"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" (Alternate Version) [04:45]
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Video Information
This video for “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” was a traditionally animated video, done by a team of 72 animators working over 11 days. This version of the video was a version edited at the request of the censors at MTV. The originally presented video had a sign that read “Mister Pussey’s” and this has been replaced with a sign that says “Mister Swampey’s” instead.
The video itself is an animated version of Bono’s characters The Fly and MacPhisto as well as the rest of U2 in an animated Gotham City. The video is mixed with footage from the film, “Batman Forever” the movie in which the song appeared. Ned O’Hanlon discussed the idea to do an animated video: “The idea to do animation was the band. The script was from Kevin Godley and the rest was ourselves – with a lot of help from the animators Manga.They liked it too. No sitting around film sets! We had less that 4 weeks, the band had to agree to some B&W line drawings, some storyboards and a good sell. Animation takes a long time – we didn’t have that luxury! One of the best parts was calling up the movie director’s office and saying we want this bit, or that bit of the movie”
The video was originally completed with a sign that said “Mr. Pussey’s” during a brief scene that shows the members of U2 walking down the street before Bono gets run over by Elvis. The sign is one of many that is seen. This had to be changed for the censors in the USA. O’Hanlon explained, “MTV didn’t like Mr Pussy’s. We had to change to Mr Swampy’s on the day of release. Mr Swampy was Kevin Godley’s dogs name. FYI Mr Pussy won’t ever refer to MTV again.” The video was edited so this sign now reads “Mr. Swampey’s” but otherwise the two videos are identical. Ned O’Hanlon explains “It ended up in a reasonably shameless, but very rock-and-roll manner — when the video was so late, I literally ran out of an edit suite in London and jumped on the Concorde, as you do (laughs), to deliver the tape to MTV in New York for its world premiere the same day. And I had to bring it down for their legal people to look at it. And in one of the animated shots, there was a pan down as they’re walking down the street — as Bono’s reading The Screwtape Letters or whatever it was — there’s a pan down from a shop sign which, in America, says “Mr. Swampy’s.” In the original it says “Mr. Pussy’s.” There was a drag artist here in Dublin, and Bono and — it might’ve been the whole band — and Bono’s brother, Norman Hewson, were responsible for running a place called Mr. Pussy’s. So that was sort of an homage to Mr. Pussy, but it wouldn’t pass the censors in New York. So I had to go into an edit suite there and just change that to “Mr. Swampy.” Swampy was the name of a dog that Kevin Godley owned, a 3-legged dog that had died about three weeks beforehand. (Laughs)”
The original version with the Mr. Pussey’s sign can be seen in the video linked above, however it is the version with Mr. Swampey’s that has been released on the home video “The Best of 1990 – 2000”.
The video itself depicts two super-powered animated characters battling throughout a city. We also see U2 performing on an animated Zoo TV stage on a rooftop in Gotham City (complete with an animated “Riddler” running around). Batman and Robin also make appearances, but most of the animated footage is of “The Fly” and “Macphisto,” two onstage personas Bono had created for The ZOO TV Tour. In the video, “The Fly” starts out as a very angelic-looking Bono, complete with halo. He eventually turns in his halo for a pair of “Fly” sunglasses, which give him superpowers. We see him surprised by paparazzi at one point without his glasses, and he stumbles off the edge of a building. He is saved when an animated Adam Clayton tosses him his “Fly” shades, thus returning his super powers. “The Fly” also demonstrates some very Spiderman-like moves, including crawling down the front of a neon sign. In a separate story line, Bono is shown walking down the street with U2 reading C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, when he appears to be hit by a car driven by Elvis. We then see his body strapped to a hospital bed, where he dies. Suddenly, lightning strikes and Bono is transformed into “Macphisto.” His powers aren’t clear in the video, but he does have a rather cool winged car that he uses to chase the Bat Plane through the skies of Gotham. The animated Edge and Adam also have some fun shooting lasers out of their guitars at the Bat Plane as it flies overhead.
Manga Studios which originally worked on the video has become TouchWood Animation. The original studio, Manga Entertainment Ltd, was created in 1991 under the umbrella of Chris Blackwell’s Island International Group.
Additional Screen Captures
Video Credits
- Directed by Kevin Godley and Maurice Linnane
- Animators: Shaun Magher and Manga Studios
- Art Directed by Dave King and David Millgate
- Produced by Ned O’Hanlon, Dreamchaser Productions