During my Freshman year of college, I decided to watch a 16-minute cartoon called World of Tomorrow on Netflix. It was from a guy named Don Hertzfeldt and everyone who wrote about him and his work online used words like “genius” and “visionary” as descriptors. The short was even nominated for an Oscar. I figured with the high praise and short runtime, it would be worth procrastinating my homework to watch it. What I did not expect was how stunned I’d feel after those 16 minutes. Indeed it was just a cartoon about stick figures, but that feels almost insulting. It was a crazy, dark, beautiful, funny, pessimistic, and strangely hopeful parable about what the future has in store for humanity. I wanted to share it with the world, talk to people about it, have them experience the same head trip I did. But why did I feel this way? Why do I still to this day have the urge to force people to watch these stick figures? What is the deal with the Bitter Films of Don Hertzfeldt?
Hertzfeldt has been making his shorts since the mid to late 90s when he was still in the UC Santa Barbara film school. His early work (Ah L’amour, Genre, Billy’s Balloon, Lily and Jim) under his production banner of Bitter Films would be best classified as dark comedies that dealt with everything from the complications of dating to abusive balloons. Over time these shorts were played at a variety of film festivals (including Cannes) which helped pay Hertzfeldt to keep animating. After film school, Hertzfeldt made the masterpiece of his early work, Rejected, which used a series of non-sequiturs involving big spoons and even a bleeding anus and framed it around an animator’s mental breakdown following his fall to consumerism. Rejected earned Hertzfeldt his first Oscar nomination and marked a transition point in his work where he started to tackle heavier themes.
His first film of this new era was called (poignantly enough), The Meaning of Life. For this film, Hertzfeldt depicts the evolution of life on earth with human stick figures saying almost indiscernible silly random phrases until they all die. Even after the death of humanity, time keeps moving forward to reveal the subsequent species that inherit the earth going through the same process of life and death. Yet, the film’s ending is completely different than what came before it. After flying through “time”, the film comes to a halt to focus on a parent and child of a new species watching the sunset, then the child asks about “the meaning of life.” This moment could be easily played for comedy. Hell, Monty Python made a whole movie about it. However, despite the father speaking in a gibberish language, we hear a sincerity in his tone as he points his arm out toward the universe and back at his son. We realize he’s talking about something deeper. The father then leaves after scoffing at the phrase “the meaning of life” as the youngster looks up at the night sky and smiles at an infinite universe. This is what laid the seeds for all of Hertzfeldt’s future projects starting with It’s Such a Beautiful Day.
Made over the course of 7 years and 3 chapters that were later edited together as a feature-length film, It’s Such a Beautiful Day chronicles the seemingly mundane life of Bill, a stick figure dealing with boredom as well as a deadly neurological disorder. Once again Hertzfeldt’s dark humor is ever-present with jokes about awkward encounters and being hit by trains. However the humor this time is used strategically to lull the audience into a false sense of calm before the film hits us with the increasing inevitability of Bill’s demise and his search for meaning in his final days. With It’s Such a Beautiful Day, Hertzfeldt lays out his philosophy clearer than ever. It’s all about death. Even though saying it like that is almost too simplistic of a take, it’s the truest because it’s been at the core of every film since.
Death is terrifying. It’s a fear that haunts all living things aware of its existence and inevitability. The reality is that no matter what we do in our lives, how wealthy or healthy we are, every human is faced with the fact that one day we will die and there is nothing we can do to stop it. So why does Don Hertzfeldt want to use animation and comedy to throw this horrible existential fate in our faces? In It’s Such a Beautiful Day, Bill dreads his demise throughout the film, but when he’s faced with his fatal diagnosis in the final chapter, he begins to see the world through a whole new light and finally takes on how amazing being alive is.
At the very end of the film, when Bill is all but certain to be dead, Hertzfeldt does something amazing. He creates an alternative (almost wish fulfillment) ending where Bill not only beats his diagnosis but becomes immortal, living more fully than any other human being alive. But as eternity sets in, Bill watches as everyone and everything around him dies and disappears, rendering the amazing things he experiences and does almost meaningless. By crafting this ending, Hertzfeldt challenges the belief that Bill’s demise is the horrible thing we think it is and that death is a great evil. Surely Bill’s time on earth was cut short and spent toiling away at the mundane parts of life, but the point is that he discovers how amazing it is to be alive. Not by being the most amazing human being, but by opening his eyes and realizing it’s such a beautiful day. This statement may seem pretty definitive, however World of Tomorrow shows Hertzfeldt is far from done exploring humanity’s relationship to death.
World of Tomorrow is Hertzfeldt’s most recent series of films. They are episodes that delve into deep sci-fi concepts such as time travel, robots, space, and snake boys. Though the futuristic concepts are seemingly the primary focus of these films, Hertzfeldt focuses primarily on two concepts that further his mortality exploration. Cloning and memories. Our guide of the future is a clone called Emily (whose model number changes in each film), who not only explains the complexities of the future, but is one herself. Throughout the series, we see the consequences of her existence as a clone. Each episode deals with Emily trying to receive a piece of her humanity back. Whether it be a memory of her original mother long since forgotten, a reset of her brain, or to find a previous clone’s true love. We watch as Emily warns of the dangers of being lost in memories while being consumed by that of her own and what she inherits. Her existence is the ultimate cautionary tale of the future, as the idea for cloning ourselves presents another messed up version of immortality, one that burdens different beings with the thoughts of another keeping them from developing their own autonomy.
Ultimately, Hertzfeldt’s philosophy of life and death simply comes down to living in the here and now. In the first World of Tomorrow, Emily says “you are alive, now is the envy of all the dead.” Relating this to Bill’s revelation when confronted with his numbered days, and even the next inhabitants of the earth in The Meaning of Life, we see this profound appreciation for being tiny specs in the grand scheme of time and space. Worrying about our mortality and trying to live beyond it is wasteful for our limited time on earth. Spending our days longing for the past prevents us from creating our own memories today. When typed out, the message seems so clear and simple. It seems almost ridiculous that this could be the whole thing. Why go to the lengths of complicated plot and jokes to relay this message?
I think it’s because that’s what cinema is for. Not every film needs to have some life-changing, earth-shattering message. Not all of Hertzfeldt’s work does. However, the Bitter Films of Don Hertzfeldt allow people to understand these concepts on a deeper level. By laughing at Hertzfeldt’s absurd characters and situations, we are able to take on some of the bitter truths they must face. We need to be able to confront the darkness in our lives to understand the good stuff. It’s what makes me want to watch his films over and over again and show everyone I know. I want them to experience all the profound emotions and revelations I’ve experienced. Don’t let days go by and missed opportunities get you down because we are alive. I hope Don Hertzfeldt continues to find creative ways to tell us these lessons for a long time.
World of Tomorrow 1-3 is now available on Vimeo and It’s Such a Beautiful Day available on Blu-Ray and Vimeo. You can find most of Hertzfeldt’s other work is available on YouTube and Blu-Ray.
