The Long Walk

          While generally all music videos today use the visuals to reenforce the audio component, this short does the opposite. It uses a set story and the music adds to this story rather than the story being a derivative of the song. This felt much more like a short rather than a "music video". This approach is not generally seen in today's musically inclined world so I was delighted to see the story put at the forefront rather than the audio. It deals with the different evolutions of a tiny little critter falling through water all the way to the beginning of modern man. The very end, however, ends exactly how the short began symbolizing the circle of life.
          The success of "The Long Walk" hinges on many aspects but for starters, the beautiful, often comical, hand drawn type of animation used sets the tone for the entire story. The animations are often not the most complex but the characters themselves are a joy to look at. These drawings are reminiscent of the cartoons I would watch as a kid. Right off the bat one can tell this animation will not make me cry, will not make me redefine my moral views of the world, but this film will make me smile. Often that is one of the most important things a story can accomplish.
          The colors used on the characters are bright and vibrant while the backgrounds often are washed out drawing the viewer's attention onto the action of the character. While this does create a somewhat abrupt divided between the character and its surrounding it is not to the level of distracting mainly due to the perspective. Nearly the entire film is done with the main character walking / swimming / crawling from the right side of the screen to the left. This allows the viewer to know exactly where a character is going and not get lost in the minimalist backgrounds.
          The actual sounds of this short film are the real bright points of "The Long Walk". To begin with, there is often some type of ambient sound, whether underwater, on land etc., during a lull in action that is almost soothing. As the character gets into some type of action the actual music begins and is fitting to the action to a tee. For example, after the character first begins to walk on land, the viewer can see in it's step and by the smile on its face that it is throughly enjoying itself. The music during this is upbeat with a very approachable sound. The ability to time these pieces of work with the actions involved in the story really do pull the entire film together.