Thriller!

December 19, 2004 7:36 PM

Michael Jackson's Thriller...in Lego form! This must have taken days and days to put together. For those of you who remember the video well, you'll be amazed. I love the Internet!
posted by braun_richard (33 comments total)

I don't remember Thriller having so many trees and flowers disappearing into nothingness.
posted by painquale at 7:56 PM on December 19, 2004

heh heh! that was pretty neat.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 7:59 PM on December 19, 2004

I remember the video well and wasn't amazed by either of them. Still, have to admire the effort.
posted by juiceCake at 8:06 PM on December 19, 2004

Wow. If you don't watch all the way to the unison dancing scene, you can't really judge this.

Great stuff.
posted by ColdChef at 8:17 PM on December 19, 2004

I'm always amazed at the amount of free time some people have.
Still, I can't wait to show this to my kids.
posted by davenportmom at 8:32 PM on December 19, 2004

The zombie dance was worth the wait. Thanks for this!
posted by carlitos at 8:33 PM on December 19, 2004

the big dance number is truely amazing
posted by tiamat at 8:47 PM on December 19, 2004

the zombie dance was the best part, but not really amazing.

my excitement for this was about a 10. the actual movie was like, 4.
posted by rxrfrx at 8:48 PM on December 19, 2004

Dear gods, that was awesome. The amount of work it must have taken to animate twenty-odd Lego figures in perfect unison... my faith in humanity is restored.

We should take up a collection to buy these kids a better digital camera, though.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:56 PM on December 19, 2004

Brilliant.
posted by johnj at 8:59 PM on December 19, 2004

I see dead Lego people . . . . Everywhere


posted by johnj at 9:04 PM on December 19, 2004

for the amount of effort put into that, i wish they would have focused the camera.
posted by nautone at 9:04 PM on December 19, 2004

Yeah, I hate to nitpick something that took so much effort. But the focus problems gave me a headache.
posted by jpoulos at 9:14 PM on December 19, 2004

the zombie dance was amazing. the synchronization of the figures with the foot stomping/dragging sounds is so good, you'd think this was the original.
posted by sachinag at 10:01 PM on December 19, 2004

Fark from a year ago called.

They want their link back.
posted by u.n. owen at 10:18 PM on December 19, 2004

Some people really have too much free time. : )

Still, this is cool. And the zombie dance is amazing.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:36 PM on December 19, 2004

Loved it, great idea. I'm with Faint of Butt for a new camera and many others with the focus problem. However keep it stiff, plastic and covered with interconnecting bumps!
posted by darksmiler at 10:52 PM on December 19, 2004

This suxx.
Great idea, terrible execution. The camera was out of focus and poorly positioned, and the editing was bad.
These are basic tools - it's like writing without learning proper punctuation or grammar. Feh.
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:52 PM on December 19, 2004

Legos is to Michael Jackson, as...

posted by insomnia_lj at 3:03 AM on December 20, 2004

insomnia_lj - now that's just icky ;-)
posted by Chunder at 3:36 AM on December 20, 2004

Spiderman: The Peril of Doc Ock in Legos was better.

At least, I think so...
posted by Samizdata at 3:37 AM on December 20, 2004

For those (like me) for whom Firefox 1.0F seems to dislike some embedded media, here is the direct .wmv link ...its 35MB but downloads quite fast.

Great animation, very poor camera work indeed.
posted by gren at 4:20 AM on December 20, 2004

Didn't the White Stripes do an all-Lego video? I think it was for "Fell in Love with a Girl"?
posted by alumshubby at 5:05 AM on December 20, 2004

Michel Gondry directed it, I believe alumshubby. They photographed the lego and made a computer model of it, which they then passed live footage to. The result was the video in which we see live footage aparently recreated with lego.
posted by asok at 5:30 AM on December 20, 2004

I remember the excitement of watching that video premiere. The details are a little bit fuzzy, me being only 8 or 9 when it came out. I recall it being a big event though. Perhaps one of our age enriched mefites can fill us in.

Nice effort with the lego people. I particularly enjoyed watching MJ-Lego turn into the werewolf, and the dancing was good as well.
posted by password at 6:09 AM on December 20, 2004

Asok, you're right that Michele Gondry directed it, but you've got the process backward. They shot a video, pixellated it, printed out each frame on paper, and then constructed actual lego blocks to correspond to each frame. Details (along with tons of other info on Michel Gondry videos) can be found here.
posted by yankeefog at 6:17 AM on December 20, 2004

This is great, its got an awesome Gumby feel to it, but the folks that made it didn't seem to realize you need a macro lens if you are going to get that close.
posted by sciurus at 7:55 AM on December 20, 2004

see the white stripes video here.

agreed about the focus issues — quite annoying. and the zombie dance was the best part. unfortunately i was expecting something more of the quality of lego spidey.
posted by howling fantods at 8:03 AM on December 20, 2004

Where'd he get the black lego people? I thought maybe he'd just coloured the yellow faces, but the hair's too good.

And while watching - damn, what'd MJ think having a four minute intro to his video with no music?
posted by Nelson at 8:34 AM on December 20, 2004

I've posted an edit of just the "dance scene" at the site that may not be mentioned. It's about 3megs.
posted by shoepal at 9:12 AM on December 20, 2004

I give it a 5 out of 10,

but, I still have never seen anything as good or clever as the MP and the Holy Grail scene done in legos.
posted by milovoo at 9:42 AM on December 20, 2004

thanks gren ... that was just what I needed.
posted by codger at 10:19 AM on December 20, 2004

It all sounded so promising, but the video is dead..
posted by mule at 3:38 AM on December 21, 2004