Was looking for an appropriate Pokemon pic. I guess this will do. (Whoever drew this, plz let me know!!!)
We’re going to be a Pokéballer today it seems.
Sure, I may no longer be that interested in Pokémon anymore. Well, unless it’s something like Pokémon Conquest or a remake. But generally I’m aware enough about what goes on in the series to make fun of it. Or just think back to the olden days where I was a kid — yeah, you’ve probably heard this story from many people, so I’ll stop there. But I recently got word of a Pokémon Rap video. Since I rarely talk about fandom stuff, I decided to check this out.
In watching the Pokéballer, I found to be ok. Nothing spectacular, but it wasn’t terribly problematic and it had some laughs (though just seeing Professor Oak in the video was more than enough). Once I finished watching the video, I did a bit of a check on its origins and learned about the Second City Network. Not much to check about it: it’s a popular site that produces funny and original content from comedy writers.
So from that point on, it was figuring out how the Pokéballer got started.
“I wanted to be Misty since I was 10,” said Alice Moran, the writer of the Pokéballer. “I think the drive to write came solely from that.” After the idea was brought up and then approved, she wrote the lyrics in October. Recording took place in November, and that took an entire day. After that it was left up to Mike Fly and Khaus Schuller, and the video went live last Wednesday.
“We kicked around so many ideas,” she said as she discussed some of the issues working on the video. One was what would make it on the video, so that took a lot of re-planning and re-working ideas. “The first concept I pitched for the video was a remake of ‘We Can’t Stop’, mostly because I love that skull made of fries so much. I really wanted to make a Cubone skull and smash it (and then eat it).” But in the end, that didn’t make it into the final production. It was also quite different for Alice recording it. “I work in musical theatre, and I’ve rapped live before. Getting in front of the mic however was weird; you’ve got to bring the same energy to a room of 3 as you would to 300. It felt really strange.”
In the end, the video was shot and it’s live. I think that if you have 3 minutes to spare, you should check it out. So go watch it and tell me what you thought of it, good or bad!
