Editing Rejected

{{short description|2000 film by Don Hertzfeldt}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2016}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Rejected
| image          = Rejected title card.png
| caption        = The film's title card
| director       = [[Don Hertzfeldt]]
| producer       = Don Hertzfeldt
| writer         = Don Hertzfeldt
| starring       = {{Plainlist|
* Robert May
* Jennifer Nyholm
* Don Hertzfeldt
}}
| cinematography = Don Hertzfeldt
| editing        = Rebecca Moline
| studio         = [[Bitter Films]]
| distributor    =
| released       = {{Film date|df=yes|2000|7|25}}
| runtime        = 9 minutes
| music          =
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         =
}}

'''''Rejected''''' is an [[Animated film|animated]] [[Surrealist cinema|surrealist]] [[short film|short]] [[comedy film]] directed by [[Don Hertzfeldt]] that was released in 2000. It was nominated for an [[Academy Award]] for [[Academy Award for Animated Short Film|Best Animated Short Film]] the following year at the [[73rd Academy Awards]],<ref>[https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2001 2001|Oscars.org|Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]</ref> and received 27 awards from film festivals around the world.<ref name="Bitter Films' Rejected page">{{cite web | url=http://www.bitterfilms.com/rejected.html | title=Rejected | work=bitterfilms.com | access-date=25 January 2016}}</ref>

==Story==
[[File:Rejected (2000) banana frame.jpg|thumb|right|''Rejected'' makes heavy use of [[Surreal humour|surreal humor]], such as in this scene that uses a giant spoon and an [[anthropomorphic]] banana to advertise the Family Learning Channel.]]
The film takes place over four segments and is initially introduced as a collection of unaired promo [[interstitial program|interstitials]] for the fictional "Family Learning Channel." The "advertisements" are surreal, feature non-human characters, are often gruesome, and have nothing to do with the product. The second section is introduced as a collection of rejected advertisements for the fictional "Johnson & Mills Corporation" and features the same [[Surreal humour|surreal]] [[Black comedy|dark]] and [[absurd humour]] as the earlier section. The third section is introduced with an explanation that the animator had begun further rejecting the norms of animation and a single shot is then shown which was apparently animated with Hertzfeld's left hand only. In this short, the audio is garbled and the characters speak only complete nonsense.

The fourth and final segment is introduced with a title card explaining that the "rejected" cartoons began falling apart. Various characters and elements from the earlier shorts then appear in disjointed succession as their world literally falls apart: clouds and stars fall from the sky, killing characters; the paper the cartoons are drawn on crumples and destroys the animations; characters attempt to break out of the screen or are sucked into holes in the page. A close-up of a distorted, screaming character ends the short which abruptly cuts to end credits scored with dramatic classical music.

==Production==
Hertzfeldt's first film after graduating from college, ''Rejected'' was photographed on a 35mm [[rostrum camera]] he purchased in 1999.

''Rejected'' features simple hand-drawn artwork, featuring mostly black pen animation on a white background with occasional use of color. As the film progresses and the fictionalized animator begins to fall apart, the drawings become more crude and the animation becomes more erratic. As the film concludes, the paper the animation is drawn on begins to crumple and tear, and the characters are seen struggling to evade the destruction.

Besides the iconic ''Allegro ma non-troppo'' from [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Beethoven's 9th]] that plays in the text introductions to each segment, a particular segment with the "Fluffy Guys" uses background music from the [[Sweden|Swedish]] Christmas song ''[[Nu är det jul igen]]''.

===Inspiration===
[[File:Rejected (2000) consumer whore frame.png|thumb|right|''Rejected''<nowiki/>'s advertisements poke fun at [[consumerism]].]]
Although the film is fictional and Hertzfeldt has never done any advertising work,<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/may/02/don-hertzfeldt-animator-beautiful-day Don Hertzfeldt: the best animator you've never heard of|Film|The Guardian]</ref> he did receive many offers to do television commercials after ''[[Billy's Balloon]]'' received international attention and acclaim. In appearances, he would often tell the humorous story of how he was tempted to produce the worst possible cartoons he could come up with for the companies, run off with their money, and see if they would actually make it to air. Eventually, this became the germ for ''Rejected'''s theme of a collection of cartoons so bad they were rejected by advertising agencies, leading to their creator's breakdown.

Hertzfeldt has never accepted "real" advertising work and has stated numerous times on his website and in public appearances that he never will, as he feels advertisements are "lies" and he does not want to lie to his audience.<ref name="Bitter Films' FAQ">{{cite web | url=http://www.bitterfilms.com/faq.html | title=Bitter Films' FAQ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104192317/http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/films_of_the_decade/index.html?story=%2Fent%2Fmovies%2Ffilm_salon%2F2009%2F12%2F31%2Frejected | archive-date=4 January 2010 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref>

==Release==
===Exhibition history===
''Rejected'' world-premiered at the [[San Diego Comic Convention]] in 2000. Between hundreds of film festival appearances, ''Rejected'' also toured North American theaters in 2000, 2001, and 2002 with [[Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation]]; in 2001 and 2002 again with a retrospective touring program of Hertzfeldt's and animator [[Bill Plympton]]'s films called "The Don and Bill Show"; and returned to theaters once again in 2003 and 2004 with Hertzfeldt's own [[the Animation Show]] tour.<ref name="Bitter Films' Rejected page" />

Released nationwide in theaters through the [[Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation]] in 2000, the short won 27 film festival awards and was nominated for an Oscar for [[Best Animated Short Film]] the following year.

In the early 2000s, pirated copies of ''Rejected'' turned the film into a viral sensation online, where it has been credited with shaping the surreal sense of humor of the early Internet.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.filmsfatale.com/blog/2020/12/21/rejected-20-years-later | title=Rejected 20 Years Later}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/11/don-hertzfeldts-famous-cartoon-rejected-is-in-hd.html | title=The Cartoon That Invented Internet Culture Gets a High-Definition Rerelease| date=November 2018}}</ref>

In 2003, two of the "Fluffy Guy" characters reappeared in three Hertzfeldt cartoons created to introduce and book-end the first year of [[the Animation Show]]: ''Welcome to the Show'', ''Intermission in the Third Dimension'', and ''the End of the Show''.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.bitterfilms.com/trilogy.html | title=Animation Show Cartoons | work=bitterfilms.com | access-date=25 January 2016}}</ref>

''Rejected'' was scheduled to air on [[Adult Swim]] in 2001 but was delayed for unknown reasons—it was rescheduled to air on November 3, 2002 "uncut and commercial free",<ref>{{cite web |title=Rejected Original Adult Swim Premiere Timeslot |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/florence-morning-news-rejected-original/146080032/ |website=Florence Morning News |access-date=26 April 2024 |pages=23 |date=3 November 2002}}</ref> and was heavily promoted on the network that week. However, the short was pulled from the schedule at the last minute, for unknown reasons. Rumors about the reasons behind this highly unusual action have included: the film's brief use of the phrase "Sweet Jesus" ("Jesus" being a word allegedly not allowed on a [[Turner Broadcasting System|Turner Network]] back then), and an anonymous high-ranking network executive simply not finding the short to be funny. ''Rejected'' has since aired without incident on the [[Cartoon Network]] in other countries as well as on other international television networks, but has to date never been broadcast on American television.<ref name="Bitter Films' Rejected page" /> However, a brief clip from the film has since aired on the Adult Swim anthology series ''[[Off the Air (TV series)|Off the Air]]'', 14 years later, in the episode "Holes". The scene mentioned in the episode is the scene with the "fluffy guys" in which one announces that his "anus is bleeding."<ref name="Off the Air">{{cite episode | title=Holes  | series=[[Off the Air (TV series)|Off the Air]] | network=[[Adult Swim]] | date=23 November 2015}}</ref>

In 2020, for the film's twentieth anniversary, Hertzfeldt appeared at the [[Austin Film Society]] for a rare 35mm screening and discussed the making of the cartoon and its impact.<ref name="AFS">{{cite web | url=https://www.austinfilm.org/films/don-hertzfeldt-rejected-at-20/ | title=Don Hertzfeldt: Rejected at 20 |publisher=Austin Film Society}}</ref>

===DVD and Blu-ray===
In 2001 [[Bitter Films]] released a limited edition [[DVD]] "single" of the short film. The DVD "single" featured a deleted scene as well as an audio commentary, and is now out of print.

In 2006, ''Rejected'' was remastered and restored for inclusion on the DVD, "Bitter Films Volume 1", a compilation of Don Hertzfeldt's short films from 1995–2005.  Special features on this DVD relating to ''Rejected'' included a new text commentary by Hertzfeldt (via closed-caption boxes), footage from the abandoned cartoon "The Spanky the Bear Show" that later evolved into a central scene in the film, original pencil tests, the 2001 audio commentary, and dozens of pages devoted to Hertzfeldt's original sketches, storyboards, notes, and deleted ideas from the film.

In 2015, the cartoon was remastered again, this time in high definition, for inclusion on the Blu-ray of ''[[It's Such a Beautiful Day (film)|It's Such a Beautiful Day]]''.

A 35-second deleted scene from ''Rejected'' was only released on the 2001 DVD "single". In it, a father inquires into his son's desire to drink goat's blood. The scene appears to fit in with the "Johnson & Mills" portion of the original film and is revealed to be an advertisement for cotton swabs at the end.

==Legacy==

''Rejected'' is now considered a [[cult classic]] and one of the most influential animated films ever made.<ref name="4k">{{cite news | url=https://www.indiewire.com/2018/11/don-hertzfeldt-rejected-4k-restoration-video-1202017112/|title=Don Hertzfeldt Releases 4K Restoration of Iconic Short 'Rejected,' Remastered from the Original 35mm Film — Watch|website=indiewire.com|access-date=November 7, 2018|date=November 1, 2018|first1=Zack|last1=Sharf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://bridgerack.com/index.php/Cinemateque/A_Conversation_With_Don_Hertfeldt_Part_Three.html | title= Interview with Don Hertzfeldt | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080225161831/http://bridgerack.com/index.php/Cinemateque/A_Conversation_With_Don_Hertfeldt_Part_Three.html | archive-date=February 25, 2008}}</ref>

In the early 2000s, pirated copies of ''Rejected'' turned the film into a [[viral video]], where it has been credited with shaping the surreal sense of humor of the early Internet.<ref name="4k"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.filmsfatale.com/blog/2020/12/21/rejected-20-years-later | title=Rejected 20 Years Later}}</ref><ref name="nymag.com">{{cite web|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/11/don-hertzfeldts-famous-cartoon-rejected-is-in-hd.html |title=The Cartoon That Invented Internet Culture Gets a High-Definition Rerelease| date=November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/11/6/18065428/don-hertzfeldt-rejected-watch |title=Classic viral video Rejected returns, looking better than ever}}</ref> In 2018 ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine wrote, "If there is a single piece of media that inspired what we nebulously refer to as "Internet humor," it's probably ''Rejected''", additionally citing it as "the cartoon that invented Internet culture."<ref name="nymag.com"/>

In 2009, ''Rejected'' was the only short film named as one of the "Films of the Decade" by ''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]''.<ref name="Films of the Decade">{{cite web | url=http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/films_of_the_decade/index.html?story=/ent/movies/film_salon/2009/12/31/rejected | title=Films of the Decade | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104192317/http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/films_of_the_decade/index.html?story=%2Fent%2Fmovies%2Ffilm_salon%2F2009%2F12%2F31%2Frejected | archive-date=January 4, 2010 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref> In 2010, it was noted as one of the five "most innovative animated films of the past ten years" by ''[[The Huffington Post]]''.<ref name="Huffington">{{cite news | url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/26/10-innovative-film-and-ar_n_800020.html#s213580 | title=Films of the Decade | work=Huffington Post | first=Sophia | last=Morenobunge | date=December 26, 2010}}</ref> ''[[Indiewire]]'' film critic Eric Kohn named ''Rejected'' one of the "10 best films of the 21st century" on his list for the BBC Culture poll in 2016.<ref name="Indiewire">{{cite news|last=Sharf|first=Zack | url=https://www.indiewire.com/2018/11/don-hertzfeldt-rejected-4k-restoration-video-1202017112/|title=Don Hertzfeldt Releases 4K Restoration of Iconic Short 'Rejected,' Remastered from the Original 35mm Film — Watch|work=IndieWire|date=1 November 2018}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
* A fan of the film, quoting, "I am the Queen of France!" appeared on the ''[[Late Show with David Letterman]]''.<ref>[http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/wahoo/index/php/20080225.phtml Late Show with David Letterman] ''CBS'' {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403010438/http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/wahoo/index/php/20080225.phtml |date=3 April 2008 }}</ref>
* The alternate dimension scenes from the ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' episode "[[Broodwich]]" were an acknowledged homage to [[Don Hertzfeldt]]. Hertzfeldt's films, and ''Rejected'' in particular, were a strong early influence on [[Adult Swim]] writers and ''Aqua Teen'' creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3242&page=1 | title=ANIMATIONWorld Magazine | work=Animation World Network | access-date=25 January 2016 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015071400/http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3242&page=1 | archive-date=15 October 2007 | df=dmy-all }}</ref>
* A 2013 episode of the [[Fine Brothers]]' web series ''YouTubers React'' featured ''Rejected''.<ref>{{YouTube|bV2A9GpB0-0|YouTubers React to Rejected}}</ref>
* The introduction section of the 2006 video game ''[[Prey (2006 video game)|Prey]]'' features a crude scrawling in the room's bathroom that is a direct reference to the first sketch; "My spoon is too big."<ref>{{YouTube|6POOdFh3ZEM|
Memes in Video Games (BotW, Witcher 3, Fallout 76 + More) - Did You Know Gaming? Feat. Dazz}}</ref>
* Musician [[Neil Cicierega]]'s album ''[[Hip to the Javabean]]'' features a song titled "Consumer Whore", which is named after a line from the short film. The response line, "And how!" crosses over into the next track, "Between You and Me".
* In the first episode of [[The Simpsons (season 26)|the 26th season of ''The Simpsons'']], ''[[Clown in the Dumps]],'' the opening [[The Simpsons opening sequence#Couch gag|couch gag]] was created by Don Hertzfeldt.  ''Rejected'' established the roots of a dystopia by consumerism style of satire through the guise of rejected advertisements; this shortcuts directly to the point.  It depicts Homer using a time-traveling remote control to regress to his original 1987 character model, then accidentally going into a distant future incarnation of the show called The Sampsans where he and his family have evolved into grotesque, mindless, catchphrase-spouting mutants.  Carey Bodenheimer of [[CNN]] wrote: "[''The Simpsons''] kicked off season 26 with a staggering, Don Hertzfeldt-directed intro sequence."
* The infamous "My anus is bleeding" scene was featured in the ''[[Off the Air (TV series)|Off the Air]]'' episode "Holes".

==See also==
* [[Criticism of capitalism]]
* [[Surreal humour]]
* [[Independent animation]]
* [[Postmodernist film|Postmodernist animation]]
* [[Arthouse animation]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{official website}}
* {{IMDb title}}
* {{YouTube|id=W7JyjZI3LUM|title=''Rejected''}}

{{Don Hertzfeldt}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:American animated short films]]
[[Category:Short films directed by Don Hertzfeldt]]
[[Category:Surrealist films]]
[[Category:2000 animated short films]]
[[Category:2000s English-language films]]
[[Category:2000s American films]]
[[Category:Postmodern films]]
[[Category:English-language short films]]