Why So Animated?

[mattboy115]

I'm sorry if this topic has already been discussed.

Has anyone noticed...or even cared that Al doesn't star in a lot of his music videos anymore? I mean with the last couple albums there have been a TON of new videos but he barely ever stars in any of them in live action. Nearly every one is animated. In recent years the only videos I've seen him are White & Nerdy and Craigslist. That's it. Who thinks Al should do more live action videos? There may be more money involved but...I dunno it just seems kinda lazy.

What do you guys think?

[OneWAY]

If Al decided not to do animated videos, we'd probably only have two for Alpocalypse and one for Straight Outta Lynwood. The live videos have ALWAYS cost a lot of money and that is the reason why, besides Dare To Be Stupid (album), only one-two of them show up per album. There wouldn't be any additional live-action videos even without the animated ones.

There's no reduction of live action videos, just an addition of material. Either way, it will probably never be in the budget for him to pull of more than the usual number of live action videos per album.

[crazygurl14]

This has been discussed a lot in the other topics. Some people like the animated videos but others, like me, do not. I understand why Al want to do it, it get more sings out there as singles, i myself do not like the animated videos. They are just not the same, they feel like fan videos and not things that should be offical Weird Al Yankovic videos. Hopefully he will end this trend when the next album comes but i kinda doubt it, epecially if he does something like internet leaks again.

[Well, Well, Well]

i think there is potential for great success with digital singles if a live action video accompanies them. "whatever you like" could have been greatly improved, though a better song would have also helped. however it seems strange to expect live action videos when the whole genre of music videos is pretty much deceased.

but, yeah, the animated videos on the whole, are a terrible waste of time.

[weirdojace]

It's a cheap way for Al to get his songs out there and reach the YouTube audience, when they otherwise wouldn't.

I wish he'd be more involved in the production of them though.

[HappyGilmore]

I'm not overly fond of the animated videos.

I understand the reasonings behind them from a business sense. Cheaper to produce, and in the age of the internet/iTunes/youtube, etc., any video that can get out there and circulate to spread your name is a good thing. Plus, with Poodle Hat only having ONE video (if you're in the camp that counts Bob as a video), this new album has 12.

However, Al is well known for having great videos to accompany his songs. A cheap video where he throws money at an animator than has what seems like little control over the output leads to things like TMZ.

I do like them, if only cause I now have some younger cousins that like cartoons and such, so I put on the animated toons to kinda grab their attention. One of them went through a Michael Jackson phase last year, and I did pop on the Ultimate Video Collection and showed the Eat It and Fat videos. Now she likes the Gaga parody and wants to see him in Jersey. Meh.

[anthontherun]

I wish he'd be more involved in the production of them though.

I agree with that. Al is such a perfectionist that it seems a bit strange that he's basically handing his songs off to directors to create whatever visual they see fit. Not that I want him to work any harder than he has to, but if he were more hands-on at least in the pre-production stage I think there'd be a much higher success rate for these videos.

[mattboy115]

This is me agreeing completely. If it's Al's work I believe that he should have a little more control over how it's being represented. I've not been too fond of the animated videos although the ones back in the 80's and 90's were pretty good like Jurassic Park and such. But back then it seemed like Al had a big hand in there.

I appreciate Al's attempt at making the songs more popular and getting more exposure but the simple fact remains that not EVERY song needs a video. Especially if the only means of doing that is hiring a lot of random animators work their own magic. Although I do think that hiring John Kricfalusi to do "Close but No Cigar" was a great idea.

(and yeah I forgot about "Perform this Way" so yeah there were two with Alpocalypse)

[Aron]

I frankly love the animated videos. They're a fun visual (actually, the first time we sat down and listened to the album, we just saw the videos) and i'd rather have them than not have them.

I'm particularly fond of Plympton's work for Al. His sketchy pencil style animation has always been fun for me to watch, and I was very happy he got the chance to do TMZ.

Animation is awesome. There are so many ways to make it, so many styles to have. Alpocalypse was an excellent collection of numerous styles and I'm thankful Al gives so many different animators a chance to be a part of his albums. I hope he continues to do this for future albums

[TMBJon]

I think it was smart to have some visual representation for each track that Al could put out on YouTube to raise awareness for his album. Some of the videos I'm not particularly fond of, and I do wish he was a little more involved in the creative process somehow, but ultimately the fact that there is any visual representation is better than if there were none. Having said that, I would gladly trade all 10 other videos besides Perform This Way and Craigslist in exchange for one more live action video of TMZ or CIA.