It's Such a Beautiful Day

It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2012) is an experimental animated feature film written, directed, narrated, and animated by Don Hertzfeldt. Combining surreal dark humor, existential dread, and minimalist line-drawing animation, the film tells the story of Bill, an ordinary man who begins to experience memory loss, hallucinations, and a mental breakdown due to a mysterious brain illness. As Bill's world unravels, the film explores profound themes like the fragility of memory, mortality, the absurdity of life, and the struggle to find meaning in a decaying mind and world. The film is actually a compilation of three of Hertzfeldt’s earlier short films—Everything Will Be OK (2006), I Am So Proud of You (2008), and It’s Such a Beautiful Day (2011)—edited into a seamless 62-minute narrative. The animation style is deliberately simple: stick figures, basic line work, and sudden bursts of photographic collage or 35mm in-camera effects. But this stark style is used to devastating effect, delivering emotional complexity through visual economy, precision narration, and jarring tonal shifts. While it had a very limited theatrical release and almost no mainstream marketing, the film became a cult classic. Exact box office numbers are not publicly known, but the film toured independently across the U.S., often accompanied by Hertzfeldt himself, and later found a broader audience through digital platforms and Blu-ray releases. Its reputation has steadily grown, with critics calling it one of the most powerful animated films ever made. It’s Such a Beautiful Day received unanimous critical acclaim. It holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is frequently cited in discussions about the greatest animated films of all time. Critics praised its emotional resonance, philosophical depth, and innovative use of low-budget animation. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert included one of the original shorts in his list of the best films of the 2000s, and many cinephiles view the full version as Hertzfeldt’s masterpiece. Though it did not receive major awards from institutions like the Academy, the film won multiple accolades on the festival circuit, including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival (for one of its segments), and the Best Animation award at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Its influence is deeply felt among indie animators and experimental filmmakers, and it solidified Hertzfeldt’s reputation as one of the most original voices in modern animation.