It's hard to believe that the original "Dumb Ways To Die" parody video was released 12 years ago! And it will pass 1.4 million views here in a few days - it still gets 1-2,000 views a day. Which is awesome.
The original was based on a very popular animated video from that time period for train safety believe it or not, you can check it out for yourself at that link. Awesome video and it inspired us to create an Eve-based parody. It was an awesome experience and a lot of fun collaborating on it with Sindel. I don't remember exactly why, but there was a lot of time pressure on us back during the creation of the original. Details like that tend to be lost to time. Other than the stress of getting the animation done, it was like being on fire. I think we both knew how popular this was going to be.
But it was and remains a parody. A really good one. But even back then I wanted another shot at it. A non-specific version that didn't rely on parody of a specific video created by someone else. Something a bit more original. Not totally of course, you can't shake the origins totally. But if I was going to create a homage (which is what I consider this to be) then I'd like to reference the Eve version and not the train safety video. Does that make sense?
It does to me. So the dancing pods return. I worked in many references to the original, from a single use of "oh crap" to using the original pieces of explosion art from the original. Otherwise everything in this sequel is original and created specifically for this 4k version. This version is not a parody of anything. This is a homage to the version we created 12 years ago. It is not intended to be "better" than the original only more modern, since it was created over the past few months. I've learned a lot over the past 12 years and this time - time was not a concern.
Some people might be angry with me that the new song was produced using AI and I get that. But I wrote the lyrics myself and I did use Suno to produce the final track you hear on the video. I'm not trying to hide that. Otherwise this video would not exist. There is no world in which this song could be created other than the way it was. This is one major reason it has been 12 years since the original was released.
If that is your hang-up then I respect that. I've been struggling with these issues myself. But let me ask you this before you pass judgement - I created every single element of this animation myself, hand-drawing all of it. The stage was partially based on something I created for the Eve Board Game that never got used. The animation itself was an insanely time-consuming frame-by-frame process of old-school "ease-in-ease-out" animation in After Effects. Does all of that work mean nothing? If the price is using one bit of AI created piece that enables the rest to work?
I don't believe that to be true.
My hope is that you enjoy the video and the song. It's a banger in my opinion and a true ear worm. We've been singing it around the house for weeks now.
I certainly don't pretend to know what will happen to this version. But I do know that I felt on fire again. And that was totally worth it.
Fly safe.
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