Forget necklaces, bracelets, and other useless pieces of "jewelry" your kid made you in art class that you'll never wear, using plastic beads for stop-motion animation is the way to go.

"Super Mario Beads 3" is the brainchild of Swedish video production house, Living Pictures  (or as it's called in their native tongue, Lefvande Bilder), four guys who apparently love video games and Swedish heavy metal as their resume includes entries from both genre's and even one that combines the two.

Blending elements of a variety of Mario-inspired games, including Mario Kart, and using the same plastic beads you can pick up at any art store to make refrigerator magnets or the aforementioned "jewelry", the group took everyone's favorite Italian plumber and put him on his never-ending quest to save Princess Peach in a real world setting which includes avoiding the minions of the series' bad guy, Bowser, on the sidewalk, in the park, and even at the grocery store.

What makes the video so impressive to me is that it's done using stop-motion animation which is the process of taking inanimate objects (in this case the beads) and moving them ever-so-slightly, stopping to take a single photograph of each pose along the way, then combining the photos in chronological order to make it appear as if the object is moving. Think of it like the flip book you made in the corner of your notebook when you were supposed to be paying attention in school.

It's a painstaking task that requires the utmost patience, something I assume these four guys have considering this video is five minutes long. Either that, or they have WAY too much free time on their hands.

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