The winner of the $100,000 Power Line Prize has been announced and it's a video called "The Spending Is Nuts."
The winning entry is receiving both praise and pans in the comments section of the post at Power Line announcing it. While I appreciate the hard work of the video's creator, the competition judges, and the Freedom Club for funding the effort, I have to say that I'm unimpressed with the first place product. And no, it's not because I'm bitter that my three-act musical called "Oh, You Crazy Debt!" wasn't chosen.
I've had a lot of first hand experience with animation and stories over the last six years and on both fronts "The Spending Is Nuts" comes up short. The animation isn't very good and most importantly, the story isn't compelling. I couldn't even make it all the way through the first time I watched it before pausing it and wondering when it was going to get interesting. That's a rather damning indictment for a video not quite five minutes in length.
Well-written animated stories can appeal equally to children and adults. This video reaches neither audience and even worse offers nothing that would capture the attention of the Millennial Generation, which was one of the stated goals of the contest.
Again, I'm not ripping the creators or the judges. I sincerely hope that I'm wrong and the video has a far greater appeal than I realize and reaches a broader audience. It just seems like with a one-hundred grand prize we would have ended up with something better. I guess money really doesn't buy much these days.
