Britney's New Video Is Here!

Wonder no more - Britney's new "Break the Ice" cartoon animated video has just been released, and it's everything it was cracked up to be, plus a little on the side. The video features a superhero, leather-clad Britney, living in an obviously futuristic world and fighting what looks like an army of mutant creatures, clones and robots. The animation style, evident in the choice of color palettes and figure characterizations reminds us of the avantgarde science fiction animated television series "Aeon Flux", which aired on MTV's Liquid Television experimental animation show in the early 1990s. Set to Britney's breathy, heavily processed vocals, the grim video paints the picture of a dystopia, a grim future world riddled with violence and mutant creatures.

In classic Britney fashion, the launch of the video was preceded by a "leak" (no word yet on whether intentional or purely accidental) - several still frames of the video in question were released yesterday by British tabloid The Sun and were quickly plastered all over the Internet. The idea of a cartoon video apparently came from Britney herself a couple of years ago, but didn't get the green light at the time. Britney's record label decided to go with the animated version of Britney's controversial self after the last two video shoots for the singer's most recent videos - "Gimme More" and "Piece of Me" - either became nerve-racking marathon shooting sessions, or they simply almost didn't happen.

For those of you who don't remember it, Britney had a meltdown during the shoot for "Gimme More" and ended up having a drunken, midnight pool romp with one of the extras from the video, who had the inspiration to take photos of the whole thing and quickly sell them to the highest bidder. It was on that occasion as well that Britney was said to have ended up in bed with her former assistant Shannon Funk. When the popwreck had to shoot the video for "Piece of Me" a few months later, she was 12 hours late and wrapped the whole thing in a surprisingly short time, fueling the rumor that the producers used a body double for the most dynamic dance scenes. The new "Break the Ice" video is mercifully devoid of any controversial background story (so far), and we can only hope it stays that way. After all, the last thing Brit Brit needs now is more drama.