my personal lost media hunt

so.. wall-e, huh?

i was very little when that movie came out. and i was absolutely obsessed with it. i had the film on loop, played with the toys, and of course watched all kinds of youtube videos. clips, toy demonstrations, fan animations, and especially amvs. i had my favorites, to the point i now have the songs from them on my current mp3 player.. but one had illuded me years after the film came out.

it was called "robotic chemicals". it used various art pieces from deviantart, alongside promotional art. except for the title screen of the video which had random anime art. the song throughout the amv was chemicals react by aly and aj. in the credits of the video, ordinary day by vanessa carlton played. the video had a noticeable watermark by the original creator. i remember this being my favorite as a kid.. and it just so happened to be the one i couldnt find anymore when i remembered it years later. and so, my personal lost media hunt began.

the first lead i had was the song. i knew it was sung by aly and aj, so a quick skim through their discography was all i needed to find it. my sister also mentioned the song in the credits (which i had just completely forgotten about, somehow) and we managed to find it, since we also knew the artist for that one.

next- the watermark. i came across a video showing humanized wall-e fanart, that used what was clearly screenshots from the amv.. as it had the exact watermark. it said BIO-OKAMI.

i searched up the name, but it yeilded no results. with that, any names related to wall-e and/or chemicals react brought nothing. i searched through the playlists of channels that also made wall-e amvs and found nothing. i gave up my search, satisfied that i at least found the song. however, the video would forever haunt me.

it wasnt too long after that i got into lost media. things that may never be found again, but could also still be out there. everything from pilots, to games, and yes.. youtube videos. one specfic hunt caught my interest; super mario 64 big star secret. a screamer video that was a popular topic in 2020. the idea of finding a lost youtube video reawoke memories of trying to find that damn wall-e amv.

with my skills at finding things online growing from just looking up keywords on youtube and scrolling endlessly, i decided to continue my hunt.

i put different wall-e videos in the wayback machine. just to see what would show up. when i had put a clip of the ending in, and went to the oldest backup from around 2011.. i was shocked.

the video was there!

i popped the link into youtube, praying that maybe it was unlisted.. and was greeted with the sad reality that the video was no longer up.

however, i did find out the original creator is still on youtube. just not actively uploading anymore. ive decided not to try and contact them for the video, just in case theyre not comfortable sharing. however, if you're the creator.. and you somehow stumbled across this.. please know that i loved your video as a kid, but its your choice if you wanna bring it back!

and with that, i declared the case closed. a sad ending, but honestly i just wanted closure.