‘World of Tomorrow’: Don Hertzfeldt’s meditations on the future
Animation has always been one of the more exciting domains within the visual arts, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon. From video games to developments in virtual reality software, animation has paved the way for all kinds of alternative epistemologies. While a major part of the discourse around modern animation revolves around the evolution of technology and hyper-realism, none of that is indispensable for the creation of art. In fact, Don Hertzfeldt created the most poignant animated film of the last decade, and it revolved around two stick figures.
Often described as a pioneer of modern animation, Hertzfeldt has created many wonderful projects, such as Everything Will Be Ok. However, his 2015 work World of Tomorrow – the first in a series of three – is undoubtedly the crowning jewel of his illustrious filmography. An experimental sci-fi film about the future of humanity, World of Tomorrow revolves around a child named Emily who is contacted by a third-generation clone of herself from the distant future.
Hertzfeldt’s masterpiece is a dizzying dive into a scary future, one where the accelerated nature of capitalism has deepened the divisions between the classes. It’s an incisive sociopolitical critique of the current trajectory of our civilisation which constructs an ominous vision of the “utopias” we have always wanted. Although many believe that technology can alleviate the sociological problems that plague us, World of Tomorrow conjures up a more practical prediction of how things are going to end.
During a conversation with the BFI, Hertzfeldt explained: “I had a dream years ago about a body growing old in real-time in a museum display, and that was maybe the first idea for World of Tomorrow. Around the same time, I had a different dream about people sticking the faces of their dead spouses on robots, so they could still sort of be with them. They were both sort of futuristic ideas, which was interesting, since I was also eager to try out digital animation. So then it becomes a question of, how do we get to these scenes and what could they mean?”
World of Tomorrow is a collection of various philosophical tangents whose intersection lies at the centre of the human condition. Ranging from ethical explorations of cloning to the economic hierarchies within the virtual spaces of the future, Hertzfeldt’s short is a stunning achievement of minimalistic animation and high-concept sci-fi. Despite the fact that the ideas embedded throughout the body of the film are fascinating, it’s the emotions that make the film work.
Experiencing a clone’s ruminations on falling in love with a rock on the moon while her world is on the brink of apocalypse puts everything into perspective. Year after year, many filmmakers working in the genre attempt to create high-budget spectacles about the same subject, but none of them feels as honest and touching as World of Tomorrow.
Watch World of Tomorrow below.
