Wii + fan art + Take On Me video = Awesomeness

by Blake Snow { Oct 23rd 2006 at 5:55PM }

The above is what results after taking an average Nintendo fan and offering them a free Wii in a contest give-away. Add 700 pieces of paper, lots of pencils, 80 hours of hand-drawn sketching, computer editing skills with a nod to A-ha's 1985 Take On Me video, and you get one fine mashup.

High-res videos here (currently down)

[Thanks, mikeawesome]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

James @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:06PM

Family Guy's take on A-ha's video is better.

Martin @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:06PM

Someone still can't get over the fact that it isn't called Revolution!!!

32_Footsteps @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:07PM

Whoa there... I must've missed the part in this in which the greatest song in a decade's time was playing in the background. Or the love story between a quirky girl and a comic book character. Or the random evil racers who wanted to break them up for no reason.

It's a well-done piece, but hand drawn does not automatically mean "inspired by Take On Me's video." If anything, this owes much more stylistically to the works of Bill Plympton (who deserves much kudos for his most recent work, the video to "Weird Al"'s "Don't Download This Song").

PSWii360 Fanbot @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:10PM

Uh, yeah, this is sweet.

Rather than bashing other systems, this guy promotes his favorite system. Rather refreshing.

As for the revolution comment, I'm sure it would be tough to find a song that includes the phrase "Wii". The conrolling aspect of the Wii is still a "revolution" regardless of the name. I believe that was the point.

Zo� K. @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:12PM

I could so see this as an ad with a little touching up... some speeding up and slowing down in some places.

And "Be a Revolution"... that could totally work as a motto. Hell, they did the song title thing with "Who are you."

Rabish12 @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:17PM

Nintendo should hunt this guy down, get his permission, license that song and touch this up a bit, and then put this thing on television. It's a lot more stylish and attractive than their official trailers for the system, and it still manages to get the whole idea of the system across.

N3k74r @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:24PM

Has nothing to do with Take on Me.

Unit @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:29PM

@#1, remember this is fan art, family guy was done by professionals there for it'll have a more polished feel/look to it.
@#6 it def' is more stylish than nintendo's own trailers, but also remember this fan-piece manages to get the point across to people who already know about the system. If you were to show this to some one who doesn't know, they would be almost clueless as to what the system is capable of. But other than that it really is a great piece of work on its own.

BklynKid @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:30PM

#2, well I don't think they felt comfortable saying "Be A Wii"

Psaakyrn @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:36PM

A for effort, though the technical and art direction could use work.

(For that matter, 700 images is SMALL for an animated strip. Remember, at least 16 frames per second. That would be about 44 seconds of unique graphics..)

zymman @ Oct 23rd 2006 6:57PM

Yeah, a few of you are right, this is a really small technical and artistic achievement, considering you are sitting at your computers right now clicking through hours of useless information. I, however, am inspired by the trouble one person would go to to show their love for an idea. And, also, Nintendo already has a motto for the Wii, it's "A brand new way to play the same old games."

Russell @ Oct 23rd 2006 7:06PM

not to rain on your parade, or to be the ubergeek, but the take on me video is simply a process known as 'rotoscoping' and if it were a take on me video, then it would have rl footage along with drawings.

doomed1 @ Oct 23rd 2006 7:06PM

that is absolutely AMAZING! i give major props to this guy and i think it would be a great add campaign for nintendo to pull through with a bit of polish. it would really sort of pull from apple's minimalist style and still make people interested in the system.

Sco @ Oct 23rd 2006 8:16PM

I wonder how the uneducated consumers will react when they see the true graphics of the wii compared to the 360 and the PS3.

Not that I'm saying graphics have the final say in any game. But if i pay for a next-gen console, i want next-gen graphics with it.

Nintendo_Fanboy @ Oct 23rd 2006 8:50PM

@ Fanbot (a.k.a. #4)

Does anyone else remember...

WII WILL, WII WILL ROCK YOU!

*insert Fanbot's DOH! here*

Peter Holubz @ Oct 23rd 2006 8:54PM

I want next-gen gameplay. Graphics are plateauing.

Ruan Caiman @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:03PM

The song is Jars of Clay's "Revolution", from album "The Eleventh Hour".

kuan @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:04PM

ummm... that's not a-ha's Take on Me

that is a different song. take on me is a poppy new wavish song. thats some sort of rock stuff

Hans v @ Oct 23rd 2006 10:52PM

My brother animated this video. He can be reached at wii@hansv.com . There's also a story on digg that is in desperate need of some digging:

http://digg.com/videos_animation/Non_animator_creates_hand_drawn_Wii_commercial_on_notebook_paper

I'm hosting some higher-quality versions of this at wii.hansv.com but my server seems to be occasionally buckling under the pressure.

And no, this has nothing to do with Take On Me! lol

Don @ Oct 23rd 2006 10:52PM

Nothing about this video warrents the label "mashup". Dear Blogosphere, please stop overusing this idiotic word.

PSWii360 Fanbot @ Oct 23rd 2006 11:01PM

@ 15
D'oh!

NoHitHair @ Oct 24th 2006 12:50AM

Where in the name of all that is good and honest in this world could you guys have possibly related this to A-Ha's 'Take On Me' music video?

I suppose in this vein of comparison, cars of today are exactly like cars 80 years ago because they're both cars. Is it that animation is simply so rare amongst the Joystiq staff that they're only subjected to old 80's music videos?

Truly, reading the caption before watching the video was obviously the wrong thing to do - I should've just read the caption and moved on.

Kyouryuu @ Oct 24th 2006 3:14AM

Take on Wii?

Lion @ Oct 24th 2006 9:43AM

Jars of Clay rocks. Don't sound anything like A-ha--and the video wasn't all that similar to "Take on Me" either--but Jars is an interesting Christian band that comes out with a different sound each album.

Galley @ Oct 24th 2006 10:40AM

I agree, it looks nothing like "Take On Me", which is perhaps the greatest music video of all-time.

Skyler Jermyn @ Oct 24th 2006 10:50AM

I don't like it at all. The ad doesn't even tell me what the wii is, let alone if it's fun. The animation is not very impressive. Even if it was higher quality video, it would still be too washed out. And it's especially ugly for everything after the part where the goomba gets hit by the fireball. Also, too much focus on the home symbol, and the word revolution. Also, the song sucks.