AUGH! That was a horrible thing to watch. I need BRAIN BLEACH, STAT!

I don’t know how he’s doing that. This guy takes a bunch of the nastiest elements I can imagine, in a style I completely dislike, and shapes them into an entertaining and moving film which completely blasts me away. This film is perfect on so many levels. Everything in there is there for a reason, there’s no wasted shot. And his storytelling and editing is oh so far beyond your average cartoon. I only know a handful of other artists being on par with him.

Sometimes you have to surrender to the mood of a film, even if that mood is relentless depressing. Life is cruel and absurd and then you die, but there’s comfort in seeing we’re all in it together. It was reminding me a lot of my all time favourite bleak/melancholic animated short ‘Revolver.’

inferior to Please Say Something in every way. props to the good aesthetics but everything else is predictably “insightful” in the most juvenile way possible.

Please say something genuinely said something about the human condition especially dealing with the nature of the repetitive nature of a long term relationship, the cut-up technic used in that film hid a genuine character arc for the cat and the mouse and the overall film worked great as a single narrative while maintaining the freshness of a witnessing it in a “new media” sense.

It seems with External world Dave just stuffed as many provocative imagery that “provokes” (using that term lightly with a grain of salt here) the deviantart and life journal crowd to proclaim how insightful it is to see a bleeding teddy bear fucking a frog. The 4th wall breaking and irony are absolute trite in 2011.

protip, just because it’s shocking doesnt mean it’s provocative.

I am dissapoint.

I love the aesthetic, but I felt like the kid screaming and beating a drum in an art museum at 9:30 summed up the whole purpose of the film.

David O’Reilly once again proves he’s a mediocre filmmaker.

He has no new ideas, nothing original to say. He’s completely uninteresting.

He desperately WANTS to be provocative. The stuff with the “please remind patients that nothing is wrong with them” is such unsubtle, boring, awful, middlebrow “commentary” on modern life.

Will someone please properly parody this pompous, ponderous filmmaker? It’d be the easiest thing in the world to do. His films are so formulaic in the way they combine ironically cute or ironically lofi, low polygon primitive CGI, contrasted with “cutting” imagery and shallow emotional circle jerking. It’s such an easy style, I’m surprised 80 people didn’t come up with the same contrast at the same time. “Hey, I’ll do CGI in a way that doesn’t apologize for the fact that it’s CGI, but then add in hackneyed, hamfisted “social commentary” and primitive emotionalism. ISN’T IT WEIRD THAT I’M MIXING THOSE THINGS?!?!”

No, it isn’t weird, it’s boring. He’s not even a good cynic.

I absolutely love this movie. Congratulations on the well deserved awards. Beautifully done.

mm i think there is a difference between being hip and modern and make a good film.. it has some interesting stetic points but to me is totally empty ….cheers!!

I’m glad that at least over here we’re actually having a discussion about an artist and a piece of work that moves the art form forward (perhaps).

wow. i didnt like it. at all. and im a huge hertzfeldt fan.

The visual style is so great.

I did think it’s not as well “tied-up” as PSS. I liked all the scenes, but it seems more like a demoreel than a finished short. Yes, there are recurrent themes and all, but still. Seemed pretty random to me.

But that’s my only criticism. All the rest is awesome and I’ll still certanly watch it dozens of times (like i did with PSS);

PS: btw, I dont think its a problem to compare this to PSS. why not? it’s a frame of reference that everyone here knows. It sucks to expect PSS2 though.

PPS: I’ve always prefered artists that take risks, even if I dont like 100% of all they do. Just for that David is in one of my top 10 animators!

it wouldnt be a work of art without these comments :P thanks jorge. im wondering how he did the voices on the animals.

I am amazed at the amount of vitriol EXTW has generated here! David should take this as a ridiculously high compliment! Obviously the piece has done it’s job. The theme of the whole film is how people are scared of things that are new, and more specifically about how the mainstream animation community rejects things which it cannot understand. I speculate that the comments on mental health in the film come from a place of frustration, brought on by David’s peers saying he is nuts for wanting to do things his own way. I could be reading too much into it, but it is only because I have felt that way. If I do not want to make a reel that will get me a job within the studio system then I am thought to be crazy. The point of animation should be to make art and tell a story, not to get a job. I commend David for telling his story his own way in the face of such adversity.

I loved this! Just watched it.
I agree with jinnaboy on his points about “Why ‘Say something’ was better than ‘External world’” but, for me, the point on this whole animation was nearly clear…

His intention was to show that a poorly drawn animation, with a raw script and very worked out could be taken as the Holy Grail of modern art by the artistic comunity. There is much criticism in the film, mainly on how the animation is treated in society, i.e it’s degree of influence in the art world in general.
I really did not understand the role of the stuffed animals (frog, monkey, and the other one), maybe their objective is to lead cause people to criticize the work as a whole, despite the rest of the animation, to provoke people, and show then that they can be futile in their critics… I don’t know, I really don’t know O’Reilly’s work enough to say so categorically!

Anyway, in my opinion the entire piece was intented to clarify this: The degree of superficiality and childness that is expected from the animations, people’s spectations and ideas about what is an animated film!
Perhaps there is something else, I do not know, but for me this was the main message, passed from a genius of animation/direction!

Forgive my poor english…