This is an animated short that probably will make most people shake their heads and say "huh?!" repeatedly. And, while I freely admit that it was strikingly original, it was also generally incomprehensible and rather ugly....but original!! To describe the film adequately would probably require us both to be under the influence of massive amounts of drugs--it's that strange. And so it's fitting that the film is an odd reading by William Burroughs (an on again, off again drug addict and writer). The film begins with a world-like object made out of scrap metal (or something) and bombs and rockets flying about it. Then, out of the blue come two creatures that look like demons and chicken guts. The whole time the primary one rants on and on about bad government and why America sucks.While there must be a lot more to it, this really is the gist of it. If you dislike America or like really weird things, then this is right up your alley. Otherwise, it is slow going and difficult--though I still must applaud the odd artistry and design of this amazingly bizarre work of art.

It's maddeningly difficult to represent the work of William Burroughs in any visual medium, though animation definitely has advantages over regular film in this respect, but 'Ah Pook is Here' succeeds to a greater degree than most.The short is mostly taken up by a grotesque creature, with Burroughs's voice, philosophizing while smoking a hookah. The audio seems to have been cut together from various sources subjects include Ah Pook (the Mayan god of death), Control, politics, and "stupid, greedy, Ugly American deathsuckers." This line, taken from 'No More Stalins, No More Hitlers' on Dead City Radio, is Burroughs at his prophetical best, "...the rulers of this most insecure of all worlds are rulers by accident. Inept, frightened pilots at the controls of a vast machine they cannot understand, calling in experts to tell them which buttons to push." Now imagine it being said by a demented little creature that looks like a cross between a chicken and your spleen.

I've got a few requests for that time when friends and family come to celebrate my transition to lands unimagined: play Jim Morrison's farewell paean "The End", and watch "Ah, Pook Is Here" as many times as it takes to absorb Philip Hunt's brilliant rendering of the animated genius of William Burroughs translating love into death. And it may take a few times through to pick up the pieces as Burroughs cuts and pastes on the fly. The title is that of a longer Burroughs piece published in 1979 - briefly excerpted for the film. Hunt takes us on a short dark journey with philosophical Pook the Destroyer, weaving the haunted narration into a whimsically nightmarish cosmos, then descending within to the inevitable conclusion.

Although it looks pretty good, with a claymation figure speaking to us about politics and death, it is a little boring. I stopped listening to the voice of the figure because it couldn't keep my attention. The voice did sound good and the music was nice also, but you need to have your attention with it to enjoy a thing like this...