King Kapisi “Stomping”

2003-king-kapisi-stomping“Stomping” was directed by the fellows of Mukpuddy, a superfun Auckland-based animation house. There’s a ton of talent at Mukpuddy, but the “Stomping” video feels troubled by the same sort of troubles that often strike animated music videos. That is, it feels a bit slow and empty, like there wasn’t enough time and/or money to fill out the animation with enough footage to give it more movement and excitement. At one point, there’s a totally blank white screen for almost two seconds, which feels really long. For a song that’s all about stomping, the video has a strangely placid feeling to it.

The video starts by zooming in on Bill’s Electronix shop, where a TV screen shows a video game promising combat between King Kapisi’s team and some monster types. “Start” flashes on the screen, but that’s the last of video game grammar we see. There’s no sense of any gameplay in the video.

I should say, the animation is great. It’s colourful and funny and expressive. I almost feel like taking a bunch of screenshots of all my favourites stills. Maybe the visuals would work better if the animation was given a new audio track with just voices and sound effects, not having to rely on the song. It’s one of those rare cases where the song is good and the visuals are good but together they just don’t quite work.

Best bit: the detailed and rather pretty background of the space scenes.

Director: Mukpuddy
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… basic training.

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