Billy's Balloon
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Billy's Balloon (1998) is a 16mm animated short by Don Hertzfeldt. It was his 4th and final student film at UC Santa Barbara. Similar to his other cartoons, he utilizes a minimalist stick-figure technique.
The film was invited into Official Competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival (where Don Hertzfeldt was the youngest director involved), and it won the Grand Jury Award at the 1999 Slamdance Film Festival. It eventually won 33 film festival awards and has become a very popular cult favorite, sometimes eliciting standing ovations from animation festival audiences.[1]
On top of its film festival runs (and popularity among internet bootleggers), the short has also appeared on Adult Swim and MTV in the US and on a number of international TV broadcasts around the world. Hertzfeldt has noted that the short's international popularity is likely because it has no dialogue and plays like a silent film.
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[edit] The story
A stick figure toddler (presumably named Billy) is repeatedly attacked by his red balloon. No explanation for how or why the balloon is doing so is ever given. Similar events are shown to be occurring with other children as the short progresses.
[edit] On DVD
Billy's Balloon is featured on the DVD, "Bitter Films Volume 1", a compilation of Don Hertzfeldt's short films from 1995-2005 that is available exclusively at the Bitter Films website, http://www.bitterfilms.com. Special features included for Billy's Balloon are Hertzfeldt's original pencil tests, production sketches, notes, and deleted ideas from the film.
