the audience applauded

An Exercise In Nonsense

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

"World of Tomorrow" (United States, 17 min.) – This film tells its story by animating stick figures and laying them over simple, but colorful and imaginative backgrounds. A little girl who sounds like she's 3 or 4 is visited through her television set by a clone of herself (a few clone generations removed) from 200 years in the future. The future Emily tells "Emily Prime" about life in the future and how all this came to be, as well as taking Emily Prime into the TV so she can see a place called the "outer-net". This film is silly, but inventive, deriving its humor from the quirkiness of people in the future, their whimsical references to death and from the reactions of a toddler hearing and seeing things that adults would have a hard time understanding. The script also works in some social commentary and even a couple deep thoughts such as, "You only appreciate the present when it's the past." Enjoyable, but weird. "A-"

The science fiction genre is no stranger to themes of artificial intelligence surpassing human capacity, the exploration of space and the discovery of space creatures, or even the pursuit of immortality through social media or other means of preservation. World of Tomorrow, the latest piece from Oscar nominated writer/director Don Hertzfeldt (Rejected), manages to wrap all of these themes into a 16 minute animated short film. Too much to cover in too little time you say? Hertzfeldt's short masterpiece will prove you wrong, taking its audience on a mind bending journey into the future and acting as a humorous allegory for the dangers of human disconnection in a world lived via the internet.World of Tomorrow follows Emily, a young girl voiced by Winona Mae (Hertzfeldt's own four-year-old niece who was recorded at play with the recordings subsequently being fit into the film). Emily receives a video call from 227 years in the future when humans live between space and earth and survive in what is known as the outer- net, a vast empty space which is the...Read the full review on David 'n the Dark!https://davidnthedark.wordpress.com/2016/01/17/worldoftomorrowreview /#more-2061

It's been 20 years since a then not even 20-year-old Don Hertzfeldt made his very first short movie. Next year he turns 40 and this year it's the 20th anniversary of his career. After he has not made a new film for 4 years now, it's really nice to see him back with "World of Tomorrow", a 17-minute short film and his take on science-fiction. As all his movies, there is a great moral and lesson to take from this one here as well. I would say it is neither among Hertzfeldt's best or worst films, but somewhere in the middle. The main character, a little girl, meets her future self and goes on a journey with her and even if the 2 voice actresses were good, I was missing Hertzfeldt's voice as a narrator. He is just so much fun to listen to. Emily is an interesting character, but not even close to Billy in my opinion. Other than that, it's the usual Hertzfeldt again: his very own brand of humor, smart writing especially in terms of the dialogs, his usual simply style of animation, which is always very effective nonetheless, and the topic of loss and dealing with it, which is a dominant factor in many of his movies. I thought this was a good watch. One of the better 2015 short films I have seen so far.

Don Hertzfeldt's first digitally animated short film (if you don't include his Simpsons couch gag) is about a girl called Emily who is visited by a clone of herself from the future who takes her on a tour of the world of tomorrow. Beautifully intimate and epic at the same time - the movie covers similar themes from Don's other film "It's such a beautiful day", featuring both humorous and poignant scenes about living life, finding love, and why we hold onto memories. Here it's done in a more sci-fi setting, the director's vision of the future being completely his own."World of Tomorrow" is definitely worth checking out. You can stream it now on "Vimeo On Demand" for $5 dollars, so go ahead and support an independent artist working on original ideas - which is becoming rare in today's entertainment industry.9/10