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11 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
heh heh, 12 October 1999
8/10
Author: Rob Lowe from Boston, MA

A little sick-minded. Then again, that's what we've come to expect from Don Hertzfeldt. Just one more reason why parents shouldn't leave their kids in the backyard... or on the porch... or anywhere. It starts a little slow, but once things begin to get rolling, it's impossible to stop laughing. Not recommended for those who take things way too seriously. Highly recommended for everyone else.

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Attack Of The Killer Balloons!, 25 August 2008
9/10
Author: ccthemovieman-1 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This isn't exactly like the famous 30-minute French classic film, "The Red Balloon." That 1956 Oscar-winning movie was about a young boy and his red balloon. So is this "cartoon," but that's where the similarity ends, story-wise.

In this simply-drawn animated short, the red balloon - and other balloons- are nasty, sadistic, violent and deadly. Who would believe innocent balloons could be like this?! It's shocking at first, then funny, and then very funny as the dark humor totally takes over and the violence escalates. The variations on the one-joke theme are fresh and make this one of the fastest five-minute animated movies I've ever seen.

I didn't find this "sick." It's just black humor. Anyone who appreciates totally absurdity should love this movie. Just don't expect the sweet-and-cuddly opening to last too long!!

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Hilarious and slightly bent., 17 April 1999
8/10
Author: freakus from San Francisco, CA

This film is a hilarious story of an evil conspiracy of children's balloons. It plays a great deal off of what we expect from films like "The Red Balloon" and twists our expectations. The funniest moments come early and it could have been trimmed a bit at the end for maximum impact but don't pass this up!

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Brilliantly sadistic, 9 February 2005
9/10
Author: rbverhoef (rbverhoef@hotmail.com) from The Hague, Netherlands

'Billy's Balloon' is sort of brilliant. It is also quite sadistic, but the more sadistic it gets the more you will probably laugh. Just do not take it too seriously. It shows how a balloon is hurting a child, Billy I guess, by lifting him up and dropping him to the floor. You might think this joke will grow old in about a minute, but this animated short, around five minutes long, invents new little things to keep us laughing.

The simple looking animation is perfect. It makes the sadistic events a little colder but at the same time it helps you realize easier that it is just an animated short. Animator Don Hertzfeldt has done a terrific job here. For something a little more disturbing, but equally good, I can recommend his 'Rejected'.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Satisfaction for the Sadistic Side, 25 January 2000
10/10
Author: (biglebowski@hotmail.com)

Animation in all its glory! As an animation student myself, and having made quite a few short stick-figure deaths and such to amuse myself during class, I can fully appreciate the brilliance of "Billy's Balloon." Luckily, I hadn't read anything about what was going to happen and was pleasantly surprised as the mayhem of Billy's balloon started and every time I thought the joke was getting old, a whole other element was thrown in. A great short film which I will hopefully find again someday.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Cruel, ugly and just plain sick....I want MORE!, 13 February 2008
8/10
Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

This short film from Don Hertzfeldt is a very sadistic film indeed and seems to possibly be inspired (in a negative way) by the "classic" French short film, THE RED BALLOON. Because Hertzfeldt is a very bizarre person with a sick sense of humor, the red balloon in this film is a nasty piece of work--spending the entire film either pummeling the poor kid or dropping him from extreme heights again and again. There certainly isn't anything deep or philosophical here--just stick figure-like beings getting the crap knocked out of them by Satanic balloons.

This film is highly recommended for teens, sick and twisted adults and,...um...that's all. As for artsy folks out there, DON'T see this under any circumstances. It will offend you and taint your opinions of THE RED BALLOON!

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Simply funny, 24 October 2006
7/10
Author: Polaris_DiB from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Getting back to the tongue-in-cheek humor of Don Hertzfeldt's stick figures is this roughly six minute short of anarchy and carnage! from balloons.

This is, technically, the least complicated of Hertzfeldt's works (and discussing "complication" in shorts about stick figures still feels to me very silly, but anyone who's familiar with Hertzfeldt's other works will understand exactly what I'm saying). However, it's one of the most funny and absurd.

Narratively, balloons revolt. At first it just seems like one balloon is fed up with the simpleness and mundanity of a single human child, but soon it just shows that balloons as a whole have a bone (or vacuous interior) for picking on all the innocents and undefended.

And that's that. Sit back and laugh.

--PolarisDiB

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0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
funny funny!, 2 August 2006
10/10
Author: hippofairy from Los Angeles

so... it's a cartoon, where nobody dies, there's no blood, and the only violence involved is with a balloon. how much better can it get? plus we've all played hit-your-friend-in-the-head-with-the-balloon when we were kids. this is just one of the funniest things that i've ever watched. Rolling on the floor laughing funny. The first time i saw Billy's Balloon was at the Hawaii International Film Festival, and it was being screened with a whole bunch of other shorts. Billy was the best by far. It also introduced me to Bitterfilms and Don who i absolutely adore. if you like billy's balloon, check out Don's other work. you won't be disappointed.

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4 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Flightless, 30 May 2005
Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) from Virginia Beach

This is a replacement comment. The original bothered a diligent reader, so I have made some expansion.

Animation is like any film type: artists ally to certain philosophies, perhaps without realizing it. In the case of animation, it bumps up against that great American invention, noir. That's the notion that there is a world in the movie that is manipulated by forces unseen. Hapless characters are the manipulated and the fact that we are on the scene influences that manipulation somehow.

With animation, its all about how objects act, how the environment conspires or not. Not all animators deal with objects the same way.

In my original comment, I made two assertions. One was that the Czech animator Jan Svankmajer was sort of an icon for and a teacher of one school of philosophy so far as this cinematic religion. It has nothing at all to do with darkness, or political statements, or humor — that is all applied superficially. Its about how the strings behind the world are connected; what objects MEAN and how we sit on some of those strings. I say that Hertzfeldt is in this tradition and that he changes it not a whit.

Does that make him less of an artist? That's up to you. He masters the philosophy without changing it, but his mastery is more engaging. Its the difference between the guy who writes the movie and the actor, between the composer and the fiddler. You decide.

The second point I made was that I supposed Hertzfeldt saw a rough version of "pad" that was being circulated in film schools at the time. The stories there and here are similar. I am NOT saying he plagiarized, but to me the influence is clear.

Having restated these two points, I can say that

1) this is fun.

2) this is not important in my mind. He's done stuff that is, and I would like you to see it instead. It is not personal, nor unique, nor valuable watching like some of Hertzfeldts stuff can be. Pass on this unless you don't want to explore better stuff.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

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