This video by German based MuscleBeaver (awesome name, btw) is one the greatest things I’ve seen in a minute. If the idea of Mario and Ron Jeremy mashed up in an 8-bit world speaks to you in anyway, you’ll be with me on this. Get past the drawn-out Pong intro. It takes longer than you’d hope for to get going. But trust… it’s why I included the photo above. The ending to the video is the perfect bookend too—it definitely puts the intro into perspective. Think evolution. The animation was done was made to be an intro to a documentary about local German folk and their addiction to a massive multiplayer online role playing game that starts with a “W”. You may have heard of it. These guys truly did an amazing job on the editing and directing. It really hit you over the head when you realize that each character in this film was reinterpreted and redrawn, one pixel at a time, and animated frame by frame.

They’ve got a lot of solid work on their site worth taking a peep at. I definitely like their motion work more than their illustration, but I’m not disappointed by any of it.

Video Games from MUSCLEBEAVER on Vimeo.