Written by: Kevin Berge
So much emotion, so much love in this scene. (Image Courtesy of: youtube.com)
Quick Take: World of Tomorrow tackles the concept of a future of nostalgia in short form with a funny, engaging, and increasingly tragic view. Short enough for quick watches, it is densely packed with meaning behind its simplistic animated style.
***For the sake of doing the film justice, this review will contain spoilers. It is only a 16-minute experience, so give it a watch if you plan to do so before going further. It is worth the time and will better inform your understanding of the review.***
There are few things I enjoy more than reading old science fiction short stories, exploring the bizarre and sometimes familiar worlds that authors a century past would dream up. The importance was not the clarity of vision but rather the purpose behind that vision.
The simplest meanings can be easily amplified by a complicated world, so old science fiction could make stories of principle reliance, censorship, administration oversight, identity, opportunity cost, and so much more entertaining and understandable through the lens of a faraway future.
World of Tomorrow, the 2015 short film by Don Hertzfeldt, feels like those old short stories. It is a fairly simplistic future viewing laced with commentary on one overarching theme: nostalgia reliance. In a time where nostalgia feels more present than ever before especially in entertainment, the movie lands with impressive relevance.
The story follows a four-year-old Emily as she is visited by her third-generation clone from 227 years in the future. The clone Emily seeks to teach her oblivious prime self a valuable lesson on using every second of her life to the fullest as she reveals the world of the future where everyone is trapped in a loop of self-indulgence.
In this future, there's very little of the actual world left. People have cloned themselves until the main beings in action are degenerating clones who struggle to have emotional capacity. Clone Emily talks about all her moments where she felt "love" in a steady monotone, admitting she only really feels depression when she loses those loves.
It's a sad vicious reality where the internet has become the outernet, and the Earth is about to be destroyed by a meteoroid with few finding any way to escape. Despite this, Emily Prime is oblivious to these large revelations, clearly not suited to the message she is receiving.
There are few things I enjoy more than reading old science fiction short stories, exploring the bizarre and sometimes familiar worlds that authors a century past would dream up. The importance was not the clarity of vision but rather the purpose behind that vision.
The simplest meanings can be easily amplified by a complicated world, so old science fiction could make stories of principle reliance, censorship, administration oversight, identity, opportunity cost, and so much more entertaining and understandable through the lens of a faraway future.
World of Tomorrow, the 2015 short film by Don Hertzfeldt, feels like those old short stories. It is a fairly simplistic future viewing laced with commentary on one overarching theme: nostalgia reliance. In a time where nostalgia feels more present than ever before especially in entertainment, the movie lands with impressive relevance.
The story follows a four-year-old Emily as she is visited by her third-generation clone from 227 years in the future. The clone Emily seeks to teach her oblivious prime self a valuable lesson on using every second of her life to the fullest as she reveals the world of the future where everyone is trapped in a loop of self-indulgence.
In this future, there's very little of the actual world left. People have cloned themselves until the main beings in action are degenerating clones who struggle to have emotional capacity. Clone Emily talks about all her moments where she felt "love" in a steady monotone, admitting she only really feels depression when she loses those loves.
It's a sad vicious reality where the internet has become the outernet, and the Earth is about to be destroyed by a meteoroid with few finding any way to escape. Despite this, Emily Prime is oblivious to these large revelations, clearly not suited to the message she is receiving.
Sometimes I do look at this art and think "I could do that, and I've never been even close to an artist". (Image Courtesy of: news.avclub.com)
The only value in this future is memories because it is in those memories people can find the times where there was meaning, love, passion, joy, drive. Clone Emily extracts memories from her deceased husband as the only way to mourn him and even seems to have contacted Emily Prime just to collect a memory from her.
All these people are desperately grasping for any sense of life while Emily Prime is blissfully living, unaware of the implications of this entire vision. It is a remarkably dark yet hilarious view of humanity's future in short order that may not be a complete vision of future life but certainly rings true as a thematic portrait of our current direction.
We live in a time where it is increasingly easier to be lost in screens and the lives of others, real or imagined, with art that is often looking back at what was to frame its own vision. This film needed to be short to allow the viewer time to reflect and move on, act upon the insight of the story.
The art style of the film, stick-figure people in moving but simplistic paintings, is more concerned with Emily Prime's view of the world than clone Emily's reality with the focus on the beauty of landscapes rather than the troubles of the individuals. There's an innocence and a nihilism that frames this juxtaposition.
Completely created by Don Hertzfeldt, one of the most acclaimed animated short filmmakers working today, there's something remarkable about seeing someone's singular vision so completely presented on screen.
It resembles a short story even more in this manner with the only work not done by him coming from recordings of his four-year-old niece Winona Mae playing obliviously framed as Emily Prime's dialogue and animation director Julia Pott's voice work as clone Emily.
Infinitely rewatchable, World of Tomorrow stands out strongly from just about any other modern creation because it has a clear distinct voice and message. It is utterly free to be as dark, comic, cute, and bizarre as it wants to be while giving a timely message to anyone listening on how we live.
All these people are desperately grasping for any sense of life while Emily Prime is blissfully living, unaware of the implications of this entire vision. It is a remarkably dark yet hilarious view of humanity's future in short order that may not be a complete vision of future life but certainly rings true as a thematic portrait of our current direction.
We live in a time where it is increasingly easier to be lost in screens and the lives of others, real or imagined, with art that is often looking back at what was to frame its own vision. This film needed to be short to allow the viewer time to reflect and move on, act upon the insight of the story.
The art style of the film, stick-figure people in moving but simplistic paintings, is more concerned with Emily Prime's view of the world than clone Emily's reality with the focus on the beauty of landscapes rather than the troubles of the individuals. There's an innocence and a nihilism that frames this juxtaposition.
Completely created by Don Hertzfeldt, one of the most acclaimed animated short filmmakers working today, there's something remarkable about seeing someone's singular vision so completely presented on screen.
It resembles a short story even more in this manner with the only work not done by him coming from recordings of his four-year-old niece Winona Mae playing obliviously framed as Emily Prime's dialogue and animation director Julia Pott's voice work as clone Emily.
Infinitely rewatchable, World of Tomorrow stands out strongly from just about any other modern creation because it has a clear distinct voice and message. It is utterly free to be as dark, comic, cute, and bizarre as it wants to be while giving a timely message to anyone listening on how we live.
