Wednesday, 2 September 2015

5.1 – Review and critique a short film production


Review of one or more short films

World of Tomorrow - 2015 (dir: Don Hertzfeldt)


Don Hertzfeldt’s latest animated short film, World of Tomorrow covers an astonishing amount of ground in its taut 16 minute runtime, and does so with aplomb. We follow a young girl, Emily, as she is contacted by a third-generation clone of herself from 227 years in the future, who takes Emily on a journey through her life as she reflects on significant events during it. Through covering such themes as humanity’s pursuit of immortality, nostalgia, love, loneliness and the grand scope of space, Hertzfeldt has created an astounding film that is melancholic and deeply sad whilst still being very funny and a complete joy to view. It seems impossible for a film to include all of this whilst still being complete and satisfying, but World of Tomorrow somehow manages incredibly.


Whilst he keeps his trademark simplistic animation style, Hertzfeldt creates a beautiful vision of space and the future, erupting with colour and beauty. Each and every shot is just gorgeous and makes the film a visual delight. Combined with its endlessly creative story full of wit and poignancy and some great voice acting from Hertzfeldt’s own niece as Emily and Julia Potts as the deadpan older clone of her, World of Tomorrow is an incredible piece of short filmmaking that stays with you long after you have finished watching. 

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