Say No to Crack » Blog Archive » Billy’s Balloon

Billy’s Balloon

May 25th, 2007 by Karen

When I was little, I used to love balloons. They were fun, and simple, and the perfect symbol of fun at a fair or carnival.

But no longer, not after this Don Hertzfeldt masterpiece.

Never again.

Posted in Videos |

15 Responses to “Billy’s Balloon”

on 25 May 2007 at 1:24 am tamiki

that is absolutely twisted, but lots of fun to watch,

tamiki
on 25 May 2007 at 8:55 am Billy’s Balloon by Don Hertzfeldt

[…] Video via Say No To Crack […]
on 25 May 2007 at 11:31 am Bob The Bear (esq)

Good Lord!
on 25 May 2007 at 11:47 am Nessa

Oh, my. I think I’ll be having nightmares now.
on 25 May 2007 at 1:08 pm Hughie

Masterpiece? How ’bout pointless and cruel for the sake of being pointless and cruel? The piece became progressively more cruel without any payoff. In other words, one could have stopped watching after the first bop on the head and gain nothing further by continuing to watch the rest of the artist’s exercise. But, of course, as an artist Don has no need to explain or defend his work,nor, is his work necessarily required to have a point. However, a pay-off, a point, would have been worth my 6 minutes of viewing. It looks as though Don needed only to create a flip-book and exclaim: “Look, mom ! Look what I can do!”

Now, if one wishes to refer to another video, from last week, as a “masterpiece” then look no further than “Rabbit”. I loved it ! Twisted ? Yes! Did it have a point? Most certainly ?

Boy ! That felt good! I’ll have to spend more time as an art critic.
on 25 May 2007 at 4:42 pm Karen

Sure, it was cruel, but that’s part of the humor, and not all humors are the same, I just liked it…as for a payoff, Hertzfeldt intended to make this video like a documentary, no punchline, no fancyness, just brutal story telling.

And a flock of angry balloons!

My favorite part has to be where the balloon smashes the little girl’s flower. Such reckless agression from such a harmless symbol of youth. I love it.
on 25 May 2007 at 5:23 pm CheeseDuck

Yey!
on 25 May 2007 at 10:11 pm Bunk

Amazing amount of time and effort went into that work of, um, uh, oddness.

Hughie– I second your nomination for “Rabbit.” Check out billyblob.com for some other cool animations, like “Karma Ghost.”
on 25 May 2007 at 11:20 pm Michelle

That was just creepy and pointless. Why do people make these things?
on 26 May 2007 at 8:47 am CheeseDuck

Don Hertzfeldt’s Rejected is awesome too! =D
on 26 May 2007 at 4:39 pm Hughie

Bunk, thanks for the tip! Loved it!
on 26 May 2007 at 6:08 pm Anthony

Wow, … I’m speechless

Anthony
The Insane Membrane
on 26 May 2007 at 9:59 pm Bunk

Hughie (and you other silent perusers)–
Here’s another source for some very unusual animations at Hoogerbrugge.com.

Click on the “Nails” tab to find some excellent short surreal oddities.

If you like those, Hoogerbrugge’s “HOTEL” interactive “novel” is excellent. It’s not obscene, just mildly disturbing, kinda PG-15 rated.

Y’all are on your own. BUNK OVER AND OUT.
on 31 May 2007 at 2:31 am Jaan Kanellis

Don Hertzfeldt is great!
on 17 Jul 2007 at 3:04 am kristy

FYI this video is a really low quality bootleg. You really need to see Don’s work on the big screen (yeah these are all shot on film without computers) to appreciate it, or at least DVD.

Please support the guy at his website if you like his stuff. He’s 100% indie: www.bitterfilms.com