Rejected
An excellent example of the post-modern condition and way of thinking in films is this short film created by animator Don Hertzfeldt in 2000. Don Hertzfeldt of Bitter Films has created many well known works that have won many animation awards and nominations at the Oscars. One of his best known works is the Rejected cartoons, created just after he graduated college. This work is often quoted and has become a steady part of pop culture. The film’s post-modern way of thinking and senseless violence and gore are arguably the factors that have made it so popular.
The Rejected cartoons contain multiple short clips of stick figures and other characters that experience random and often violent scenarios. The gore and bloodshed are meant to be funny, whether it is the stick figure that screams until his eye bleeds or the baby that falls down the stairs as the audience cheers, the use of violence in these films is for the purpose of entertainment like many other post-modern films. Along with this use of violence, the film is also well aware of itself and even critiques itself and the animator. This is a quality found often in other post-modern films as well. The film comments on the animator’s madness and loss of individuality by the end of the film after many of the stick figures have come to a gruesome end. The final result in this film is the collapse of the cartoons and the total destruction of the film.
These cartoons bring up the issue that although they are funny, are they actually just desensitizing the audience to violence? I personally find these cartoons funny, but that is because I myself am subject to post-modern thinking as it is a part of our culture now. From the perspective of someone outside our present culture, are these films destroying us as a society or is it all just entertainment?
