Filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt is an animator who gained internet fame with his wacky and subversive short film “Rejected,” an early viral video back in 2000 way before YouTube was even a thing.
His crude, stick figure drawings have come a long way since then, when his 2015 short “World of Tomorrow” won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and was eventually nominated for an Oscar.
Now he’s made a sequel to that daring, award-winning short, “World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts,” which premiered at last monht’s Fantastic Fest. And today on Twitter, Hertzfeldt shared the first teaser trailer.
WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE TWO teaser trailer ?https://t.co/N14NGM7Ipk
— don hertzfeldt (@donhertzfeldt) October 23, 2017
The original “World of Tomorrow” was a sci-fi story about the young Emily Prime (voiced by Hertzfeldt’s precocious toddler niece) who is visited by a clone of herself centuries into the future.
The movie is a profound look at humanity and communication as we move into the future, all served by Hertzfeldt’s often bleak and deadpan writing, as well as his colorful, yet rudimentary drawings.
The sequel’s new trailer, accompanied by some early rave reviews of the new film, is a welcome return to that universe Hertzfeldt imagined. He promises a release of the full short on his website.
You can also buy a Blu-Ray edition of his sole feature film, “It’s Such a Beautiful Day,” along with HD remasters of “Rejected,” “World of Tomorrow” and two of his other early shorts.
Watch the trailer above.