The video starts with a whimsical stop-motion effect as an envelope slides into frame across a rustic wooden desk. Around the edges, child-like cut-out images of notepads and notebooks also slide into view. The envelope opens in a delightful jerky motion, revealing a stream of typed words as if the letter is being typed in real time. When the text lands on the word ‘Library’, it is enlarged and adorned with animated cut-out stills of a majestic oak tree, a snake, the planet Saturn, and a close-up image of bug wings.
As the video continues, the screen transforms into the vastness of space with the backdrop of a deep black material, emulating the vastness of space. In the dark sky, glittering cut-out images of tin-foil stars dance with a large cut-out rocket that zooms up off the screen. The scene transitions to show a grey lunar landscape with the black sky, a cute Jack Russel dog in a space helmet, and more shimmering foil stars; alien limbs are scattered across the scene and swirl together to assemble a green alien that waves as it settles at the centre of the screen.
A dazzling colourful bullseye of red, pink, green, blue, and yellow circles explode from the centre of the screen and playfully spins with the space-themed cuts nestled within the vibrant circles. The swirling spectacle then converges back to the centre, unveiling a cut-out of the Great Wall of China, with a cut-out of the pyramids in the background. Historical icons such as Shakespeare, Gandhi, and Cleopatra dance in place as a curious green T. rex walks jerkily between them. The video then shifts the scene into a deep blue as the ground transforms into a silver foil texture. Futuristic skyscrapers rise into the background, and from the centre, a quirky robot is beamed down holding an iPhone.
The scenery begins to drop away as sheets of white and blue graph paper swoop into view, framing additional cut-outs that gently rock in place, such as bubbling science beakers, a majestic dolphin, a kicking footballer, and a computer screen displaying funky text. In the centre, a happy child’s face smiles as the top of their head flips open, and the cut-outs joyfully jump inside.
The scene transitions to a stark, black and white room as two black walls and a floor fold into existence. Inside, a gloomy-looking child sits cross-legged on the floor next to a wooden chair as a dim, bare lightbulb dangles above. From the left of the screen, the cut-out of a young boy walks into view and consoles the sombre young girl; as they connect, the lightbulb bursts into a dazzling array of bright pink, blue, purple, and yellow light, transforming the room up into a bright space, and making the gloomy girl also colourful, and smiling.
The dark walls and floor fall away as a beautiful image of a lush, green field rises from below, transporting the children outdoors. An adult figure glides into the scene from the right and guides them through a pulsating doorway that cycles through an array of cheerful colours such as blue, pink, green, and yellow. As they pass through, a brilliant rainbow appears in the distance as towering sunflowers spring up from the bottom of the screen; soft, green vines decorate the outer edges, along with the previous cutouts of the space scene, futuristic scene, and historical figures.
Towards the end of the video, the word ‘LIFE’ expands across the screen, and it fades away. The scene is back at the beginning with the wooden desk, the notebook cut-outs, and the letter. At the bottom of the letter, a signature is signed with flowing cursive writing, and once it is complete, the cut-outs joyfully fall away, leaving behind only the beautiful sunflowers. The letter folds itself away in a playful, jerky manner as an iPad slides into view. On the screen of the iPad, details about the Library Letters website appear along with the hashtag Library Letters; along the bottom of the iPad screen, a heartfelt shout-out to the artist Isaac Asimov appears.
