Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love Video analysis

Accidentally in Love was released in 2004 and featured in the film Shrek 2.

I think I might have preferred Shrek 2 to the first Shrek film, I liked the first and second film, I wasn't so keen on the 3rd and I thought the 4th film was a little bit better than the 3rd one.

This music video isn't really so much about Shrek as it is about an anthropomorphic rabbit who steals a mans girlfriend whilst the man makes her breakfast.





The video features Ashley Roberts from the pussycat dolls as the girl and Model Steve Vanda as the man.

The video starts with the woman a sleep on the bed with "stuffed animals", the man is sitting on the end of the bed watching the sequence that uses the song  in the Shrek 2, he gets up and goes into the kitchen.

She sleeps in her knickers (underpants) and a vest, he is also in his underwear so that would imply that they had sex, I presume that they are a couple and live together.(opposed to a one night stand but I will get to that later.)

Both the man and the woman are attractive, the man is fairly muscular and the woman is curved but slim, like the old saying "sex sells" the couple are very attractive and are possibly used to sell the song to the audience.

As the man leaves enters the kitchen he does a front flip, the maneuver is clumsy and he wobbles as he lands, the landing shakes the room and knocks a frying pan on the floor.
The sound of the frying pan wakes the woman, she looks irritated and pulls a pillow out from under the "stuffed" rabbit, the rabbit falls off the bed.

I think the man is meant to appear clumsy and over confident so that the woman is given a reason to find him unattractive.

As the rabbit hits the floor he starts singing to the girl, she isn't aware of his presence, Because the song is being played on the TV she doesn't realise the rabbit is singing the lyrics.

The rabbit enters the kitchen to find the man dancing provocatively and kissing his biceps, again he is shown to clearly over confident, he also seems to prefer dancing to cooking her breakfast so he is probably the sort of person who puts things off he is however kind, considerate and romantic to try to make her breakfast, even if that breakfast isn't great.

The man tosses some sort of pan or dish over his shoulder, the noise it makes as it falls on the floor annoys the woman.

I think the man must be a dancer of some sort, maybe amateur because he's clumsy but he can perform a flip which takes some skill, on the lyrics " Turn a Little faster" he perform a full turn.
The actor clearly has some experience in dance which is being used to some extent but there is a "awkward" look to his dancing, he knocks things over and throws things, the routine looks improvised.
He seems immature too.

The rabbit starts dancing on the table and the man drinks milk from the carton, that seems a little inconsiderate seeing as (if the apartment is shared) the woman might also want the milk, he means well and we wants to please his girlfriend but unfortunately he's just a little immature.

Shrek 2 is shown to be on the TV in the kitchen too as the man tries cooking eggs but he drops them,the woman reacts to the eggs being dropped. (I can't imagine eggs being dropped would be that noticeable unless the man had reacted loudly to dropping the eggs that maybe he could've annoyed her.)

The man picks up the eggs from the floor and puts them in a mixing bowl, maybe he's slightly stupid (because cooking egg you just picked up off the floor isn't a great idea) or maybe he is a little thoughtless.

He breaks a plate, everything falls out of the cupboard and he throws flour all over the kitchen and adds some flour to a mixing bowl.
I feel a little bad for him because I'm pretty clumsy myself, I've broken countless plates and everything falls out of cupboards when I open them, I'm not as bad as him but I'm pretty bad.

I think it's sad that it irritated his girlfriend that much but at the same time I can see how a person like that can be really annoying and for some people that might be a ground breaker but then again for others it might not bother them (well not as much.)

The man makes a her a drink in a blender and fry's the batter in the mixing bowl to make pancakes, the hob burst into flames, the drink in the blender over flows and the pancake sticks to the ceiling.

I wouldn't say he was really undomesticated because he knew how to make pancakes he just made a lot of noise and a big mess, he probably doesn't cook too often so maybe that could be another thing that annoyed the girl.

As the man waits for the pancake to descend from the ceiling the rabbit returns to the bedroom and the pancake falls on the mans head.
This shows he isn't the most competent when it comes to cooking, he also seems a little oblivious because he didn't react to the pancake falling on his head right away.(it also appears he isn't aware of the rabbit's presences.)

The woman wakes up to see the rabbit whilst the man tops the pancake with whipped cream, the woman is not shocked by the rabbit being alive which would indicate she knew he was alive.

The rabbit points his thumb into the direction of the window, the woman pulls on a denim mini skirt and they leave through the window and down the fire escape.
The man returns with the breakfast to find the bedroom empty, there is a closeup of a holiday theme photo frame with an old photo of the girl an the rabbit. (taken prior to the events of he music video.)



The Photo frame suggests that the Rabbit and girl are close, I would presume the rabbit was like a childhood toy/imaginary friend of the girl and that she choose the "old friend" over the good looking (albeit dopey) man.
I do think it's a little sad, the man obviously cared about her and treated her well but he wasn't as good of a match for her.

I don't think it's meant to be taken literally, i.e the woman didn't leave her home and her boyfriend for a stuffed rabbit. It's more conceptual than that.

I think she lived together with her boyfriend because while her "stuffed" rabbit and photo were in the apartment she left the apartment with the boyfriend so it would imply it was as much his as it was hers but because she wasn't feeling the same way for the man as the man did for her she left the apartment (and probably just to get away.)

I think the message of the video is that if you don't think the person you're with is the "one" or if you think you love someone else more you should probably leave them, I know that sounds cold but I think it's better for both parties.

The rabbit was probably meant to represent an old friend who the woman realised (in particularly when the man had annoyed her despite the fact he was trying to cook for her.) that despite her boyfriends kind nature there was something about his personality that she couldn't deal with and then noticed that she really loved the one person who had been there all along.

The song's message it's self is pretty simple, it's about falling in love accidentally.
The singer didn't intend to fall in love for possible reasons for example maybe there was a third or fourth person involved in the relationship, maybe he thought the woman didn't feel the same or maybe the timing was bad.
The songs message fits the message of the first Shrek film to a T.
Shrek wasn't meant to fall in love with the princess, he was meant to rescue her for Lord Farquard.
It was put at the start of the second film to show how the couple developed, it also explains their relationship well.

The song meaning and the meaning of the video fit well, you could argue that the Rabbit didn't mean to fall in love with the girl or the girl with the rabbit because she was in a relationship.

The problem with this kind of relationship break down, the kind of break up where one person has fallen out off love with the other there is someone who hasn't fallen out of love but I do think that sometimes it's better if the relationship ends. I would rather someone dump me so I could move on opposed to staying with me out of sympathy and wasting everyone's time.

I feel a little sad now, I made myself feel sad about a man who's heart was broken by a women who fell in love with a rabbit.
I'm my own worst enemy.

I would love to know what you thought in the comments, maybe you think it means something else or have some sort of information I'm missing.
If anything silly ever made you feel a little sad (like a rabbit/man/girl love triangle) please let me know so I don't feel so crazy.