Archived Reaction: Take On Me by a ha Reaction

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[@ElanurMH]

There are no special effects. This is one of the best music videos of all time. It became 6 MTV music awards and 2 other nominations. It took many months to draw over the real film material so all this comic effects are Handmade. Morten Harket, the vocalist of a-ha is one of the best singers in the music scene with his 5 octaves vocal range (and he was and still is one of the most handsome men existing 😊)

[@drigerdranzer7514]

Yes very time consuming technique to draw on the frames. I think it's called Rotoscoping if I remember it correctly.

[@SimbaOS]

@@drigerdranzer7514 You're right. It took months to draw over more than 10.000 frames, but they have created a masterpiece. Back then it was something never done and never seen before.

[@jaimealas3267]

This is a real video. The best of 1985 Pure sound, pure music

[@1teamski]

From an era when true talent reigned supreme.

[@michaelsodergren4993]

The entire video was filmed in real person then 2 artists took 4 months to hand sketch over 10000 pictures and then they were spliced into the regular film. Amazing for the time-1985. This video won several Grammys as well as other music and video awards. Prince later used the same tech in his video for Raspberry Beret!

[@glenbe4026]

That technology had been around for decades before the 80s. It was invented in the 1910s-1920s. It is just a very time-consuming, so traditional animation was preferred. Still a great video though.

[@ebashford5334]

Just to be clear though it wasn't the tech that blew our minds but the creative use of existing techniques. Rotoscoping had been done before since the 1930s in many animations to make movements more natural (tracing Disney cartoon characters over live actors in motion) but this style of deliberate sketchlike comic drawings for live action music video is brilliant. I vaguely remember seeing the exact effect used before Take On Me but the closest example I can think of is the movie "Tron" (a Disney film) from 2 years earlier.

[@alisonscott1469]

The keyboard riff was written by Magne and Pal when they were 14 years old and still at school in Morway. The used to play it with the band they had at school called Bridges but the song was called the juicy fruit song you can find it on youtube if interested. The band members are called Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, guitarist, chief songwriter also plays keyboards and drums. Morten Harket lead vocals Alsoplays guitar, piano, drums, and occasionally co-writes for A-HA and lastly Magne Mags Furuholmen lead keyboards, also plays guitar, drums and songwrites for A-HA. Take care 😘 ❤️🇳🇴❤️A-HA FOREVER❤️🇳🇴❤️ 🥇🥇🥇 🎸🎹🎤 🫠🥰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@kjellarnealden4610]

Morten got an insaine voice:)

[@linkloudenback8359]

This video was considered to be cutting edge for the times. It won several awards from MTV . The song was an okay song for the time but the video really made it more than what it was. I’m not saying I didn’t like it but it was a typical pop song of the 80’s by an obscure group that no one was familiar with. The video really helped the song. It’s just one of the things that really defined the 80’s. All you had to have was a catchy song, and a really great video and your Star. We’ll never be that way again.

[@martyjones8016]

They had this technology back then? This was the 80's not the 30's........

[@majorthombe]

Video/ song is from 1985

[@tosvus]

It's all handdrawn on top of the film. It took something like 12-14 weeks for two animators to do one frame at a time.

[@UTU49]

"Pipe... Wrench... Fight!" I love this song, but I also love the spoof version of it.

[@bensweiss]

And just imagine, in 77 the back motorcycle villain was in the bar in Star Wars saying "My friend doesn't like you..." I liked the song and listened to it on the radio alot, but never wore neon.

[@christopherhorton821]

All the parts that you consider special effects we not. Those parts were Hand Drawn on the film itself.

[@timmooney7528]

It's referred to as rotoscope animation. Back t hey used to painstakingly trace over live action footage frame by frame. The modern process can be done easily in editing software.

[@tosvus]

@@timmooney7528 Yet have to see anyone make it look as good as this though, while of course technically possible.

[@nathans3241]

I watched MTV for the first 10 years. This video is one of the best ever to be produced. After 1991, MTV was unwatchable!

[@mongooz24]

I know you/she didn’t say this in this video but she has before and so have other reactors about the darkness, scary, or deadpan faces, lyrics, etc in 80’s videos. What people who didn’t live through it don’t realize is that in the late 70’s/early 80’s was crushing economy and dying industries destroying cities, bringing despair and a cold war going on. Then when the economy got better we all feared nuclear war. This jubilance/emo/upbeat angst combination was our way of coping with it all…

[@MrSporkster]

'OK, but did the other customers not see her, like, go into the newspaper?' No. People are pretty good at minding their own business in Norway.

[@elvishemeon389]

Just imagine in 85 , I'm in my 20s and this was like one of the first music videos on what was MTV ..... This blew our minds !!!! The band was from Norway ... this was their big hit.

[@Scarecrow55491]

You gotta remember people didn't meet on the internet back then thats when people actually talked face to face , its a cartoon but you get the point.

[@Elena-in6uw]

Great video and song! Love this band then and now❤ If you want I suggest to you a lot of their beautiful songs : The sun always shines on tv, Manhattan skyline, Summer moved on ( live in Vallhall or for Ending on a high note 2010), Minor Earth Major Sky, Forever not Yours...

[@Cta2006]

Music video is 37 years old

[@Isleofskye]

March, 1985 so 38 years .

[@Isleofskye]

3,000 Hand Drawings by 2 Artists taking 5 months back then:)

[@glenbe4026]

They not only had that technology in the 80s, they had that technology in the 20s. Rotoscoping is a very old technology.

[@johnnie2638]

Not sus. We did have the tech back then to make this video. I remember when this video came out. It was all over MTV. Our 80s minds were officially blown. Back then MTV was a great channel with all the bands trying to turn out the best videos. Music videos back then were not just vehicles to promote the artist they were art in & of themselves and producers & graphics artists churned out all this concept art. A lot was mediocre but some shining examples of excellence broke through the noise & defined the decade. Like this one.

[@EgoShredder]

If you like this you will love the first few albums of theirs A LOT. The second album is full of dramatic catchy songs.

[@nicholasmaude6906]

The original version of "Take on me", Jim, was released in 1984 and the international version was released in 1985.

[@donmorton7282]

80s classic

[@davebarlow6457]

The Sun Always Shines On T.V is another great song by A.ha , definitely worth one of your reviews. Keep up the great work.

[@athensga4930]

Love memories songs ❣️

[@SandroRocha-uc3hn]

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😊

[@kissmy_butt1302]

This was done by one animator over the course of 4 months.

[@richardwani2803]

This video was way ahead of it's time

[@skinnyape.]

"Can guys dress like that again...please" 😅

[@guysan]

fun fact: the main female also appeared on a Billy Idol video

[@ingark913]

A-ha have sold over 35 million albums and they have a lot of hit song's so just dive in

[@MrSporkster]

Rotoscope for the win.

[@miamicool666]

A-ha.

[@razjavanic8878]

❤❤❤😊😊

[@TheLifesentence2278]

if you are doing youtube still you should do the recent live version.

[@williamjones6031]

If you're going to be a one hit wonder make it a good one. 80s European pop. Many of them were OHW. They did MTV got some bread and split.

[@sagr697]

Only 1 hit in the US, many hits in the rest of the world. Several albums

[@marjoriemcbride6557]

But not a-ha who are not one hit wonders… and who didn’t split, but had many other hits over several decades, 11 studio albums, 2 Guinness World records, and a James Bond theme to their name. They have now sold over 100 million records and are still performing live to sellout audiences on every continent, last world tour only ended in July 2022…last album True North released October 2022.

[@intothesunset3]

Many of them, like a-ha, were wrongly considered one-hit wonders in the U.S., even when they had two or more hits in the U.S. (a-ha had two top-40 hits in the U.S.) and tons of hits elsewhere.