Believe me when I say that it's almost impossible to review this short film at all without spoiling it, but I'll make the attempt.

The first time I saw 'Rejected', I laughed so much I thought I was going to die. Honestly, I hadn't laughed like that in years. The second time I saw it, I laughed quite a lot. The third time, I thought it was pretty funny. I haven't watched it again. That one fault - the lack of staying power - is what knocks half a star off, for me. Though perhaps that's unfair. How many full-length films have I watched four times in the past year?

Perhaps you're wondering how a nine minute film composed of stick figures, sometimes drawn on scrunched-up bits of paper, could be nominated for an Oscar, win a Gold Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, and rate as highly on imdb as 'Schindler's List'. Or exactly why the Family Learning Channel rejected Hertzfeld's pieces. Provided you're already pretty well demented, finding out why might be the funniest nine minutes you ever spend watching a cartoon.

I should warn you though, depending on your tastes, there is also a fair chance that you'll watch this and not laugh once. Like me with an episode of 'Friends'.

(EDIT. After some time I've decided that all that was keeping me from giving this 4 stars was that it didn't bear up to repeated viewings very well. And I decided I would just go with the first viewing. And the first viewing is hilarious. So 4 stars.)