Don Hertzfeldt is a sick, sick puppy. I guess you could call him a sick n'twisted puppy, 'cause anyone who's ever enjoyed the
Spike & Mike Sick & Twisted Animation Festival knows his gut-busting stuff--
L'Amour, Billy's Balloon, and such.
He's so good, his most recent cartoon--in spite of the fact that it features a dancing food-product that abruptly stops and screams "My anus is bleeding!," and a short sub-segment titled "Angry Ticks Fire From My Nipples"--was
nominated for an Oscar. (I think the Best Animated Short award went to one of those cute, cozy, safer Pixar pieces.) This sparkling gem,
Rejected, has a richly-deserved following. The last time I saw it in the theatres, I was regularly gasping for air as tears streamed down my face--a reaction I haven't had so strongly to a film since Mr. Creosote began vomiting on the washwoman's back in
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. And
Rejected is just a SHORT.
When I found out
Rejected was available on DVD, I (1) crapped 'em; and (2) ordered it without hesitation. Now, with shipping and handling, it came to about $24--and even with all the extras (deleted scenes, sketches, commentary)--that's pretty dag expensive for a slightly-longer-than-usual short; Hertzfeldt is planning to put all his shorts in a single DVD collection, perhaps a year down the line, so
Rejected won't be for everybody. But I was gasping and weeping again last night, over and over again, and it felt great.
You can pop by his site and see what all this hoohah's about:
http://www.bitterfilms.com/...and if you like what you see--there are various media-goodies scattered all about the site, and Hertzfeld's off-kilter rants are also pretty funny--but want to wait for the collection, that is where you'll find out about it first.
IFilm is letting spikeandmike.com fall apart, but maybe you can find something for yourself there, too. The Spike & Mike video/DVD collections have a lot of excellent stuff, including some of Hertzfeld's earlier pieces. Enjoy!