Much of Don Hertzfield's work embodies the term "experimental". Even though this is one of his first major works, it's already experimenting with the limits of hand drawn animation (on paper), and exploring boundaries of the format. He is probably not the first animator to use the crumpling of the paper and tearing as a part of the animation, or even letting it affect the characters within - but the way he does it is as fun as it is creative.The plot of the cartoon works alright as a gimmick. It's almost like a series of skits, where the punchline usually is a non sequitur - some times something very gross. The contrast between the the cute drawings and the things they say and do was more fresh when this was released than it is now - though it is probably still very enjoyable for many. His style is that of a notebook doodle, and it lends itself great for experimentation, as he can probably do more stuff on the fly. In interviews he has stated that he usually does not storyboard before he starts animating, which makes sense after watching shorts like this.This short is not just good on its own, but it's also great to compare to his later works, as you can see how his style develops, without and how his works explore deeper subjects than "just" the format itself.

What the f**k did I just watch?Don Hertzfeldt Oscar winning short film, 'Rejected' is 9 minutes of complete weirdness and utter nonsense, but it's also different and kinda refreshing to watch, and that's why I enjoyed the movie a lot. I liked Don Hertzfeldt previous movies such as: It's Such a Beautiful Day, World of Tomorrow, and now Rejected.The type of humor used in Rejected may or may not make everyone laugh but I did as the kid within me can laugh at silly things sometimes. I highly recommend Rejected to people who like creative and also strange ideas that comes together very smoothly.

Does this organization even exist? It sounds like everything I wouldn't want my children or myself to learn. In any case, thank you Family Learning Channel for rejecting Mr. Don Hertzfeldt and shaping his way into the wonderful world of animation. This is a collection of very short films, most, or probably all, of them extremely violent and non-sensical packed not only with humans, but also the most oddly-shaped creatures, for example strange cloud figures. Hertzfeldt was in his early 20s when he made this short film and his style of animation is already clearly defined. He was well on his way to turning into the master of dark animation back then already.Nonetheless, I have to say I don't like this short film as much as some of Hertzfeldt's other work to this day. At best, it can be described as pointless fun. I am a bit surprised that his only Oscar nomination so far was for "Rejected". My two preferred choices by him are the earlier "Lily and Jim" and "Wisdom Teeth" which was made 10 years after "Rejected". Nonetheless I'm glad he made his first full feature film recently, even if it's only slightly over an hour, and it seemed to have turned out well. His style always struck me as something difficult for anything over 30 minutes. Keep up the good work, Don.

Like i said in the forums: Please tell me that it's all a joke, because this was really stupid and there was absolutely nothing funny about it. I mean, I kind of understood it and deep down inside, I assumed I was going to laugh, but I did not, not at all. I was just staring at this thing with my eyes wide open and asking myself, why am I watching this. I was going through the reviews and almost got a tear in my eye, praying to God: "PLEASE tell me that this is a joke". Maybe it's meant for below 14 year olds, then I can understand, but if not, then it is a total mystery to me. Now don't get me wrong, I have a good sense of humor. I love films like "Top Secret!", "The Naked gun", "Hot Shots", but this, this thing is not worthy of even a zero or the 9 minutes it stole from my life.