WoW Moviewatch: Happy Anniversary
by Michael Gray 
Jan 29th 2010 at 12:00PM
Within a very short time, though, I was completely blown away. Britty's skill for animation is very clear, and her characters are immediately accessible. She's definitely got some amazing chops. She mentioned in her excerpt that she didn't include any voice acting or lip synching for Happy Anniversary because she didn't feel the story required it. I absolutely agree with her. Between the power of the imagery and her perfect timing with the music, she absolutely conveyed the narrative without any additional voices or character singing.
The video has a fairly harsh ending, which I think is appropriate given the context of the video. It's actually a little more raw and gritty than what I was expecting to have happen, so it wins a few style points in my book. This was a great video, and I'm totally going to check out Britty's other work in the future.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.Filed under: WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Dawts Jan 29th 2010 12:15PM
I was hoping he would be a DK or something. Story was a little too emo for me at the end.
FishXXIII Jan 29th 2010 12:28PM
You thought he would trade in his wife for a new ghoulfriend?
staticlie Jan 29th 2010 12:16PM
Pretty much what I expected. Had to watch without sound, she has talent but this video is not to my liking.
Dragonrose Jan 29th 2010 2:24PM
I'm glad I wasn't the only one, but in my case, I liked the video. Just not the song. I mean, I liked the song until most "sentimental" videos out there started using it as soundtrack...
donatilh Jan 29th 2010 12:22PM
Wow. A very excellent video. Britty's approach is really refreshing and the emotional impact is quite overwhelming! Great job!
dawnseven Jan 29th 2010 12:24PM
Wow. After Looking for Group, that just depressed the living crap outta me.
Mutak Jan 29th 2010 12:27PM
You totally fooled me man - i would never have guessed that the name "Michael Gray" belonged to a young teen emo.
mihai_thats_me Jan 30th 2010 4:06AM
Being able to understand and appreciate art that doesen't have a happy ending full with rainbows and unicorns doesen't mean Michael is an emo teen, it means you should switch your TV from Disney Channel and watch some true movies.
Mutak Feb 1st 2010 12:44PM
I probably deserve all the downranks for posting such a flippant and content-poor review, but this is to art what fanfic is to literature.
The "camera" work and effects here are actually pretty good, but the story IS pure teen emo. Love, love, love, cheater, imma kill myself and then he'll feel bad! There's no character development that makes me care about the characters or their relationship.
With live actors you might (but probably not) be able to get away with this because their expressiveness would give depth to an otherwise flat role. But flat character models combined with no real plot makes boring watching. The song cannot add emotion to an otherwise emotionless set of scenes. To top it all off, the fact that the gun model was completely out of place and the drawn-out shooting, falling body and flying blood scene completely blunted any possible emotional impact from the final discovery and the cheesy note.
You want to see art about personal disintegration, go watch or read "House of Sand and Fog." This is just a typical teenage suicide fantasy.
ladymasaya Jan 29th 2010 12:30PM
I have to admit that I decided to watch this because Evanescence was mentioned. :">
Unfortunately that particular song is frequently used with a cliche plot(I dont get why though as the song was said to be made for a friend passing in life but yeah I know it can be interpreted any way a person wants) that although is nicely executed(no sadistic pun intended) could have had potential to deliver a unique ending.
Honestly I was personally hoping the woman would go deliver some smack-fu to the mistress then to the male for the betrayel. Considering the main chara's angry face through out the movie she should have had more backbone to torture _them_ then to live on and so on! Would have made a better anniversary to sip a cup of wine while poking their dead bodies
Prissa Jan 29th 2010 11:14PM
After watching this I almost feel foolish to think this song is about the passing of a friend. That's how I always imagined it, but seeing the plot of this video combined with lyrics like "I've been alone all along", it just makes so much more sense to me to be a song sung by a victim of betrayal. Yeah the gun/suicide bit at the end was a bit jarring to the feel and look of the video but as Link Death says below, I don't think a can of whoopass would fit the general feel and image of the song.
Kalia Jan 29th 2010 12:33PM
Wow that was awful
Link Death Jan 29th 2010 12:43PM
I liked it, actually. And if you wanted the woman to lay down some smack on the girlfriend and guy...well, that really wouldn't have fit the music, would it? I'm no emo (whiny babies), but I enjoyed the video. Maybe the ending wasn't a surprise, but at least it didn't end in a pseudo-empowering feminist wet dream crap-fest like I was afraid it might.
Shawn Jan 29th 2010 12:46PM
At least it didn't have any Belfs in it.
cendrekai Jan 29th 2010 1:20PM
Exactly! I loved this video because they were not Bloodelves. Now if we can get some troll/tauren/dwarf love. And maybe some undead love were they are not rogues.
Shadowwind Jan 31st 2010 5:07PM
There are two reasons that most videos use Blood Elves.
(A) They're 'pretty'. And you have to admit, they DO match the prima-donna attitudes of many popular singers.
(B) They actually have workable animations. Blood Elves do not have more animations than most of the other races, but what they DO have are animations that are more fluent and don't contort the model strangely (watch the shoulders on a dancing female troll sometime, ouch), more facial choices, and just generally are more 'pose-able'. Those of you who've played around with the new profile images on the Armory may have noticed that there are any number of BE profiles that have interesting and dramatic poses, while most of the old races are a bit blah. I remember one NE on the forums complaining that she never COULD find a pose that didn't look stupid. Trolls/tauren/orcs/dwarves are literally harder to work with because they don't have the level of detail on them that BEs and draenei do. (Though on that note, why don't we see more draenei vids?) This is coming from a frustrated troll player, btw. WTB updated models, QQ.
dillene Jan 29th 2010 12:53PM
She used the gun on the wrong person.
jyorore Jan 29th 2010 5:10PM
Permanent solution to a temporary problem.
The animation was good and the story was clear though. And I appreciated it being a video with music, and not a music video.
Micheal Jan 29th 2010 1:04PM
That wasn't bad except for WTF IS A HANDGUN DOING IN THE VIDEO.
I don't like the song, but I appreciated the effort right up until that point.
Qot Jan 29th 2010 1:57PM
The handgun was distracting and unnecessary. It would've been easier (and more aesthetically pleasing) to cut away with only the sound of the gun cocking and firing, then reveal the aftermath.