Rejected

i saw this the first time at the spike and mike festival in austin... i could not stop laughing. nobody else could stop laughing. i was holding my face because it hurt so much from laughing. if you are one who thinks that good old clean jokes about anything crossing any roads, no, this may not be for you. but if you have a sense of humour, and would like to see something new and different, then please watch this. i've seen it a few times since then (it's been a few years) and laugh just as hard every time. if you do enojoy it, make sure to check out some of his other clips.

Rejected (nominated for an Academy Award) is quite simply one of the most stupid, insane pieces of American animation to come in this new decade. There's no plot, just a series of little animated short films by Don Hertzfeldt, an animator who wanted to get some commercial spots with his ads. The result is what's before you, what was entirely rejected, yet repackaged here for the public. Some shorts involve almost nothing at all (albeit with a surprising words from the creatures), others involve surreal images of talking bananas, weird dancing things, and an bleeding incident.

The first time I saw this film, it was a very funny way to kill ten minutes. I watched it with an audience at my university, and almost all of us were cracking up. But then when I watched it again with other friends, I didn't laugh as hard, and they didn't laugh at all. So really, besides the aesthetic interest in the film (sometimes the animation starts to deconstruct on itself, with repeated scribblings put to focus), it's a very subjective viewing. You can either lose yourself in the ridiculousness and catch phrases, or be completely turned off by the lengths to which is wants you to laugh. But it is very memorable, and it's the kind of film I want to see again in several months to a year, when it will be even fresher.

Deserved revenge in the film business must come rarely. I don't for a minute believe that Hertzfeldt is blameless in how he dealt with "the suits," but I've had enough dealings with them to serve them any insult possible.

I first encountered Hertzfeldt's work in "A L'amour" done before this. It has him approaching different women and saying innocuous things "Betty, those are nice shoes" and having her chainsaw out his heart and eat it.

This stuff is along the same lines, a little less powerful and more uneven. But what makes this something you'll remember for a long time is the stuff done after the initial rejected bits and the faux ads. Its the stuff where the cartoon itself begins to disintegrate.

It is a literal example of self-referential folding: the paper crinkles and destroys the world.

This is probably the second best of his stuff. See "Genre" if you can.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

I don't know what Buff-17 was talking about when he submitted his review of the movie... Perhaps he had a cup of tea, and sat alone in his house with darkened lights to watch it in full surround sound...

Buff, I think you were simply looking a bit too deep.

I saw this film for the first time at Spike and Mike's film festival with a group of my friends. You aren't missing any jokes, buff - in fact, you are looking so hard you are missing the point. It is funny because it's so incredibly ridiculous.. and original.

Now then, this film is the funniest animation of all time. I laughed myself to tears (never happened before) watching the previous work, "Billy's Balloon," but this one.. by the end, I could not see the theatre screen. I was having trouble breathing.

And no, I'm not one of those annoying theatre types that bellow at the screen any time a fart joke is spoken.

This truly is an amazingly funny movie. The whole theatre was in uproar throughout most of the film. If you enjoy a good laugh, then this is a MUST SEE MOVIE.

From the same guy that brought us "Billy's Balloon" (the cartoon where the poor kid is being tormented by his homicidal balloon and "Ah L'amour" (where a guy is viciously torn apart by women he meets) comes "Rejected", perhaps one of the most twisted pieces of animation ever captured on film.

The end result is connection of absolutely bizarre stick-figure animated vignettes that make very little sense, although they are absolutely hilarious to watch. Through the course of the film, they progressively make less and less sense, until the animated world literally falls apart.

A huge step-up from his previous works, Dan Hertzfeldt's "Rejected" is stylistically simple, although very expressive and a huge technical achievement. And it's very, very funny. You thought the kid getting abused by his balloon in "Billy's Balloon" was funny? Wait until you see what happens when a guy wearing a normal hat walks into a room with a sign that says "Funny Hats Only."