Vids › The Weirdness, Part 4

Of Monsters and Men – King and Lionheart

2013 · Directed by WeWereMonkeys (Marcella Moser & Mihai Wilson)

386K Likes

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Best comments

1.“Jesus, reading the comments, you'd think this song is the soundtrack to every tragedy that ever was.”

More comments

2.“People say they cry when this song plays, but it always makes me feel brave. Like I'm ready to draw my sword and face whatever comes.”

The story

A storybook kingdom gets overrun. Invaders called the Dwellers sweep in under a lead-gray sky and split up a royal brother and sister. A rabbit-like spirit guardian frees the sister, a spirit dolphin frees the brother, and he climbs into a four-faced rocket ship and blasts off. Then it ends on a cliffhanger.

The studio WeWereMonkeys, Marcella Moser and Mihai Wilson, built it the same way as the band's Little Talks video: live-action actors shot on greenscreen, dropped into painted 2D backgrounds and CGI, with the whole world in grays except ochre and red on the heroes. The colors get stronger whenever the spirits show up. Wilson did the matte paintings, Moser did costumes, and the finished piece made the SIGGRAPH animation archive.

King and Lionheart is from My Head Is an Animal, the Icelandic band's debut, and it hit number one at home in 2012 before getting a US and UK radio release in 2013. A song about two siblings promising to have each other's backs, set in a fairy tale that moves like a storybook somebody brought to life.

In my playlists

The Weirdness, Part 4 · #58

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