The Meaning of Life

The evolution of humanity, through countless eons.

The cartoonist's title sequence shows images of black and white flames. And then a human body falls down through it decaying. (A human stick figure)

Next sequence is stick figures unique to the cartoonist's tradition walks and we are reflected of each one saying same dialogue lines. Then the crowd increases. And it becomes chaos of mixture and confusion. And in an instance all are dead and we see black clouds and confusion.

We have a starry sequence later.

And then mutation. Which was my first thought after the observation but later I realised it was a reflection of a parallel universe and how alien life would be behaving and it is accordingly reflected.

We see a discussion with an alien language. We see stars and other beautiful aspects floating around after the discussion.

And then slowly it concludes to the end title.

It's more like a mindless observation of life without any logic or judgement. The film maker establishes his violent and dark abstract style to theme and it is a very unique short animation.

Overall - 3.5/5

This is one of the animated shorts from THE ANIMATION SHOW: VOLUME 2. Most of the shorts in this DVD collection are rather poor because very few are funny and the emphasis is much more or art than entertainment in this second installment. For better films overall, see VOLUME 1.

In VOLUME 1, Don Hertzfeldt's animations were among the best additions to the compilation. Not only that, but they were scattered throughout the film. Here in the second collection, they only appear at the very end. Plus, I hate to be critical, but this was among the poorest of his films I have seen. While the cartoon is creative, it is NOT sadistic or funny--something lovers of his work really expect. Sadly, apart from the lovely classical music, I wasn't particularly happy while watching this one.

"Life is a comedy to those who think, and a tragedy to those who feel."

That proverb's the best way I can summarize this animated short. It's not often that movies get me misty-eyed and it's never happened before with anything animated. But the combination of color, movement, wit, intelligence, music, and pure beauty on display here made me happy beyond words and indeed, to tears.

Prepare to be overwhelmed. It's 12 wild minutes of paradox, puzzle and happiness. You can drink it all in and bliss out like a 4 year old, yet have deep philosophical conversations about it with your friends for hours.

I've been enjoying Don Hertzfeldt's films for years, but this is his crowning masterpiece (so far) and it's unlike anything he's ever done before. As far as I'm concerned, Hertzfeldt is the most exciting talent working in animation today. Who'd have ever guessed that the master of stick figures would pull off a piece so well-crafted that it might not have been out of place coming out of the Disney Studio, circa 1955? Fans of Hertzfeldt's popular, more comedic films (like REJECTED or BILLY'S BALLOON) are in for a totally different variety of genius here. Hertzfeldt probably could have made a fortune doing REJECTED sequels for the rest of his life, but the sign of a true artist is somebody who keeps on taking huge risks, pushing the envelope, and taking things in entirely new directions.

I have no idea where Hertzfeldt will take us next, and I for one can't wait!

If one is willing to look into this without a one minute attention span, you will find yourself in there. You may not like what you see, but it's there. We are taken from the beginnings of life and brought through the development of civilization on Earth and then beyond that. Excellent storytelling in the simplest yet esoteric way possible.

The author obviously thinks he is making some profound statements about how life is, and, brother, this is so pretentious it's ridiculous. Worse than that, much of this animated short film will give you a headache, not entertainment. There is a segment early on which lasts for seems like eternity in which many people all talking at once. In other words, this movie assault your senses - in a negative way.

Putting it simply: this is not fun to watch.

Much of the other times, stick figures grunt, groan, make bird noises, pig noises, alien gibberish and just plain assault your ears. The stick figures are not clever, nor entertaining, just something that looks like weirdo drew while on drugs.

Because I enjoy the innovative artwork on all of these Animation DVD collections, I find it hard to dislike anything but this one - and another unnamed one - are just awful. The only redeeming quality on "The Meaning Of Life" was the excellent classical music score.