Teks: Fransisca Bianca
Foto: YouTube

Anyone who sees this compilation of fictionally rejected animated shorts by Don Hertzfeldt should be the judge for themselves. There is a thin line between too clever and just pure absurd, and somewhere along that line there lies Rejected. Some might find the very dark humor Hertzfeldt colors his colorless animations with either too funny, way beyond anybody’s appropriate understanding, or just leaving them quite speechless.

With each segment lasting only less than a minute long, apparently Hertzfeldt’s series of fictionally rejected works for a few networks found themselves too similar and artistic-like to wind up into this compilation, with the segments and the characters in them falling apart towards the end due to “(the lack of) meaningful input and lacking any remaining reason or coherent narrative structure”. And so, they literally fell apart.

Perhaps the one thing to obviously give Hertzfeldt credit for is the way these bits and pieces of random animations found their ways into a harmonized collection. Or perhaps, what truly harmonized Hertzfeldt’s animations is the fact that they’re all equally random. Overall, it shouldn’t be said that in spite of everything, Hertzfeldt’s works is anything but without vibrant character. After all, it was nominated an Academy Award for Best Animated Short.

Quick Review Rejected: 2/5

Rejected (2000)
Directed by Don Hertzfeldt
Synopsis: A compilation of Hertzfeldt’s rejected animations.