Genre (1996)

"Genre" is a 5-minutes animated short film by writer and director Don Hertzfeldt. He was not even 20, when he made this student film almost 20 years ago and he was rewarded by awards bodies all over the United States. Deservedly so. By the way, despite his young age, this was already his second work as a filmmaker. If you have seen some of his other films, you will immediately recognize his style and approach to animation. It's pretty unique. Here he uses an animated rabbit to give us an insight into all kinds movie genres. And it was very nicely done. Lots of wit and creativity included in these depictions and I also liked the way one genre changed into another (buddy movie into porn) for example. Hilarious. It's nice to see Hertzfeldt make new films these days. He hasn't done anything since 2012 I knew of, but i just saw that he made another short film this year. Maybe his style is not the best for full feature film, but that's not a problem in my opinion if he keeps bringing up new short films. I hope he will get an Oscar one day. it would be very deserved with his body of work and he is definitely among my favorite animators out there. I highly recommend "Genre".

Clever exercise of experimental animation, directed by Don Hertzfeldt (The same director of brilliant shorts such as "Rejected" and "Everything will be OK") which explores several of the archetypes and conventions present in the different cinematic genres, parodying or even combining them through the main character of this short.The final result is something effective and memorable, which could be easily compared with some another animated masterpiece, "Duck Amuck", in the sense that both shorts explore in a fascinating, creative and hilarious way the differences of each genre and the relationship of one indecisive animator and its animated character.Both are brilliant and different at the same time, and both are outstanding examples of animation that have to be seen.10/10

While I doubt if I'll ever give a Don Hertzfeldt cartoon a 10 (since his animation style is so simple), this short film shows that you don't need a lot of fancy colors of computer generated animation in order to make a good film. It's extremely simple yet makes people laugh--and most of the time, that's why you watch a cartoon.Apparently this was a student film made while Hertzfeldt was in college. It consists of a cute animated animal that is manipulated by the hand of the artist. As the artist announces genre after genre, the creature is shoved into the genre--and usually results in him getting beaten up or bludgeoned or worse! In many ways, it's like the old Daffy Duck cartoon where the same sort of thing occurs, though Hertzfeldt's is more senselessly violence---which I like! Overall, super-simple but very funny. Just be sure to watch the credits.

'Genre'is another fine animated comedy short from the brilliant and twisted mind of animator Don Hertzfeldt. Here he draws a rabbit on a piece of paper and puts the poor thing through all kind of movie genres. The rabbit plays a part in a romantic film, the science fiction film, the porno film. Then the animator slowly loses his ideas and he starts combining genres and create new ones, so suddenly the rabbit stars in a disaster porno film, just to name one.After 'Ah, L'Amour', already a fine comedy, Hertzfeldt improves his animation and his comedy with 'Genre'. The short is inventive, perfectly animated, twisted and therefore probably not that great for everybody, and brilliant in how it uses such a simple idea in the most effective way possible. For the follow ups including 'Billy's Ballon' and 'Rejected' can be said the same. You should not miss any of them.