Synopsis

A colony of sea-floor sea urchins becomes an unlikely precision dance troupe in this playful animated video. Moving in synchronized formations, the tiny performers turn the ocean bottom into a stage, assembling and reshaping themselves in time with Javelin's upbeat electronic track. The choreography grows increasingly elaborate, with geometric patterns and Busby Berkeley-style spectacle transforming an ordinary underwater scene into a bright, surreal musical number. The video's handmade animation and absurd premise match the song's elastic, sample-driven energy.

Factoids & Trivia

• The performers are identified as the Sea Floor Sea Urchin Dance Troupe, giving the video its central visual joke and its deliberately grand theatrical tone.

• The animation was described as a Busby Berkeley-inspired number, connecting the tiny underwater dancers to the famous large-scale geometric formations of classic Hollywood musicals.

• The video was selected for the music video program at SXSW 2009.

• "Soda Popinski" appeared on Javelin: EP 1, released by Luaka Bop in 2009.

• The song's title refers to Soda Popinski, the Russian boxer from Nintendo's Punch-Out!! series. The character was originally called Vodka Drunkenski in the arcade version before being renamed for later releases.

• In an interview, Javelin member Tom Van Buskirk said he initially thought the track might contain a sample from a Nintendo game. The group checked with Nintendo and was reportedly told that using it would not be a concern unless the song became a major hit on the scale of a Jay-Z single.