Good start, but then it gets ruined

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

'Genre' is Don Hertzfeldt's second film, and, in my opinion, is much better than his first. 'Genre' is a simple film w/a simple premise that makes plenty of room for many gags of various kinds, ranging from meta humour to simple genre parody to pure absurdity to more dark and twisted black humour. It's a quick little work of animated comedy that is exceedingly fun to watch and foreshadows the brilliance and hilarity that would soon come to be in films like 'Rejection'.

'Genre (1996)' was produced while Don Hertzfeldt was still in college, and it certainly looks like an amateur film, particularly the stop-motion sequences featuring the animator himself. However – as was the case with 'Billy's Balloon (1998)' and 'Rejected (2000)' – Hertzfeldt proves that even simple animation can be very entertaining. 'Genre' draws plenty of inspiration from Chuck Jones' self-reflexive 'Duck Amuck (1953),' in which Daffy Duck is consistently pestered by the animator who is drawing him. In 'Genre,' an unfortunate rabbit finds himself in a succession of compromising (and often bloody) situations, as his creator experiments with different movie genres. As the frustrated animator begins to run out of ideas, he starts splicing genres together, leaving the poor rabbit to fend for himself in a "porno disaster film," for example. The most enjoyable element of Hertzfeldt's film is the self-awareness of the animated rabbit, who knows that the animator (his "God") is purposefully screwing him around, and is forced to simply wear it.

While I doubt if I'll ever give a Don Hertzfeldt cartoon a 10 (since his animation style is so simple), this short film shows that you don't need a lot of fancy colors of computer generated animation in order to make a good film. It's extremely simple yet makes people laugh--and most of the time, that's why you watch a cartoon.Apparently this was a student film made while Hertzfeldt was in college. It consists of a cute animated animal that is manipulated by the hand of the artist. As the artist announces genre after genre, the creature is shoved into the genre--and usually results in him getting beaten up or bludgeoned or worse! In many ways, it's like the old Daffy Duck cartoon where the same sort of thing occurs, though Hertzfeldt's is more senselessly violence---which I like! Overall, super-simple but very funny. Just be sure to watch the credits.

This is the funniest short animation I've seen since "Bambi Meets Godzilla." The depictions of familiar genres ("romantic comedy," "the buddy film") are funny, but the combinations that follow are outstanding.