Heath Ledger died so soon and yet was able to make a lasting imprint in the world of Western entertainment. For starters, Heath Ledger is and always will be the Joker to Christian Bale’s Batman in The Dark Knight. He also stirred controversy in the film Brokeback Mountain. Now almost more than a year since his death, we see another contribution in his legacy: an animated music video for the band Modest Mouse.
Before let’s roll off this discussion, better watch the cartoon animation-powered music video for the single King Rat of Modest Mouse:
If you watched closely, you’ll find at the end of the video the message: “This began with our friend, a great defender of life, and was completed in his spirit.” Heath Ledger and band member Isaac Brook had a conversation about the particular vision of the music video in January of 2007. This was actually a full year before his untimely death in January of 2008 in the young age of 28.
Before his death, Ledger was said to have fully conceived the motif of the entire video which features fishes fishing for men. The Masses, a film outfit which had Ledger as a partner, continued the work according to the vision of the late actor.
Animation was a central device to achieve the vision because of its quirky nature. In order to show the complete irony of it all, the characters of the fishes would really have to be rendered in illustrations. This enables them to turn the tables around by reversing the roles of the two parties.
Seeing a walrus eat a bowl of breakfast humans was a lasting image.
This may be a rare case of having a music video where the director is more popular than the actual band. But for this very particular case, it is worth the hype since it is the last music video opus of Ledger, an actor who is so dedicated in the entertainment arts that he even locked himself in his own apartment for weeks in order to internalize the character of his iconic role, The Joker.
Music videos, through the years, have fallen into a formula wherein the band singing the song appears on it and becomes a matching audio and visual sequence. Band mouths the lyrics of the song while the track plays. But there is such a potential for music videos to be a medium for art and complexity. The video here for King Rat is an example. It playfully treats the song as a background to the music video which has a world of its own.
The style of animation here is not even the typical cartoon treatment for child entertainment. It moves oddly and distinctly that it infuses a sense of psychedelic look when you watch it.
When music videos have a separate identity of its own, it makes it that much better for the viewers to remember the song. And with the success of music video networks such as MTV and Channel V, it shows that having an original and creative music video helps a lot to boost the stock of the band.
Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band which has been around since 1993, releasing a total of six commercial studio albums. “King Rat” is released on the band’s 2009 EP No One’s First and You’re Next. The promo also features the song “Fire It Up” from their 2007 album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Moreover, proceeds from iTunes video downloads in the first month of release will go toward Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
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