What is “Vewn”?

YouTube Review

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Loren Arzadon, Reporter

There isn’t really a real way to describe Vewn, other than a channel full of vibrant colored art and short clips. But, that’s just looking at it at a surface level. Created on September 19, 2015, Vewn is a YouTube channel created by Victoria Vincent, an artist who also sells her art on her store. As of September 19, 2019, the channel has 334K subscribers and thirteen short videos. 

Each video is bright and show “happy” colors. When watching them, they seem like they mean nothing more than just a pretty drawing. For example, Vincent’s first video, Pizza Movie, is just a short animation of a girl talking about how she makes pizzas and likes doing it for a minute and a half. But, there’s more to it than just pizza. Likewise, videos like Little Bunny and Bunnyrabbit are surprisingly not about bunnies and rabbits, either. They’re surreal and they mean more than just what’s presented at the surface level. They’re beautiful, yet terrifying, and everything has a purpose and a story. 

Cat City is Vewn’s most popular and longest video. It runs for three minutes in total and racked up two million views. Furthermore, it’s the sixth video on Vincent’s channel. It begins with a girl looking for her lost cat, and quickly transitions to the perspective of the cat as a runaway. He goes to a city to buy an apartment and get a job as a hairdresser. After he gets hired and does a good job, he goes home at night, counting his money. A scream startles him, to which he responds, “Hey, it’s not my problem.” Here the tone of the video shifts. The cat goes back to his job, comes home, hears the scream and then loses his sleep. This repeats over and over again, while the music and the scenes get faster and faster. The cat begins losing his mind, finding himself at a bar wasting his money on liquor and losing his job. Finally, he confronts the person who screams every night, a girl outside of her house who screams for no apparent reason. After telling her to “shut up”, he goes back home to find that he’s been evicted. With nowhere else to go, he hitchhikes back to his old home and owner. The music stops and the environment is soft and bleak. He knocks on the door, gets the courage to knock on the door, and is greeted with a hug. Finally, the video ends.

The beginning of his journey gives a happy tone and bright colors fill the screen. It makes the environment look like something created out of childlike wonder. The background music is quickly paced and bubbly, reminiscent of the soundtrack of Ed, Edd, and Eddy, too. However, the video quickly turns eerie, much like other videos on the channel. Floatland, another video on Vewn, starts off as an innocent view of a game, however, it turns dark as each level is progressed. Each video is somewhat similar to this formula. There is always a deeper meaning to each of the videos. Though the true meaning is never stated, Vincent leaves it to the interpretation of the audience, which is one of the most interesting aspects of the channel. For example, some people interpret Cat City to be about the journey of growing up, while others look at it as independence. However, there are other characteristics of Vewn’s videos that make it stand out.

Perspective and art style is a big, important feature in Vewn’s videos. Whether it be a change from person to person or a different camera angle, it’s done so in a distinct, aesthetically pleasing way. Vincent also utilizes messy lineart and vivid colors in her videos. It differentiates Vincent’s art from other animation big channels like Sleepykinq or 람다람/RDR. Furthermore, the “camera” perspective in all of Vincent’s videos also show the main character in a vast environment, or sometimes the main character isn’t there at all. In Agoraphobia, the focus of the animation is a dog named Claire, rather than the person who is talking throughout the video. By doing this, she builds the world around the story and displays her art and work. 

Furthermore, Vewn doesn’t really fit in a type of animation channel. Vewn isn’t necessarily a storytime animator like Jaiden Animations or a meme animator like Stariaat. There also aren’t many other animation channels like Vewn. However, it does not need a label to be an established channel. It’s unique and different, and that alone builds its role in Youtube animation. It’s a channel that’s like it’s straight out of a fever dream, but not in a bad way. It’s creative and uncommon, and that’s the beauty in it. 

On a scale from one to ten, Vewn lies in the around the eights. Vincent’s works are definitely eye candy, but it isn’t for everyone. Furthermore, Vewn’s upload schedule can make one forget that the channel had existed. But, it is undeniably a channel to look into and watch from every so often. It provokes a heavy thought process, but it is worth the time. Is it worth the subscribe and likes? Yes. It’s a pleasure to see once in a while and Vincent’s videos are stunning.