trust with the boy when he takes the time to communicate with him through a magic pen and notebook.

When Enam eventually speaks, he chooses to confide in Kaufman, making for the short’s emotional crescendo.

“In identifying each character’s desperate isolation — a man, a boy and a whale who cannot communicate with anyone around them — Edward’s gift to the audience is a soft reminder that at some point in our lives we are, all of us, Whale 52,” Director Daniel Neiden said.

“Whale 52” is loosely autobiographical for Jordon, inspired by an amalgamation of his own experiences working with people with special needs and losing his partner more than two decades ago. Plympton’s animation infuses Jordon’s storytelling with fantastical elements, amounting to what Jordon considers a work of magical realism.

Initially, “Whale 52” began as a live action production.

Jordon recalled writing the script around 2017 or 2018, which he and Neiden decided to adapt when they later formed their film production company, International Originals. Neiden, already acquainted with Plympton, suggested tapping his artistry for the short.

Animating the heartfelt “Whale 52” posed a unique challenge to Plympton, with comedies dominating his body of work to that point. Plympton is credited as a director and animator on numerous projects, according to his IMDb, and is the creator of several title sequence “couch gags” for episodes of The Simpsons.

Even Plympton’s 1987 Oscar-nominated short, “Your Face,” in which a man’s face morphs over and over again while he croons a love song, breaks its own tension with humor at the very end.

Jordon worried such a departure from Plympton’s usual subject matter might not interest the animator, but ultimately, Plympton said that is what drew him in. Plympton’s original concept drawings made his “jaw drop,” Jordon said.

Visual storytelling takes on a greater importance in animation, Plympton explained, because visuals are the source of the emotion. He paid special attention to nailing characters’ facial expressions, details he said he tends not to scrutinize in comedy.

Seeing his own experiences “interpreted” by Plympton moved Jordon, he explained; he felt that Neiden and Plympton’s understanding of the subtext reflected in their creative decisions. A scene of Plympton’s own creation towards the short’s end, in particular, stunned Jordon: one in which the table Kaufman and Eman sit at is carried away on the whale’s back.

Plympton explained he sought to connect the characters’ stories with that visual, a choice Jordon praised.

“He exaggerates reality without losing that reality,” Jordon said.

Part of the appeal of “Whale 52” is its undeniably human style of animation. Plympton prefers to animate the old fashioned way: completely by hand.

“Why make a machine do it when it’s fun for me to do it?” Plympton said. “Also, I think people like the look of a hand-drawn, handmade film. It’s like seeing a painting, a Degas, in a gallery. You see all the brushstrokes and the mistakes, and the making of it is right there.”

It took about a year to create the 11-minute short, according to Jordon, which premiered in 2025. Although it failed to earn a nomination for the Oscars despite the filmmakers’ efforts, it will be featured in Whoopi’s Wonderful World of Animation at Tribeca, a program of shorts selected by actor Whoopi Goldberg.

“Whale 52” and several other films of Plympton’s will be screened May 14 at The Clyde in Langley as part of The Magic of Bill Plympton, a retrospective from 2-3:45 p.m., followed by an animation master class from 4-6 p.m. Plympton will be in attendance and available for signings and free sketches, he said.

“I’ve been to The Clyde, and it’s the perfect place to see short films, including Whale 52, and witness Bill’s jaw-dropping master class in animation that really must be experienced,” Neiden said. “What Bill does is nothing short of immortal folk art, but at a level that makes Plympton and his work an absolute American treasure.”

Tickets to the retrospective are $8 and to the master class are $10, and a combined ticket costs $15, according to Jordon. Tickets are available at The Clyde’s box office.

“We’re purposely keeping our admission fees low,” he said. “Our goal is to fill the house. And with so many artists on the island, I really hope they can.”

For additional information, contact Jordon at edwardjordon@internationaloriginals.com.