Life in a 3min video

Stunt

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2002
9,717
2
0
Kiwi Video

So this video was posted in OT but it hit close to home for me...
I think I'm taking it a little bit too deep; what are your honest thoughts on it?

All of us spend our lives fighting our flaws and working towards our goals. In the end we endure all our hardships for the one brief second of satisfaction. And then we die.

That's what I get.
 

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
10,973
14
76
Wow after watching that I just kind of paused for maybe 5 minutes. It does really put things into perspective...but I think there is one thing missing: it assumes that moment of satisfaction we get causes us to lead to our death. For some people...yes that might be the case. But when I think about it...most people struggle in life for just moments of satisfaction and struggle until the very end. Whether that "struggle" is a true struggle just to get through life (like people in 3rd world countries) or a continuous challenge that someone takes on....to be satisfied in life you really always have to work hard for something.

Maybe this is why the concept of an afterlife...a "heaven", is so appealing? Because it says that the struggle we embark on now will allow us to fly down the side of the mountain forever. Whether or not if it is real (and if it is- talk about a great way for it to become attractive to us), to me it definitely brings up the point of an afterlife. I hope for that Kiwi the mountain lasts forever ;)


That was a very good video...a very very very good video. This is the type of stuff I wish we could see out of hollywood - things blowing up, and people having sex on camera, and lots of stolen money simply cannot even come close to the message that was here
 

libs0n

Member
May 16, 2005
197
0
76
I didn't clue in on that he was nailing trees to the side of a mountain on first viewing. Why in this cartoon land does gravity exist on both sides of a right angle?! With that momentary bewilderment removed on second viewing, I could focus on the very touching plot. Tear jerking stuff indeed; I'd compare it's impact with the final scene in one flew over the cuckoo's nest and this terribly sad korean movie I once watched where the protagonist drowns himself when the town he's lived in all his life is relocated due to the construction of dam. A girl and heartbreak was also involved there, but I've purposefully forgotton the details as it was the saddest thing I've ever watched. Oh, and this short film I saw on that defunct CBC show Zed, where after being shot as an innocent bystander in a bank robbery, an english professor's last thoughts are about the perfect beauty of a phrase used by one of his childhood chums in a baseball game, the prompting for the discovery of his love for the english language.

I don't agree with your analysis. Kiwi thingy doesn't have wings capable of flight. His sole dream is to fly; the one thing he can't do he yearns for the most, and so he divises and executes an elaborate scheme to achieve that compelling dream, if only for a few brief moments. There's a catch however: It will kill him. He knows this and commits suicide anyways, for in those brief moments before he dies he will realize his dream and live. It's about a single compelling dream that the protagonist chooses to realize at the expense of his life.

That being said, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so it is with something like this.
 

Enig101

Senior member
May 21, 2006
362
0
0
Originally posted by: libs0n
That being said, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so it is with something like this.
I think this is a good point. The cartoon probably had either a very simple meaning to the artist, or something entirely different. You take out of it something personal to you. In a way that speaks to the animation's cleverness. I think it was very well done.

The meaning I took out of it was that if you work hard and use a little imagination, even an impossible dream can come true. I do not see any relation to death or the fact that for many, life is a struggle to have brief enjoyment, though I can understand how it could be interpreted that way.
 

Oblivionaire

Senior member
Jul 29, 2006
253
0
0
The way I interpreted it, he nailed just the one tree down that he knew he would hit, because he didn't want the tree to give way and not kill him and leave him crippled and suffering.
 

soydios

Platinum Member
Mar 12, 2006
2,708
0
0
Originally posted by: libs0n
Kiwi thingy doesn't have wings capable of flight. His sole dream is to fly; the one thing he can't do he yearns for the most, and so he divises and executes an elaborate scheme to achieve that compelling dream, if only for a few brief moments. There's a catch however: It will kill him. He knows this and commits suicide anyways, for in those brief moments before he dies he will realize his dream and live. It's about a single compelling dream that the protagonist chooses to realize at the expense of his life.

That's what I took from it as well.
 
Jun 27, 2005
19,216
1
61
I saw it as a very elaborate suicide. If the only way to achieve a goal is to kill yourself then you didn't look at all your options.
 

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,889
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: Stunt
Kiwi Video

So this video was posted in OT but it hit close to home for me...
I think I'm taking it a little bit too deep; what are your honest thoughts on it?

All of us spend our lives fighting our flaws and working towards our goals. In the end we endure all our hardships for the one brief second of satisfaction. And then we die.

That's what I get.

Very cute, profound and true.

Then answer me this.

Why are you working so hard personally to cut down the trees???
 

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,889
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: wazzledoozle
That didnt make any sense to me.

This is probably because you are too young to understand.

As you get older you will realize the important things in life and that varys by person what that would be.

In this case the Kiwi bird is not able to fly because their wings are too small.

Through hard work he was able to make his own happiness by creating the situation where he felt he was flying, then of course he died at the end which is the end point of life anyway.

You work hard, happy, then you die.

The trees represent work, hopes and dreams.

You can also make the argument that the trees represent the American Dream.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
74,768
6,770
126
Originally posted by: libs0n
I didn't clue in on that he was nailing trees to the side of a mountain on first viewing. Why in this cartoon land does gravity exist on both sides of a right angle?! With that momentary bewilderment removed on second viewing, I could focus on the very touching plot. Tear jerking stuff indeed; I'd compare it's impact with the final scene in one flew over the cuckoo's nest and this terribly sad korean movie I once watched where the protagonist drowns himself when the town he's lived in all his life is relocated due to the construction of dam. A girl and heartbreak was also involved there, but I've purposefully forgotton the details as it was the saddest thing I've ever watched. Oh, and this short film I saw on that defunct CBC show Zed, where after being shot as an innocent bystander in a bank robbery, an english professor's last thoughts are about the perfect beauty of a phrase used by one of his childhood chums in a baseball game, the prompting for the discovery of his love for the english language.

I don't agree with your analysis. Kiwi thingy doesn't have wings capable of flight. His sole dream is to fly; the one thing he can't do he yearns for the most, and so he divises and executes an elaborate scheme to achieve that compelling dream, if only for a few brief moments. There's a catch however: It will kill him. He knows this and commits suicide anyways, for in those brief moments before he dies he will realize his dream and live. It's about a single compelling dream that the protagonist chooses to realize at the expense of his life.

That being said, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so it is with something like this.

Yup, the Kiwi is a flightless bird so the only way he can fly is vertically. He had to create a vertical world to fly through to simulate the real thing. But, of course, as you will see in Kiwi 2, he crashed into a pillow.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
81
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: Stunt
Kiwi Video

So this video was posted in OT but it hit close to home for me...
I think I'm taking it a little bit too deep; what are your honest thoughts on it?

All of us spend our lives fighting our flaws and working towards our goals. In the end we endure all our hardships for the one brief second of satisfaction. And then we die.

That's what I get.

Very cute, profound and true.

Then answer me this.

Why are you working so hard personally to cut down the trees???

Agreed. He's a kiwi, a flightless bird. More than anything, he wants to fly. Since he can't acheive that through conventional means, he makes it so that he can get close to the feeling of the wind in his face, while he soars through the air, with trees whisking by. Since his wings can't do that, he uses gravity to get close, even if achieving this dream will result in his death.