Don Hertzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow is basically a miracle. It’s a 17-minute short film about stick figures, yet it manages to feel bigger and more profound than almost any $200 million blockbuster released in the last decade. Honestly, if you haven’t seen it, you’re missing out on a piece of animation history that somehow predicted the weird, disconnected way we all live online now.
It’s weird. It’s funny. It’s deeply, soul-crushingly sad.
The story is simple on the surface but gets complicated fast. A little girl named Emily (voiced by Hertzfeldt's then-four-year-old niece, Winona Mae) gets a call from the future. It’s her own clone, Emily Prime, speaking to her from generations away. The clone takes the toddler on a digital tour of the future—a world where people upload their consciousness into cubes, fall in love with rocks, and spend their lives staring at "the Outernet" while their physical bodies wither away in chairs.
The Weird Genius Behind the World of Tomorrow Film
Don Hertzfeldt didn't use a massive studio to make this. He did it largely on his own, which is why the World of Tomorrow film feels so intimate. He used a digital tablet for the first time—shifting away from the 35mm film and light boxes he used for It’s Such a Beautiful Day—and the result is this glowing, neon, abstract landscape that looks like a dream or a corrupted hard drive.
The dialogue is what really gets people. Hertzfeldt didn't write a script for the toddler. He just recorded his niece playing and talking, then wrote the sci-fi epic around her spontaneous reactions. When little Emily says something random about a "triangle" or "vroom vroom," the future clone responds with high-concept existential dread. It’s a brilliant contrast. You have this innocent child who just wants to play, and this cold, distant clone who has lost the ability to feel anything because her society has optimized all the "messiness" out of human life.
Why the Future Looks So Bleak (And So Familiar)
The future depicted in the World of Tomorrow film series—because there are actually three episodes now—isn't about robots taking over. It's about us.
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- Memory as a commodity: In this universe, people are obsessed with the past because the present is hollow. They re-watch memories like they’re Netflix shows.
- Digital Immortality: Clones are created to keep consciousness alive, but each version gets a little more degraded, a little more detached.
- The Outernet: A direct parody of the internet, where people are "connected" but physically isolated.
Hertzfeldt is tapping into a very real fear: that technology isn't expanding our horizons, but narrowing them. We have all the information in the universe, yet we spend our time looking at "clones" of ourselves on social media. It’s a bit on the nose, sure, but the way Emily Prime describes it makes it feel poetic rather than preachy.
Is It Actually "Sci-Fi" if It's Just Drawings?
Some people struggle with the stick-figure aesthetic. I get it. We’re used to Pixar’s perfect hair simulation and Marvel’s polished CGI. But the simplicity of the World of Tomorrow film is its greatest strength. By stripping away the visual clutter, Hertzfeldt forces you to focus on the ideas and the emotions.
When a stick figure stares at a sunset on a dying planet, you aren't looking at "graphics." You’re looking at the idea of a human being. It’s universal.
The sound design helps a lot, too. The use of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra (the 2001: A Space Odyssey music) during a sequence involving a "death" in space is both hilarious and devastating. It mocks the grandiosity of sci-fi while simultaneously earning its place among the greats.
The Evolution of the Trilogy
While the first film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and got an Oscar nomination, the sequels take things even further.
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- Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts – This one dives into the psyche of Emily 6 and how our identities are shaped by the people who came before us. It’s more visual and chaotic.
- Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime – This is the longest one, almost feature-length in its density. It follows a male clone trying to piece together a message from a woman he loved. It’s a mind-bending look at fate and time travel.
The first film remains the most accessible, though. It’s the perfect entry point. It’s only 17 minutes long. You can watch it on a lunch break, though you might spend the rest of the day staring at a wall thinking about your own mortality.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Ending
There’s a common misconception that the World of Tomorrow film is purely cynical. People see the clones dying and the Earth being destroyed by a meteor and think, "Okay, so everything is pointless."
That’s not really it.
The core of the movie is the final speech Emily Prime gives to her younger self. She tells her to "live bravely" and to cherish the fact that she can still feel things—even the bad things. The message isn't that the future is doomed; it's that our ability to be "present" is the most valuable thing we own. We’re so busy trying to backup our lives and document everything that we forget to actually live the moments.
Where to Watch It Right Now
Finding Hertzfeldt’s work can be a little tricky because he’s an independent filmmaker who likes to keep control over his distribution. You won't usually find it on the big streaming giants like Netflix.
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- Vimeo On Demand: This is the best place. You can rent or buy the whole trilogy directly from Don Hertzfeldt. It supports the artist directly, which is cool.
- Blu-ray: He released a "Notes on Biology" collection and a standalone World of Tomorrow Blu-ray that includes great behind-the-scenes features.
- YouTube: Occasionally, it pops up on "Short of the Week" or similar channels, but the quality usually sucks. Buy the high-res version; the colors are worth it.
The Technical Wizardry of Simplicity
Hertzfeldt used Photoshop and After Effects to composite the film, but he treats the digital space like a physical one. There’s a lot of "incidental" texture—grain, glows, and blurs—that make the digital world feel lived-in.
Interestingly, the first World of Tomorrow film was one of the first major shorts to prove that VOD (Video on Demand) could be a viable business model for independent animators. Hertzfeldt has been vocal about how the internet, for all its flaws depicted in his movies, actually allowed him to bypass the "gatekeepers" of Hollywood.
He’s a bit of a recluse, or at least he stays out of the industry spotlight. He lives in Austin, Texas, and just keeps making these masterpieces at his own pace. There’s something deeply respectable about that. He isn't trying to build a "cinematic universe" for the sake of profit; he’s just telling a story that happens to span thousands of years.
Practical Steps for Your Next Watch
If you're planning to dive into the World of Tomorrow film or other Hertzfeldt works, here’s how to do it right:
- Watch 'It’s Such a Beautiful Day' first. It’s his feature film. It’ll get you used to his style and his specific brand of dark humor.
- Use headphones. The sound mix is incredibly layered. There are whispers and ambient noises in the "future" sequences that you’ll miss through laptop speakers.
- Don't over-analyze the science. It’s "soft" sci-fi. The physics don't always make sense because they don't have to. It's an emotional logic, not a mathematical one.
- Watch with a friend. You’re going to want to talk about the "Sad Monster" or the "Memory Gallery" immediately after the credits roll.
The World of Tomorrow film stays with you. It’s one of those rare pieces of art that changes how you look at your own phone or your own reflection. In a world of AI-generated content and recycled franchise sequels, Hertzfeldt’s stick figures feel more human than anything else on the screen.
Go watch it. Then go outside and look at a leaf or something. You’ll see what I mean.