UPDATED: FAVORITE ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEOS - NOW INCLUDING GORILLAZ

Here's what an old fart I am: I can actually - clearly - REMEMBER a time when Mtv simply didn't exist. I remember it being invented. Crazy.
Anyway...
Music videos are an interesting phenomenon... most of the time, they're just marketing tools, but every great now and then, someone seizes the opportunity to embrace it as another form of artistic filmmaking and transcends the medium (for those of you who are struggling artists, take my advice and look for ANY opportunity in casual conversation to use the term 'transcends the medium'... it makes you sound all artsy and intellectual and you'll get an arts grant).
But, as usual, I digress...
When you approach music video as a 'multimedia art piece', it's easy to see why some of the most innovative directors/musicians choose animation as a way of providing a visual accompanyment to the music... in animation you can literally control every single image and every nanosecond of the timing.
For instance, if you're shooting a live-action video and you choose to have a scene outdoors, you can't control how the wind blows or what shape the clouds take... of course, sometimes this is precisely what the director WANTS for a sense of immediacey and a 'naturalistic' look... but, if you're trying to 'say' something very specific with your video, animation allows you to control the shape of every could and the speed at which it moves... the leaves on the trees in the background obey your commands... they can stand PERFECTLY still (something else that is virtually impossible in a live-action scene) or sway in a breeze of your creation... you could do a scene where trees swayed 'menacingly' if you wanted.
Anyway, with this in mind, I present to you 3 animated music videos that I can watch over and over and over and over ad infinitum (and, yes, I'm too stoopid to know how to actually post these videos here - so just cut and paste the links into your browser if you wanna watch the videos. Or don't. I won't lose a lot of sleep over it either way).

Gorillaz - "Clint Eastwood"
I'm filled with shame that I forgot to include this in the original post. I have no excuse, but let's move on with our lives, shall we?
Now, the fact that Jamie Hewlett came up with an animated pop band is enviable in and of itself, but let's just focus on this particular video...
This video is an absolutely brilliant example of what you can do when you actually COMBINE different animation techniques instead of relying on any single element to be the "star". You could technically classify this video as LIMITED animation with the sheer amount of re-use it utilizes.
When this thing came out, I simply could not stop watching it, taking the time to watch it repeatedly frame-by-frigging-frame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpDer9wdUEw

Linkin Park - "Breaking the Habit"
The animation styling and art direction on this are so gorgeous I could watch this all day and never stop loving it. Not a wasted line. Not a wasted movement. Very deliberately 'anti-slick' yet clearly created with absolute precision and purpose. I also dig the song a lot, but it's the only Linkin Park song I'm familiar with. I can't honestly say one way or the other whether or not I would like it if it weren't attatched to this video. Maybe, maybe not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWZWZP0KrnE

Tenacious D - "Wonder Boy" - Anime Music Video
What's odd about this addition into my little rant is that this is NOT the actual video for the song... this is a masterfully edited series of clips from the endlessly brilliant Japanese anime 'FLCL' put to an equally brilliant Tenacious D tune.
The reason I include this is to point out that editing, like anything else, CAN be an artform when the editor has a vision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFmNNRIdbCE

Peter Gabriel - "Sledge Hammer"
What can I possibly say about this video that hasn't been said a million times already and a million times better? It's art. It's sheer brilliance. SO far ahead of it's time. While everyone else was making videos that were basically just taped concert performances or gyrating bikini girls trying not to laugh at David Lee Roth, Peter Gabriel made THIS. Peter Gabriel is the greatest musical genius of the modern age. Period. If you disagree, you are utterly and pathetically wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaPYQysTHtA

ARGH! I mean, seriously... AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

Look - I'm sorry I haven't been updating regularly, okay? Cut me some slack... if you knew everything that was going on in my life right now (which I have no intention of relaying) you'd sympathize.
You'd say "Whoah, dude! You weren't kiddin'... you ARE busy! I'll just leave you alone..."
Part of the problem is that I'm feeling inhibited about what I want to do with this stupid blog (I realize the term "stupid blog" is WILDLY reduntant since all blogs are stupid, but I digress...).
At first it was gonna be all rants, then it turned into a big art debate, then it turned into social commentary, lately it's been a lot of movies/tv/pop-culture stuff.
I've got a lotta stuff to throw out there... for instance, everyone should rent "IDIOCRACY" - it's positively one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. It was written and directed by Mike Judge and it dares to make the accusation that people are stupid and getting dangerously stupider with every generation. So if you're really stupid, don't rent it 'cause you'll just get all pissed off (it is my assumption that this was the reason it was never released theatrically - test audiences of stupid people).
See, now, I just deleted something else that I wrote because I'm convinced everyone would take it the wrong way and just get mad at me. That's how the world is these days. You have to live in constant fear of 'offending' people because it seems as though people go through life LOOKING for reasons to be offended by stuff. It's very inhibiting. I suppose if I were interested in being a commentator for a living I would throw the dice and post it - but what's the point? I just wanna draw goofy shit. So - anyway - sorry to deny you a paragraph that I'm sure would have either outraged you, intrigued you or bored you to death.
Lots of exciting and fun stuff has been going on in the little Fountain household lately, but it's all just so happy and positive that reporting on it would probably just make everyone ill. So I'll spare you. You can thank me by buying "BIRTHDAY WISHES" at Amazon.com (scroll down for details). I thank you all in advance.
And, of course, by "you all" I mean my 2 or 3 friends who regularly check this site and then the random folks who hit my link by accident when they were visiting GOOD blogs like the ones listed below.
By the way, for those of you wondering why Leigh's blog is mysteriously absent, the short answer is that she took it down for a while 'cause she's too busy to do anything with it. Obviously, she's not as desperate for attention as I am.
So, that's it for now. Sorry this wasn't more interesting. I'll try to be all ranty and pithy next time.
In the meantime, here are some kreechors.
Enjoy.

KILL THE KID: More Observations on 'Superman Returns'

Okay, so it's been, like, forever since I've posted anything new - if I thought you really cared, I'd apologize... but I find that notion extremely difficult to believe, so I shant waste my sincerity.
Suffice it to say, Leigh and I have been busier than any of you can possibly comprehend. I'll give the full report some other time when I'm not knee-deep in it, but trust me when I say that we are simply batshit insane.
Anyway...
I hope you all had a lovely holiday season (GOD I'm sick of the word 'holiday'... we're all just oh-so-sensitive... argh... that's another rant) and a happy new year.
A special, massive thanks to those of you who actually went online and bought 'BIRTHDAY WISHES'. It means a lot to us and we truly hope you enjoy the book. There will be at least one other John and Leigh collaboration coming out this year (possibly more) - so I'll keep ya posted.
But back to my topic for the day...
One of the Christmas presents Leigh got for me was the special edition 'Superman Returns' DVD... it was, in fact, something I asked for in spite of the fact that - as you may recall - I was not particularly thrilled with the movie. But the fact is, I have seen many movies and hated them upon first viewing and loved them upon the second viewing. Who knows why? I certainly can't explain it.
Another example of this phenomenon I can site was 'The Hulk'... I liked it okay the first time I saw it, but then I saw it again and came away thinking it was not only 'great' but at times it was downright brilliant. But, again, that's another topic for another time...
'Superman Returns'...
In a bunch of the behind-the-scenes footage, they talk a lot about how long it took them to get to make this movie... as many of you may or may not know, a 'Superman' movie had been in development at Warner Brothers for over a decade before this one finally came out. There was a version with Kevin Smith as the screenwriter, Tim Burton as the director, Nicholas Cage as Superman, etc. etc. etc. "So what?" I can almost hear you saying... but THINK about it... WB must have spent countless MILLIONS over the course of 10 years going around and around with how to re-invent the franchise, and after all that time and money what they finally got around to was an incarnation that was only slightly different from the movies with Christopher Reeves! What a waste of time, energy and resources. It's no wonder the movie industry is in such a slump... it took them ten years and all that money to come full circle. I'm sorry, but if you can't figure out that the way to make a buck off a movie with SUPERMAN in it, I just don't have any sympathy for you.
What breaks my heart about this movie is that it had such potential. The scene where he catches the falling jet in the middle of a baseball stadium? WONDERFUL! The movie is sprinkled with little moments that just make me ache for it to be a better movie. Unfortunately, there are just too many major flaws that get in the way of that.
Firstly, I would have enjoyed the film at least 40% more if it weren't for Kate Bosworth's awfulness. Lois Lane? Please.
Can somebody please stop casting these Kewpie-Doll-faced 'Dawson's Creek' rejects as reporters, scientists, doctors and what-not? Women like her become actresses on 'The O.C.' - they don't become hard-hitting newspaper journalists.
I'm not saying Lois Lane needs to be ugly... but c'mon... Bosworth looks like she's 19. Did she get her degree in journalism in grade-school?
Anyway...
One of the other themes that is effectively pounded into our heads is this notion of 'The Father becomes the Son and the Son becomes the -blah-blah-blah psychobabble bullshit". This kid from Krypton who becomes a hero was Clark Kent - Kansas farmboy LONG before he was Superman. He didn't spend his life wondering who his 'real' father was... his real father was Jonathan Kent. Superman is Clark's alter-ego... not the other way around. What makes Superman a great character is that he is NOT a Kryptonian demigod... he was just a regular small-town kid who discovered that he has special abilities.
The whole plot is that Superman went into space to try to find the remains of Krypton... why? Was he hoping is birthparents were still there?! He abandoned his friends, career, AGING MOTHER and post as superhero so that he could find: NOTHING!?
Superman wouldn't do that. He's not that selfish. Pa Kent taught him better than that.
Consequently, the other major plotpoint that makes me cringe every time I think about it is this hippie-haired little moppet as the Superman/Lois Lane love-child. I just don't know how to put into words how awful this is. It'll take too much time... but the fact of the matter is, NOTHING ruins an action movie more than the presence of some adorable little kid. Ugh.
Which brings me to my brilliant concept for the sequel that will fix most of these problems (unfortunately it looks like there's no getting rid of Bosworth)... in the next movie Lex Luthor should KILL SUPERMAN'S SON!
What better way to give Superman a whole new reason to hate Luthor? What better way to give his character more complexity? I mean, let's face it... Superman has never really suffered real LOSS before. In the first movie he 'almost' lost Lois, but he made time retract and saved her life... yeah, sure, Pa Kent died... but he basically died of a weak heart brought on by old age... okay, so he never knew his real parents or home planet, but how can you really feel loss for something you never had? But killing his only SON? Yowza! Now THAT'S dramatic! The crushing loss would make him realize his selfishness, remind him that Earth is his real home, and he would have a whole new motivation for being a hero.
Of course, they'd never do this in a million years 'cause Hollywood has gotten so chickenshit. We'll simply be subjected to several sequels with Superman and son flying around like Batman and Robin (from the 60's tv show) with several adorable scenes of little Jason learning to use his powers alongside his dad. Ugh. I need a Rolaids just thinking about it.
The final nail in the coffin that holds 'Superman Returns' is that I don't see ANYONE having any fun in it. They're all just kinda doing what they're told and everyone's taking it too seriously.
I truly think the key to success in ANY line of work whether it's plumbing, accounting or making movies is to somehow make the job fun. If everyone LIKES their job, they do better work. 'Superman Returns' has some fine talent in it... but they all seem so inhibited by the crushing weight of the responsibility of carrying this iconic movie that they're all stifled and there's no chemistry with any of the cast.
Oh well... I gave the movie another chance... I'm happy that I own it if for no other reason that I can watch the plane-cathing scene over and over again.
Take my advice, Warner Brothers... in the next movie: kill off that kid!