''Rejected'' is an
animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
film directed by
Don Hertzfeldt that was released in 2000. It was nominated for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for
Best Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...
the following year at the
73rd Academy Awards
The 73rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best of 2000 in film and took place on March 25, 2001, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST ...
, and received 27 awards from film festivals around the world.
Story
The film takes place over four segments and is initially introduced as a collection of unaired promo
interstitials for the fictional "Family Learning Channel." The "advertisements" are surreal, feature non-human characters, are often gruesome, and have nothing to do with the product. The second section is introduced as a collection of rejected advertisements for the fictional "Johnson & Mills Corporation" and features the same
surreal dark
Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown.
Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...
and
absurd humour as the earlier section. The third section is introduced with an explanation that the animator had begun further rejecting the norms of animation and a single short is then shown which was apparently animated with Hertzfeld's left hand only. In this short, the audio is garbled and the characters speak only complete nonsense.
The fourth and final segment is introduced with a title card explaining that the "rejected" cartoons began falling apart. Various characters and elements from the earlier shorts then appear in disjointed succession as their world literally falls apart: Clouds and stars fall from the sky, killing characters; the paper the cartoons are drawn on crumples and destroys the animations; characters attempt to break out of the screen or are sucked in to holes in the page. A close up on a distorted, screaming character ends the short which abruptly cuts to end credits scored with dramatic classical music.
Production
Hertzfeldt's first film after graduating from college, ''Rejected'' was photographed on a 35mm
rostrum camera
A rostrum camera is a specially designed camera used in television production and filmmaking to animate a still picture or object. It consists of a moving lower platform on which the article to be filmed is placed, while the camera is placed above ...
he purchased in 1999.
''Rejected'' features simple hand-drawn artwork, featuring mostly black pen animation on a white background with occasional use of color. As the film progresses and the fictionalized animator begins to fall apart, the drawings become more crude and the animation becomes more erratic. As the film concludes, the paper that the animation is drawn on begins to crumple and tear, and the characters are seen struggling to evade the destruction.
Besides the iconic ''Allegro ma non troppo'' from
Beethoven's 9th that plays in the text introductions to each segment, a particular segment with the "Fluffy Guys" uses background music from the
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
Christmas song ''
Nu är det jul igen''.
Inspiration
Although the film is fictional and Hertzfeldt has never done any advertising work, he did receive many offers to do television commercials after ''
Billy's Balloon'' received international attention and acclaim. In appearances he would often tell the humorous story of how he was tempted to produce the worst possible cartoons he could come up with for the companies, run off with their money, and see if they would actually make it to air. Eventually this became the germ for ''Rejecteds theme of a collection of cartoons so bad they were rejected by advertising agencies, leading to their creator's breakdown.
Hertzfeldt has never accepted "real" advertising work and has stated numerous times on his website and in public appearances that he never will, as he feels advertisements are "lies" and he does not want to lie to his audience.
Release
Exhibition history
''Rejected'' world-premiered at the
San Diego Comic Convention
San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...
in 2000. Between hundreds of film festival appearances, ''Rejected'' also toured North American theaters in 2000, 2001, and 2002 with
Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation is a presentation of Award-winning animated short films, annually touring throughout theaters, film festivals or college campuses in the United States.
Background
The festival is presented annually in th ...
; in 2001 and 2002 again with a retrospective touring program of Hertzfeldt's and animator
Bill Plympton
Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Awards-nominated animated short '' Your Face'' and his series of shorts featuring a dog character starting wit ...
's films called "The Don and Bill Show"; and returned to theaters once again in 2003 and 2004 with Hertzfeldt's own
the Animation Show tour.
In 2003, two of the "Fluffy Guy" characters reappeared in three Hertzfeldt cartoons created to introduce and book-end the first year of
the Animation Show: ''Welcome to the Show'', ''Intermission in the Third Dimension'', and ''the End of the Show''.
''Rejected'' was scheduled to air on
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...
in 2001 but was delayed for unknown reasons—it was rescheduled to air in November 2002 "uncut and commercial free", and was heavily promoted on the network that week. However, the short was pulled from the schedule at the last minute, for unknown reasons. Rumors about the reasons behind this highly unusual action have included: the film's brief use of the phrase "Sweet Jesus" ("Jesus" being a word allegedly not allowed on a
Turner Network back then), and an anonymous high-ranking network executive simply not finding the short to be funny. ''Rejected'' has since aired without incident on the
Cartoon Network in other countries as well as on other international television networks, but has to date never been broadcast on American television.
However, a brief clip from the film has since aired on the Adult Swim anthology series ''
Off the Air
In the broadcasting industry, a dark television station or silent radio station is one that has gone off the air for an indefinite period of time. Usually unlike dead air (broadcasting only silence), a station that is dark or silent does not e ...
'', 14 years later, in the episode Holes. The scene mentioned in the episode is the scene with the "fluffy guys" in which one announces that his "anus is bleeding."
In 2020, for the film's twentieth anniversary, Hertzfeldt appeared at the
Austin Film Society for a rare 35mm screening and discussed the making of the cartoon and its impact.
DVD and Blu-ray
In 2001
Bitter Films
Don Hertzfeldt (born August 1, 1976) is an American animator, writer, and independent filmmaker. He is a two-time Academy Award nominee who is best known for the animated films '' It's Such a Beautiful Day'', the '' World of Tomorrow'' series, a ...
released a limited edition
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
"single" of the short film. The DVD "single" featured a deleted scene as well as an audio commentary, and is now out of print.
In 2006, ''Rejected'' was remastered and restored for inclusion on the DVD, "Bitter Films Volume 1", a compilation of Don Hertzfeldt's short films from 1995–2005. Special features on this DVD relating to ''Rejected'' included a new text commentary by Hertzfeldt (via closed-caption boxes), footage from the abandoned cartoon "the Spanky the Bear Show" that later evolved into a central scene in the film, original pencil tests, the 2001 audio commentary, and dozens of pages devoted to Hertzfeldt's original sketches, storyboards, notes, and deleted ideas from the film.
In 2015, the cartoon was remastered again, this time in high definition, for inclusion on the Blu-ray of ''
It's Such a Beautiful Day
"It's Such A Beautiful Day" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in 1955 in '' Star Science Fiction Stories No.3'', an anthology of original stories edited by Frederik Pohl, and later reprinted ...
''.
A 35-second deleted scene from ''Rejected'' was only released on the 2001 DVD "single". In it, a father inquires into his son's desire to drink goat's blood. The scene appears to fit in with the "Johnson & Mills" portion of the original film, and is revealed to be an advertisement for cotton-swabs at the end.
Legacy
''Rejected'' is now considered a
cult classic
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
, especially after it found its way onto the internet in the early 2000s and became a viral sensation.
In 2009, it was the only short film named as one of the "Films of the Decade" by ''
Salon''.
In 2010, it was noted as one of the five "most innovative animated films of the past ten years" by ''
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
''.
''
Indiewire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
'' film critic Eric Kohn named ''Rejected'' one of the "10 best films of the 21st century" on his list for the BBC Culture poll in 2016.
In popular culture
* A fan of the film, quoting, "I am the Queen of France!" appeared on the ''
Late Show with David Letterman''.
* The alternate dimension scenes from the ''
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' (also known by various alternative titles), sometimes abbreviated as ''ATHF'' or ''Aqua Teen'', is an American adult animated television series created by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro for Cartoon Network's late ni ...
'' episode "
Broodwich" were an acknowledged homage to
Don Hertzfeldt. Hertzfeldt's films, and ''Rejected'' in particular, were a strong early influence on
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...
writers and ''Aqua Teen'' creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis.
* A 2013 episode of the
Fine Brothers
React Media, LLC (also known as React; formerly as Fine Brothers Entertainment) is an American media company, founded by brothers Benny Fine (born March 19, 1981) and Rafi Fine (born June 9, 1983), creators and media entrepreneurs. React Media p ...
' web series ''YouTubers React'' featured ''Rejected''.
*The introduction section of the 2006 video game
Prey
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...
features a crude scrawling in the room's bathroom that is a direct reference to the first sketch; "My spoon is too big."
* In the first episode of
the 26th season of ''The Simpsons'', ''
Clown in the Dumps,'' the opening
couch gag
The opening sequence of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' is among the most popular opening sequences in television. It is accompanied by " ''The Simpsons'' Theme", one of television's most recognizable theme songs. The fi ...
was created by Don Hertzfeldt. ''Rejected'' established the roots of a dystopia by consumerism style of satire through the guise of rejected advertisements; this short cuts directly to the point. It depicts Homer using a time-traveling remote control to regress to his original 1987 character model, then accidentally going into a distant future incarnation of the show called The Sampsans where he and his family have evolved into grotesque, mindless, catchphrase-spouting mutants. Carey Bodenheimer of
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
wrote: "
'The Simpsons''kicked off season 26 with a staggering, Don Hertzfeldt directed intro sequence."
See also
*
Criticism of capitalism
Criticism of capitalism ranges from expressing disagreement with the principles of capitalism in its entirety to expressing disagreement with particular outcomes of capitalism.
Criticism of capitalism comes from various political and philoso ...
*
Surreal humour
Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical. Portrayals of surrea ...
*
Independent animation The term independent animation refers to animated shorts and feature films produced outside a major national animation industry.
A good portion of the work is viewed in animation festivals and private screen rooms along with schools that produce ...
*
Postmodernist animation
*
Arthouse animation
Arthouse animation is a combination of art film and animated film.
Examples of arthouse animated films 20th Century
*'' Fantasia'' (1940)
*'' Neighbours'' (1952)
* '' Journey to the Beginning of Time'' (1955)
* '' Invention for Destruction'' (19 ...
References
External links
*
*
*
{{authority control
2000 animated films
2000 films
American animated short films
Short films directed by Don Hertzfeldt
2000s English-language films
2000s American films