Spike Jonze and Kanye West’s “We Were Once A Fairytale,” the long-discussed short film collaboration that Jonze directed was supposed to debut on iTunes, September 8, but for whatever reason, that didn’t happen. You can’t blame the infamous Kanye West/Taylor Swift incident either, the 2009 MTV VMAs aired afterwards Sunday, September 13 , but one can understand how that ugly episode didn’t hurry up its release.
So, was the short film — that attempts to lampoon Kanye West’s arrogance by evincing more self-conceit and self-deprecation with a bizarre, hallucinatory ending that features a small demon-like furry rodent and a form of seppuku — meant to be released today?
Would another date be scheduled once the Kanye controversy died down? Or was it just poor form, post-Swift incident and the filmmakers just let it naturally make it’s way onto the web? Who knows, but the clip is embedded below. And yes, it’s a fairly normal nightclub setting, but once West gets to the bathroom then it starts to get really weird. You’ll see. The short features the West song “See You In My Nightmares” from 808s and Heartbreaks, remixed and pretty severely tweaked by Spike Jonze’s brother and N.A.S.A.‘s Squeak E. Clean (Sam Spiegel).”
Also note, if you’ve seen “Where The Wild Things Are” you know that little demon rat at the end does seem very much to be a part of the same aesthetic. Jonze has yet another short film on the way that features robots and possibly some sort of appearance by Miranda July. Update: a source tells we’re wishfully thinking: July just showed up on set that day and has nothing to do with the short. Alas…
This will be pulled quickly, watch it while you can.