Mario's Planet

The Young Commander of Starship Vienna

By AsamaTengu on 2006-02-11 06:24:14
The good: Very creative ideas, nicely executed.
The bad: As with many video bloggers, we'd like to see more from Mario than these few clips.

Review:
Mario's efforts show that low budget and dampened production quality (even a studio that consists of only an oblique nook in an attic) are not blocks to appealing videos. Commanding ideas win out. The few clips Mario has made show charm and clever execution. His "Pump it up!" episode in which he inflates an old, floral patterned air mattress is well filmed and well cut. Mario has a natural grasp of video editing.

But then, there is Mario's personality as well. It radiates with a sweetness that is too often lost to today's generations. It is not so much the theme in his "Test" clip of juggling balls, but Mario jungling those multi-colored spheres that makes the clip sparkle. See especially his original version of this clip. His re-make contains some good and some humorous comments and experiments, but the original is the museum piece. His good nature and intellect show through. It shows through again in that goodbye wave he gives us at the end of his "Pump it up!" work.

The one disappointment in this short volume of clips is Mario's drive through Vienna. Drive-thru videos like, "Quick drive through Vienna," are very hackneyed. They're easy to do, but hard to make interesting. It will take someone with especially keen instincts to breath life into the drive-thru "genre."

Mario is a gentleman of multiple talents (and multiple personalities, as we see in, "Multiple Marios"). I hope that this video artist will find the time to give us more. The brief voyages to "Mario's Planet" lighten the day and give the universe more stars.