With the Most Candy
Cartoon Brew has got the dichotomy here completely wrong; Gondry's version of the video, in my opinion, is a little enjoy-life-whenever-possible bit of Gondryish frivolity, whereas Plympton's is hackneyed in a way that's much less lovable. As far as I could tell, the song is basically a 'life is hard but it's all we've got' sort of song, which is dull, but okay, sure. Plympton gave it the treatment of 'life is hard, but also singer is beyond this and sits around in some kind of cheesy transcendence,' for some reason. Gondry, however, clearly put the emphasis on the sort of 'forbidden space' trespassing-fun (in which singer PARTICIPATES, rather than being a recording angel (snort)) idea that's been rattling around approximately forever, but in this case it feels like perspective, in a way (a bit hokey, but suspension of cynicism _is_ possible). Like, hey, what can they do to us? Life is hard already. Let's screw around in Harrods at night and make Mike Jittlov sad he didn't get in on this video. Maybe I'm a sucker for Gondry's viewpoint, his sort of overarching love for life or something, but damned if _he_ goes around sticking unironic wings on singers. I mean, seriously, 'oh, we were kidding when we gave him jesus hair, but not about the angel wings!'
Budget isn't even an issue here; it's all in the treatment.
Budget isn't even an issue here; it's all in the treatment.