Channel Frederator Blog

Don Hertzfeldt, one of animation’s premier indie filmmakers has just released a compilation of pretty much all his work, spanning 1995-2005. Some of my favorite films of the past decade anywhere are here, like “Lily and Jim” and “Rejected”. (I can remember while watching the initial minute or two of “Rejected” for the first time, thinking, “Well, of course The Family Learning Channel would reject those ads! What was he thinking!?” And, disturbingly, I’m still sort of attracted to Lily.) To boot, the 30-year-old Hertzfeldt could’ve put a lot less work into the special features as he did and I’d still find irresistible this collection.

Warning: The UCSB grad hasn’t named his production company Bitter Films for nothing. There’s a lot of cynicism here. Sometimes a little can go a long way.

I love most of these films. (A small truth: one of these shorts made me nod off when I saw it in the theatre and then again when I watched it on DVD. I’ll give it another go in a few days.) They’re the kind of shorts you get a kick out of showing your friends (“Hey! You’ve got to see this cartoon.”)

Go and buy Bitter Films Volume One 1995 – 2005 here. It sounds cliché, but this DVD needs to be in every animation collection.

– Eric

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