"Stalk of the Celery Monster" is an animated short film from 1979 that is mostly known today because it is an early career effort by a certain Tim Burton (that even rhymes!) when he was around the age of 20. The version I watched ran for 1.5 minutes roughly and there was a bit of audio missing, probably video too. I am not sure how long the film was originally in terms of running time, but given the fact that it was considered lost for a really long time, it may seem unlikely that we will ever get back the complete original version. It's a bit of a pity, but not a huge loss either as honestly this film does not look like a revelation to me in terms of either animation or story-telling. For a filmmaker around the age of 20 though it may be a solid achievement and a foundation for greater things to come. Worth seeing for Burton completionists only and probably also for those scared of dentists. Everybody else won't see anything interesting in here and should skip it, even at (or because of?) this minimal running time.

Stalk of the Celery (1979) ** 1/2 (out of 4)This two-minute animated short was the second film from director Tim Burton and it will mainly appeal to his fans who want to see everything he did. Basically what we have here is a dentist creating the title character while patients wait out in his lobby. If you're looking for a masterpiece or some lost piece of art then you're going to be disappointed because you're not going to find that here. With that said, the short is actually pretty good and especially when you consider how young Burton was at the time that it was made. I think you can clearly see some talent here, although I certainly wouldn't go as far as to say you could tell Burton would become what he did. I thought the animation was pretty good with all things considered but the most impressive thing is how much imagination is on the screen. I thought the characters all looked terrific and there are so many small touches done by the director that it really makes the film stand out compared to other student films.