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| Spice Girls | ||
|---|---|---|
| Director(s) | Steve Box | |
| Length | 4:11 | |
Viva Forever is a music video by the Spice Girls.
Spice Girls - Viva Forever
Music video[]
Synopsis[]
The video starts off with a storybook about two boys who are assumed to be best friends, running around the woods when they encounter a case (similar to the case that is inside a Kinder Surprise, but life-sized) that opens by itself which reveals a toy chicken. The two friends chase after the chicken until they see another case, which the toy chicken bounces on. It opens by itself, and five fairies, the Spice Girls, come out.
While one of the boy runs away frightened, the second boy, presumably older, stays, and the fairies play with him, give him a kiss on the nose, whisper a secret, and other similar things. Then they fly the boy to another place in front of a medium-sized Rubik's Cube. The fairies dance on the cube, to the song, until the middle on the top opens. The BOY, assisted by the fairies, climbs inside. The boy is still inside the rubix cube over 10 years later.
Meanwhile, presumably younger boy sees the fairies about to close the cube. By the time he gets to the cube, his friend is gone, the fairies disappear, and the cube becomes toy-sized. He then walks in the woods by himself with the cube until he sees a giant coin-vending machine which contains other cases.
A blue light shines in front of him and he puts the now-solved Rubik's Cube inside a case and throws it in the coin vending machine and walks away. It ends with the four out of the five fairies flying in the sky (the Geri Halliwell fairy separates), following the boy. Although his friend is missing from his life, and the fairies lost a fellow (mirroring Halliwell's real-life departure), the friend and the remaining four fairies will keep the memories of them "forever".
Development[]
The music video, which featured stop motion animation of the Spice Girls (including Geri), as fairies, was directed by Oscar winner Steve Box of Aardman Animations. Box was the key animator on Aardman's film Chicken Run, which also used stop motion animation. For the video, he created five, 12-inch-high Spice Girl tin puppets with wings who coax one of two astonished real-life teens into growing up, and took five months to make, considerably longer than it took to make Spice World: The Movie. It was screened for the first time in the United Kingdom on 22 June 1998. The video includes scenes of Geri because it was commissioned months before her departure.
Interpretation[]
This video can be interpreted as one about coming to terms with the loss of a friend. Whatever the cause for loss, the person struggles with their emotions (represented by them trying to solve the Rubik's Cube). By the end, they have placed the cube in a case and placed it in a giant vending machine, which symbolizes that they will keep "forever" these memories as they move on. The video could be viewed as an interactive element on UK CD1, the first time this feature was available on a Spice Girls CD.
Trivia[]
- Viva Forever was the last video with participation of Geri Halliwell before their 2007 reunion and the release of their Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) single.
- Some people think that the older boy in the video is a girl due to him having long hair. However, this was clarified in an interview that he was a boy.