Music Video Analysis 1 "Walking Disaster by Sum 41"

This first analysis will be on the punk video "Walking Disaster" by "Sum 41".

The overview of the song (according to the lead member of the band "Deryck Whibley") illustrates his awkward childhood and how he reflects upon that, now that he is an adult. The song itself depicts his emotional journey through childhood, penultimately optimizing in realization to the fact that he has now grown up.
It starts this off with the verse: "Mum and Dad both in denial, an only child to take the blame"; this reflects on how his past is now damaged by his conflicting parents, and with the verse talking in a third person perspective, shows his vulnerability to the subject at hand.
"Walking Disaster" ends (as said) on a positive paradigm, with one of it's ending verses: "I can't wait to see you smile, I wouldn't miss it for the world", showing how he has now overcome the damage of his past, and due to his maturation into adulthood, allowed him to accept and fully understand his troubled childhood; enabling him to become enlightened and better for the experience.

Now for the music video; it was filmed whilst the band were in "Los Angeles" performing on Jay Leno, where the end product was then premiered on August 20th on MTV2.

The synopsis of the video itself, is that if follows the journey of a toy robot; more or less representing Whibley back when he was a child, with the robotic aspect making the character appeal to be humanoid: which will allow us to develop compassion for the character (as it is something that we can relate to) and the toy aspect to present it's childishness and vulnerability. It's actual size (due to it being a toy) really emphasizes the fact that it is a "me against the world" concept as he is small in an imposingly larger environment.
As we follow the robot, the band (Sum 41) are playing the song in a toy store, somewhere in "Los Angeles", as to allow us to see the origin of the music as to promote the band, reflecting how they might play at live shows (advertisement).
Due to the theme of the song, and the concepts presented within, it's presumed the the toy robot has run away from home, as he is seen rummaging around on the streets, acting over-the-top and carefree. His attitude slowly breaks down throughout the song, to show the sadder side of the character; as he is shown to have a rough time on the streets; in such situations where he is thrown away as garbage because of his presumed low worth, contrasting to perhaps a psychological aspect of how Whibley felt on a low basis between his conflicting parents.
Where the robot drinks alcohol, may try to present how Whibley tried to grow up faster than what he should have, as to try and be strong to resist the turmoil that occurred in his parents arguments.
Like the song, the video is also directed towards a positive ending, by first showing the robot character a ripped-apart teddy-bear toy upon his travels, which he comes across in a small out-skirt. This is symbolic revelation for both the robot and Whibley, perhaps realization or understanding, but what is certain was that the robot character decided to return home from the fear of the fact that if he continued going on alone, then he would end up as bad as the teddy bear (which is really emphasized by the out-skirt environment in which they're in).
Whilst this scene is occurring, the band are shown trashing the toy store. This is to represent the destruction caused by his parents fighting, as they proceed to even replicate ripping apart a teddy bear (like the one shown before). HOWEVER, when the robot returns, he is met with other happy robot toys, which symbolize Whibley's family, and how, despite the destruction in the toy store (representing the damage of the arguments on Whibley's Childhood) they are able to move on and be happier because of the simple fact that all of them are together.
Another way of showing how the present Whibley has overcome his past, he allows himself to be apart of; and represent the destruction of his parents conflicts, YET this nicely contrasts as he appears to simply be an older version of the robot character, as mere damaging of the store can be interpreted as a childish act, reflecting the inner child that is still inside Whibley.

It is not known whether Whibley actually ran away from home as a child, but it would be most probable that he didn't due to the circumstances of the music video. This would be best described in the terms that when he was a child, running away probably seemed like a good option to undertake, yet probably never gathered the courage to perform such an act, with this song, it's a realization for the lead member, that now looking back, AS AN ADULT, he is able to see how that would of made things worse rather than good, and how he has simply learnt from the experience rather than gaining the addictive habit of running away from your problems.