Lola Lefèvre’s ‘Ye Kou Si Kuo’ Is A Super Fun Music Video About Friendship

Every year, if I’m lucky, I see one, maybe two, works of animation that remind me of why I fell in love with animation in the first place.

Lola Lefèvre’s music video for Naive New Beaters and Star Feminine Band’s “Ye Kou Si Kuo” is such a piece.

The video has a bit of story – three girls wake up hazy after a party and recover just enough to start another round of partying. But more than story, this video has a vibe – specifically, a IDGAF-I’m-only-young-once messy party girl vibe that, though common in live action, rarely gets the animated treatment.

Lefèvre knows her way around direction and doesn’t miss an opportunity to stage a bold shot or camera move, including lots of close-ups that intimately situate the viewer into the action. The expressive chunky line used to render the characters is also used for the background line art, filling the screen with a dense tapestry of design that matches the richly layered sound resulting from a collaboration between two very different music groups – one a pop band from France and the other a teen girl group from Benin.

The video’s biggest accomplishment though is simply that it’s fun. From turning inanimate objects into characters to a Dayglo rave palette, Lefèvre is committed to packing in as much fun as possible into the animation, letting viewers experience the same joy as the girls in the video.

Lefèvre recently completed her studies, graduating from two French animation schools: Atelier Supérieur d’Animation and La Poudrière. Her first graduation film Maman, il a quoi le chien received a jury distinction at the Annecy Festival and a special mention at Zagreb Animafest in 2022, in addition to being bought by Arte. Her second graduation film, La meuf de Jay, can currently be seen on Canal Plus.

“Ye Kou Si Kuo” was produced by French animation production company Miyu Productions.