I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Young child Emily is contacted by the third generation clone of herself from 220 years into the future. This Emily brings child Emily into the future and shows her the world that she will soon live in.I have read quite a few user comments here that attempt to sum up all the themes and ideas within this short film, and mostly I think they both do it well but also do the film a huge disservice by so crudely laying it out with their words. The film plays out with a great sense of humor combined with angst, despair, beauty, hope, and death. The flat emotional tone of future Emily makes this mix work very well, and the contrast with the simple child Emily also adds to the emotional core of the piece. And this core does exist, although you would think it would struggle under so many darker ideas and themes.The animation is at once simplistic (the Emilys are stick figures) but yet fantastic in the creativity of the world in which it occurs; everything is pretty minimalist in design but yet there is plenty of detail that makes it visually engaging and quite wonderful to watch. It is the dark gallows humor that sticks with me though, in particular the way that it is used to deliver a message about what is important in life. This short has been very successful and is very well known, so it doesn't need me to say much about it – but it is a great piece of work that is well worth seeing for how creative, intelligent, funny, moving, and entertaining it is.

"World of Tomorrow" (United States, 17 min.) – This film tells its story by animating stick figures and laying them over simple, but colorful and imaginative backgrounds. A little girl who sounds like she's 3 or 4 is visited through her television set by a clone of herself (a few clone generations removed) from 200 years in the future. The future Emily tells "Emily Prime" about life in the future and how all this came to be, as well as taking Emily Prime into the TV so she can see a place called the "outer-net". This film is silly, but inventive, deriving its humor from the quirkiness of people in the future, their whimsical references to death and from the reactions of a toddler hearing and seeing things that adults would have a hard time understanding. The script also works in some social commentary and even a couple deep thoughts such as, "You only appreciate the present when it's the past." Enjoyable, but weird. "A-"

'WORLD OF TOMORROW': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A 17 minute science fiction animated short; written, produced, directed, edited and animated by Don Hertzfeldt (who's previous animated short films, have been nominated for Oscars twice before). This short, tells the story of a young girl, who's taken on a tour of the future; by her future clone. It stars the voice talents of Julia Pott and Winona Mae (Hertzfeldt's 4-year-old niece). It's a very dark, and gloomy, story; but it's also packed with witty comedy (mostly dark humor, of course). The social commentary, and scientific ideas, explored in the film, are spot on. I think it's a brilliant little movie, and the best of 2016's Academy Award Nominated Animated Shorts!Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/b_aLk3J5gh4

Emily is 4 years old, and the world is a colourful playground to her. "Do you like my cars?" she questions innocently at strangers who whisk her away to the near future where society (or at least its upper classes) has looked towards cloning in order to prolong life and in some rare vestiges, aspects of humanity. Her third generation descendant suddenly arrives from this future and dubs her Emily Prime. It's a strangely endearing name even with its clearly sci-fi sound, and it bestows an importance to this child that the society of a century later very dearly treasures. It's that little joy she finds in calling out some of the few words she knows in colours, and having such a vast and complex system instantly switch to cater to her demands. That sort of delight is long gone in the future. I am reminded of the almost incomprehensible Boo from "Monster's Inc.", also voiced by a young girl.This short film is Hertzfeldt's first venture into digital animation and the transitions is smooth and serving. It's still very much in his own style - the strange structure of the Outernet are visualised in simple colour washes and squiggly erratic lines, and both Emily's are still crude stick figures with a straightforward range of movement. But it's again oddly appropriate; Hertzfeldt manages to elicit the deepest emotions from these simplistic representations of humans. There's that stunning shot of a red mountain range hugging the sheer ocean - or it could well be clouds drifting ethereally above a streaked orange sunset. It's in stark contrast to the simply 2d black outlines of Emily and her husband David, and sense a struggle to comprehend the sheer beauty of such a naturalistic and raw setting - or it could be just the inability to fully revisit such a nostalgic and painful memory. We mustn't get too caught up in this, the future Emily warns, but breaks her own heeding of advice. Within herself there is the constant struggle for that old joy and youthful spirit and abandon and the more eternal rational approach of preservation of memory. She opens up a gallery of anonymous memories, but it seems this isn't for archival purposes, but rather to draw attention to their fleeting and precious nature. That isn't enough. She must travel back in time in search of an even more precious and intensely personal memory of her mother. Throughout the film she gives a guided tour of Emily Prime's future life as well as a crucial warning of the longevity and sadness of it. Julia Pott's voice work is monotone and detached despite the yearning of the mission, in clear contrast to Mae's innocence and naivety. She hasn't been tainted yet, but we can sense the sadness of the inevitability of this from Emily. "You will feel a deep longing for something you cannot remember," thus her desperate quest into the past. In spite of the marvelous technological advancements, the increasingly bizarre and impressive ways in which humanity will go to in order to extend and persevere (in in that, ironically losing sense of what humanity is), this is what Emily yearns for. A walk with Mommy. Upon the end of this mission, Emily bids her goodbyes and transports Emily Prime back to current day. With a zap she is in a snowy billowing field, dark and foreboding mountains in the distance. Yet as the sentimental classical strings piece chime in, her face is innocent, nonchalant. Emily realises her mistake and with another zap, she is back in her bare white home, which is eagerly welcomed. "What a happy day it isssss," she sings playfully. In lesser hands this might scream tonal inconsistency (then again, we have that dry humorous letter - "Oh god oh god oh god", or the rather ugly method of preservation for the less wealthy) but Hertzfeldt pulls it off masterfully. It's a little funny to see her so unconcerned about the whole episode, and a little sad because we know of what she is to become.