Ever since I saw the hilarious/absurd/shocking, Oscar-nominated Rejected (you can check it out on Youtube) by Don Hertzfeldt, I was a fan of both his animation style and his humour. When I heard earlier this year that he had made a new short I was curious about it. His drawings might be considered simple, but he always succeeds in getting his intention across. For this short, it’s 17 minutes, he recorded conversations he had with his 4-year-old niece, Winona Mae and used these for a story about an impressive journey to the future.
The story is about 4-year-old Emily who is called by a future version of herself, who has been cloned various times already. The older Emily transports her to the future and tells her about her version of the world and what is about to happen to humanity. The tells about her own life, her work and those she fell in love with and young Emily responds on that in various (often hilarious) ways.
It’s difficult to actually describe World of Tomorrow, the animation mostly is as simple as you’d expect from Herzfeldt, but he combines it with abstract backgrounds and various interesting and futuristic concepts (which you don’t see often in movies). He succeeds in creating a complex film which can’t be compared to anything else. If you are open to something different and can appreciate his humour, then you should check out World of Tomorrow. It’s available to rent through Vimeo.
This short is a masterpiece, it blew me away. Glad you loved it too! To think he almost single-handedly made it is mighty impressive! So full of ideas and quite moving as well. I think you have to see it multiple times to fathom all the details.
Yeah, I loved everything that is crammed into it and it’s something I would like to check out a couple of times more.