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Featured era: 2000
Rejected
“My spoon is too big.”
- Featured era
- 2000
- Peak era
- 2000-2004
- Company
- Don Hertzfeldt
- Category
- Viral Videos
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On Video
Don Hertzfeldt's "Rejected"
Plays from YouTube when you press play. Views, length and date from YouTube, October 2026.
About This Video
- From:
- don hertzfeldt
- Added:
- May 24, 2026
- Length:
- 9:17
More Videos4 videos
What Was It?
Rejected is an animated short by Don Hertzfeldt, released in 2000 and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It presents itself as a reel of promotional cartoons commissioned by the Family Learning Channel and the Johnson & Mills corporation, all of them rejected, while title cards chart the animator's growing breakdown. Hertzfeldt drew and photographed it himself, with paper, pens and a 35mm camera, and no computers.
The sketches get stranger and darker until the paper itself crumples and tears and the characters flee as their world collapses.
In the early 2000s pirated copies turned it into a viral hit, and lines like "My spoon is too big" spread everywhere. New York magazine later called it "the cartoon that invented Internet culture".
Things You Probably Forgot
- "My spoon is too big"
- "I am the Queen of France"
- The fluffy guys
- The Adult Swim broadcast that never happened
The Story
- 2000 Rejected premiered at the San Diego Comic Convention.
- 2001 It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
- 2002 Adult Swim pulled a planned broadcast at the last minute.
- 2018 Hertzfeldt posted an HD remaster on YouTube.
Its Legacy
The film is on Don Hertzfeldt's own YouTube channel, where he first shared an HD remaster in 2018. It is now considered a cult classic and one of the most influential animated films ever made.
Memories
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