Genre

Although I shudder to think what this says about me, I love this short! In my own defense, let me also state that I loved The Man Who Planted Trees (what that apparent dichotomy says, who knows? Who cares?) and I'm a prince of a fellow currently in frog mode. But I digress.

A poor rabbit finds himself trapped in a situation that would reduce Franz Kafka to one gigantic twitch and takes the viewer down a rabbit hole that would send Lewis Carroll out of the room, screaming incoherently as he ran. Why this didn't get nominated for an Oscar (even a student nomination) I'll never understand. A must for any fan of films, particularly the demented ones (the films, I mean, not the fans) and well worth tracking down. I found it on a Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation and I believe it's to be released (tentatively, anyway) sometime next year by the animator as part of a compilation of all his animated shorts. Most highly recommended!

'Genre (1996)' was produced while Don Hertzfeldt was still in college, and it certainly looks like an amateur film, particularly the stop-motion sequences featuring the animator himself. However – as was the case with 'Billy's Balloon (1998)' and 'Rejected (2000)' – Hertzfeldt proves that even simple animation can be very entertaining. 'Genre' draws plenty of inspiration from Chuck Jones' self-reflexive 'Duck Amuck (1953),' in which Daffy Duck is consistently pestered by the animator who is drawing him. In 'Genre,' an unfortunate rabbit finds himself in a succession of compromising (and often bloody) situations, as his creator experiments with different movie genres. As the frustrated animator begins to run out of ideas, he starts splicing genres together, leaving the poor rabbit to fend for himself in a "porno disaster film," for example. The most enjoyable element of Hertzfeldt's film is the self-awareness of the animated rabbit, who knows that the animator (his "God") is purposefully screwing him around, and is forced to simply wear it.

'Genre' is Don Hertzfeldt's second film, and, in my opinion, is much better than his first. 'Genre' is a simple film w/a simple premise that makes plenty of room for many gags of various kinds, ranging from meta humour to simple genre parody to pure absurdity to more dark and twisted black humour. It's a quick little work of animated comedy that is exceedingly fun to watch and foreshadows the brilliance and hilarity that would soon come to be in films like 'Rejection'.

"Genre" has the markings of a student film, but that's only because it feels experimental; and that's mostly in the stop-motion opening. Regardless, it's a creative mix of animation and real life (more Monty Python than "Mary Poppins") but the real trick is in how Don Hertzfeldt brings his creation to life. The main bunny protagonist (I think it's a bunny) develops a real personality in such a short time, and his anguish at the hands of his animator is hysterical.

Maybe it's just that I get his sense of humor (thus far, at least) or that I admire the invention involved in such an early effort, but the man deserves my respect.

7/10

This is the funniest short animation I've seen since "Bambi Meets Godzilla." The depictions of familiar genres ("romantic comedy," "the buddy film") are funny, but the combinations that follow are outstanding.