Katy Perry's 'California Gurls' Video: So Sweet It Hurts

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1641591/20100615/perry_katy.jhtml

Jun 15 2010
Katy Perry's 'California Gurls' Video: So Sweet It Hurts
The queen of 'Candyfornia' battles Snoop Dogg in a cavity-inducing fantasy world.
James Montgomery

As if the electric-blue wig, bedazzled bikini and chest-mounted frosting cannons didn't give it away, let me be the first to tell you that Katy Perry's "California Gurls" video is just slightly over-the-top. Like, all the way over it ... with whipped cream and cherry on top.

Yes, the "Gurls" video — which premiered Tuesday (June 15) on MTV.com — is three minutes and 54 seconds of deliciously gaudy, delightfully ridiculous eye candy, a sugar-coated overload of confectionery gone haywire, cotton-candy clouds, gingerbread paths and Gummi Bears with bad attitudes. It is bright and brash and very likely to give you a toothache. Like the song, there is nothing understated about it.

Directed by Mathew Cullen of the production company known as Motion Theory, "California Gurls" re-imagines the Golden State as "Candyfornia," a magical, cavity-inducing land where Sunset Boulevard becomes "Sundae Blvd" and the Hollywood sign rests on a whipped-cream mountain (the iconic Capitol Records building is also slyly inserted, constructed entirely of what appear to be vanilla wafers). Perry is the queen, parading down pastoral candy landscapes (which resemble the surrealist, saccharine work of artist Will Cotton, who actually worked as the artistic director on the video). All appears to be well until Snoop Dogg -- who plays the evil Sugar Daddy -- begins to pull strings, in an attempt to wrest control of Candyfornia away from Queen Katy.

From there, we have a battle between good and evil, as Perry attempts to free her Candyfornia cohorts from a variety of sweet traps (bubblegum, Jell-O, etc.) while Snoop readies his army of loyal Gummi Bears for the final showdown. Of course, there's also time for KP to ascend into the heavens, strip naked, suggestively nibble cotton candy and perform a dance routine with her Gurls — because what kind of pop video would this be if there weren't? Eventually, she climbs to Snoop's castle to do battle, vanquishing him and his minions by firing frosting from her chest, in a scene that plays out in gratuitous slow-motion, basically for the heck of it.

And then, at the clip's end, Snoop is buried up to his neck in sand, surrounded by Perry and her Gurls. Not surprisingly, everything ends happily ever after ... the Queen of Candyfornia is returned to her throne, the evil Sugar Daddy is banished, and dentists around the world rejoice, dreaming of the business this super-saccharine video will surely create. Brush twice a day, kids.

To see the video:

http://www.mtv.com/videos/katy-perry/527631/california-gurls.jhtml#id=1641622