Don Hertzfeldt Announces Third ‘World of Tomorrow’ Movie with First Footage — Watch
2020 has been full of unwelcome surprises, but a great one has finally arrived: Don Hertzfeldt is working on a new “World of Tomorrow” film — the third in the franchise — and the acclaimed animator released a teaser trailer for the project on Monday morning.
The animated teaser is as strikingly beautiful as it is brief; a stylized landscape of some barren alien planet sets the scene, while a small creature that seems to be receiving signal inputs and jarring robotic sounds stumbles and falls. It’s not much to go on, but the melancholic music and beautiful art contrasts nicely with the jarring, whirring electronics and seemingly distressed creature. It’s artsy and contemplative — in other words, it’s just what fans of Hertzfeldt’s work will expect.
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The film is subtitled “The Absent Destinations of David Prime” — take that for what you will. A release date was not provided.
The “World of Tomorrow” films are brief sci-fi stories that touch on time travel, Earth’s impending destruction, and the importance of living in the moment. The cerebral themes are accompanied by surreal imagery, and just stating those aforementioned subjects doesn’t do justice to the world that Hertzfeldt has crafted.
Hertzfeldt’s first two “World of Tomorrow” animated short films received widespread acclaim. IndieWire senior film critic David Ehrlich has offered particular praise for the films; he referred to Hertzfeldt’s first “World of Tomorrow” film as one of the 10 greatest films of the century and offered similar praise for the second film in his A+ review in 2017.
“Blisteringly funny, deeply touching, and endlessly quotable, ‘World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts’ will make you better equipped to live life, and more prepared to accept death. It might only be 22 minutes long, but what more could you possibly want from a movie? What more could there possibly be to say after that,” Ehrlich wrote in his review.
Hertzfeldt has worked on a variety of other noteworthy projects, including “Rejected” and “It’s Such a Beautiful Day,” both of which were also widely praised by critics.
Check out the teaser trailer for the upcoming “World of Tomorrow” film below:
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