We look to the future as a relief or even a catalyst of the conditions we're currently facing, and we struggle to objectively define 'self,' especially in the age of the internet, where selves can be socially constructed or constructed in the lieu of the moment. We do not appreciate the present until it is the distant or the very-recent past, depending on how we deem the quality of our current situation. Don Hertzfeldt's seventeen-minute animated short World of Tomorrow, one of the Academy Awards' Best Animated Short frontrunners this year, does an amazing job of examining the flaw that most of us have as people and that's an inability to be satisfied or truly content with the present. If nothing else, use it as a cautionary tale for the horror of war. On top of that, the violence here is immaculately conceptualized and the overall effect is strangely satisfying, almost servicing one's questionably human, carnal desires to see violence by way of such an innocent medium.

Its largely blank canvas, only decorated with simple pencil strokes of gray, black, and red that realize the ugliness of battle, strangely helps one get sucked into the world before being spit back out when the credits roll. The result produces two lofty morals: exhaust the pain away by fighting the tears by doing what you love and, for the umpteenth time, animation doesn't always correlate to being 'for children.' As a whole, while there isn't much going on with Prologue, it's a strangely immersive short film. His meticulous, uncompromising craft keeps him going in many ways, and his zealous artistic ability is what keeps his gears turning like the gears in his many dioramas. The entire film's moral revolves around a bear continuing to work through heartbreak, sadness, and personal hardships by way of his passion. While it has its fair share of mawkish sentiments, thanks to no dialog and a soft musical score, there's a commentary in Bear Story that didn't quite hit me until I began writing this review.

Pencil animation short film