This is about the “feature length” (i.e. ca. 60 min) film that actually consists of the three previously released animated shorts “Everything will be OK”, “I Am So Proud of You”, and “It’s Such a Beautiful Day”.
I cannot claim to understand what this animated masterpiece by Don Hertzfeld, the rock star and cool kid in the class of animation artists, is about. But it is about life, the universe and everything, birth and death. It is about Bill who will die (as we all will), and soon, maybe. He lives in a constant state of heightened perception of his environment, floats through his daily routine like an alien in constant observation and interpretation mode. When he gets sick, the observations turn into visions, and then into nightmares, and maybe nothing is real, or all is surreal.
What comes across as simplicity of characters is actually very sophisticated animation, the main character Bill may only consist of a few pencil strokes, but he is a profound and profoundly sad character, and it is interesting to observe how quickly one can accept this odd little creature as a fully-fleshed character in a story about life and death.
I loved it when towards the end, the author steps in to protect his character from falling victim to audience expectations. Bill is elevated to new heights, quite literally and metaphorically, to stand above a normal life span, to become a symbol for … and that’s when I, again, don’t know the answer, but he is a beautiful and sad symbol.
thomas4cinema 
2 Comments
Dude, this thing is so great. Glad to see a write-up on it. I love Don Hertzfeld, mostly for this but his other work, the Rejected series. Both brilliant in their own rights.
I am glad there are more people who love this, I was very happy to make that discovery, weird and splendid as it is 🙂