Childlike animation brings rap lyrics to vibrant life

Overture is a brand and concept established by Jason & Aya Brown. They describe themselves as two dreamers letting their thoughts overlap and mingle to realise the ideas and goals of their own imagination as well as those of their clients. And they've created a world of trademark surreal characters that are used to animate commercials, film festivals and music videos.

'Mr Sandman' is their most recent animation project and it gave them the chance to combine children's television-style cartoon characters with live action.

Lyrical synchronicity

The animation follows the Sandman working with his two helper Umbrella Girls and what goes on inside the big bag he carries. The action cleverly synchronizes with lyrics by The Kleenrz, a collaboration by LA rappers Self Jupiter and Kenny.

The beauty of this approach is that it gets you to listen carefully to the lyrics. This is something which can be difficult to achieve with music videos as often the action distracts from the song itself. (NOTE: said lyrics contain some swearing).

The Kleenrz seem to love animation too; check their website out to see their other animated videos. While you're at it, Overture have recently renovated their site, so that's also worth checking out for their myriad of illustrations, animations and regular blog reports, in both English and Japanese.

Words: Alex Williamson

Like this? Then watch these!

• The 20 greatest animated music videos
• The 20 best 3D movies of 2012
• The 10 best 3D animated graduation shorts