Don Herzfeldt’s “WORLD OF TOMORROW”

A movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

Don’t let the stick figure animation fool you. This is one of the most sophisticated science-fiction films I’ve seen since Her and Ex Machina. And it’s only 17 minutes long.

The theme of the film will be familiar to many science-fiction fans: cloning and memory copying. (Check out the novel Altered Carbon for one of the classics of the field.)

The execution of World of Tomorrow is original, thoughtful, and poignant.

The story: a toddler is visited by a cloned descendent from 227 years in the future. The “dialogue” that ensues reveals a future where class distinctions, memories, and technology have created a soulless and dangerous world where organic life coexists with machines and digitally stored personalities.

All of this is economically and artistically displayed in a 17 minute nearly abstract animated short where one of the two main characters is a happily burbling toddler whose significance to her descendant-visitor is not revealed to the viewer till the very end.

This is an unusual and very interesting and thought-provoking film. Highly recommended.

Movie review copyright © 2016 by Dennis D. McDonald