SOL vs. Alpocalypse vs. MF

[Wolfman]

I hope it's okay that a newbie starts a new discussion topic. I have been thinking about these three video projects and was wondering what everyone's opinions are on this.

Back in the old days, Al would put out two high-quality, high-production-value videos for each album. DTBS, EW, and PH are exceptions to this of course, but all of the other albums followed the trend. For the past few albums, he has been experimenting with different ways of putting out multiple videos for his album, with varied results.

First, on SOL, he released a single high-end video, along with an assortment of 8 animated videos of varying quality.

For Alpocalypse, he again released one standard video, a quasi-live action video, and 10 animated videos again of varying quality.

This time, he stuck to simply 8 videos. Five were live action of varying quality, and three high quality animated videos. In fact, I dare say two of the animated videos (WC and LCTF) were better than some of the live action ones (SS and Handy).

Collectively, which of these three video release projects do you find to be the most successful? Or in other words, which group of videos do you think is superior to the other two?

[TMBJon]

It's a great question with a pretty easy answer - Mandatory Fun is head and shoulders the best approach of the three.

[Mystik Tomato]

MF is the end product of these video experiments and that's why it worked out in such strong favour.

[anthontherun]

Honestly, I think all of the MF videos are good, if not great. There's no "Pancreas" or "TMZ" in the bunch. The weakest one would probably be "Sports Song," but at least some effort went into producing it. There are some videos from Alpocalypse that I've probably only seen two or three times because they were so unimpressive.

[Wizzerkat]

MF is definitely the best here. White and Nerdy is actually the only truly high-end video(talking live action). Perform this Way was less high end looking because the budget was mainly spent on special effects. Through parterning with the various outlets, Al got good quality videos(not high end, but good quality) and created buzz in the process. And honestly, I would stack up the Word Crimes video against a lot of vids today in terms of overall quality.

[avesjohn]

In terms of overall music content, SOL is still my favorite album (among these three and perhaps even all others as well), but this is a poll about music videos, and in this case it's clear that MF is the winner, for all the reasons stated above.

[Well, Well, Well]

yeah this is a pretty easy answer: MF by far has the best videos. I think the more interesting discussion would be which of these three albums is better overall. "White & Nerdy" is probably the best lead single of the three, but I have a feeling Mandatory Fun will be a favorite of mine for a while.

[DiegoMcArthur]

Mandatory Fun is hands down the best with videos, but I will critique each, video by video.

"Straight Outta Lynwood"
White & Nerdy- One of Al's best videos, great production value/Direction, very funny, and lots of fun celebrity cameos.
Pancreas - One of Al's most pointless and laziest videos.
I'll Sue Ya - B Rate animation, the animators couldn't even get Al's band down, and mostly looks like flash cartoons.
Virus Alert - Not the best animation, yet again the animators couldn't get the band's look down, but I do find some sort of enjoyment in this video, I guess it just fits the song, and it does have some funny visuals.
Weasel Stomping Day - One of the better videos for the album, Seth Green's stop motion doll video and Al'a upbeat animal murder song really do mesh, quick, to the point and it works very well.
Close But No Cigar - John Kricfalusi's PG-13 animation goes together well with Al's song about romantic pickiness, the animation, the tone of the song goes well with the style of this and that's why it works as opposed to some of the quickly thrown together others.
Do I Creep You Out - Ok, this photoshop jibjab production is pretty much pointless, although it's pretty funny, I just don't get why it was made, every song doesn't need a video, especially if it's going to tone down the quality.
Trapped in the Drive-Thru - Doogtoon's animation for this video does work, and the absence of Al's image basically shows us a very average character, basically any person in a normal situation, nothing extremely wacky, but the animation syncs well and the sheer simplicity really helps the whole tone of the video.
Don't Download This Song - This video seems like unfinished pencil art, the animation tells a story that really steers away from the song within the first 20 seconds, the story we see is fun, but really doesn't work as a weird al video, even though it's nice to look at, it would be even more so of it was touched up.

"Alpocalypse"
Perform This Way - This video is almost perfect, but it has one problem, which is a relatively big one, Al's face is photoshopped on a girls body, which really waters down how fun this could have been of it were actually Al. This video is one of his better in his last four albums, but it is what it is.
CNR - Where Do I Creep You Out went wrong, CNR does totally right, jibjab gives us a very bad ass depiction of Charles Nelson Reilly and Al and Shwartz as The White Stripes.
TMZ - One of the worst Weird Al videos, this video is another bill plimpton unfinished art pieces that barely has anything to do with the song, it doesn't help that I don't care for this song too much either.
Skipper Dan - An ok, but pretty much pointless flash cartoon video to go along with the song, nothing really notable in here, just limited frames of animation trying to act out the lyrics.
Polka Face - First of all, Al's polkas don't need videos, that's for your mind to animate, this is pretty much a complete mess, it reminds me of that Star Wars fan made mismatch movies, it's completely mediocre and absolutely pointless.
Craigslist - Liam Lynch's Doors Style piece is one of the best on the whole album, starring live action al and very cool visuals, it is a great homage to The Doors.
Party in the CIA - Yet another completely pointless, flash cartoon video, super boring and pointless and I don't even know why some of these are even made.
Ringtone - One of the more tolerable animations, this animation is better than the others but the best, I could've gone without a video, but oh well.
Another Tattoo - This one is another pointless animation, sometimes it's not even fun to talk about it anymore.
If That Isn't Love - Another pointless animation, it's weird and dumb and I don't get why we can't use our imagination on some of these.
Whatever You Like - An ugly, creepy, weird, just no no no.
Stop Forwarding That Crap to Me - Just lyrics.

"Mandatory Fun"
Handy - The fact that this is supposed to look like an informercial, saves how cheap this video looks, I would have liked it to be parody of the Fancy video, but it's ok at best.
Lame Claim to Fame - The stop motion in this is perfect, brings back a real 80s vibe, very creative and lots of hard work put into it.
Foil - A pretty silly and fun video, sometimes odd, but better than some dumb animation.
Sports Song - This video is Al marching with a band on a field, that's it, nothing super funny, nothing special, just exactly what you think of when you hear the song.
Word Crimes - A lyric video that actually gives you something, fun animation, education, fast paced humor, one of Al's best animated vids.
Mission Statement - The video of a guy drawing on a whiteboard does give more insight on the song lyrics, could have been more inventive though.
First World Problems - Another Liam Lynch work for Al, seems very low budget, but they do great with what they work with.
Tacky - Very fun, all in one shot, great celeb appearances, much better than Happy.

[Yankomaniac]

Pretty late on this but voted for Mandatory Fun of course. Was a pretty tough call on Mandatory Fun and Straight Outta Lynwood, both are better than Alpocalypse but so different. I like the originals a bit more on MF but enjoy the flow of each equally.