The Animation House in Toronto recently completed animation on Colgate Palmolive's latest 30-second spot titled "After Dinner Debate," by way of Canadian agency Young & Rubicam, Toronto. Styled after a 50's sitcom, "After Dinner Debate" features The Cuticles, a typical family sitting around the dinner table arguing about who is going to do the dishes. But instead of arguing about who has to do them, the argument is who gets to do them, because of course, the Cuticle family is a family of talking hands, and they all want their "hands" in the Palmolive.

Toronto-based animation company Red Rover Studios has completed a new animated spot for AOL/Moviefone via agency Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Airing in theaters and on TV, "L’il Red" is a twisted take on the Little Red Riding Hood fable, featuring "Grandma" wolf with curlers in her hair and large balloons standing in for her bosoms. Mad Dog’s creative team and Red Rover’s Andy Knight, who directed the spot, wanted to define the characters in a whole new way, giving them a more modern and up-to-date approach.

London-based stop-motion animation production company Loose Moose was responsible for one of the coolest ads that debuted during the Super Bowl –- the BRISK iced tea spot featuring a puppet uprising. The company’s latest commercial in the six year Pepsi-Lipton BRISK campaign for J. Walter Thompson, New York is a 60-second spot called "DeVito," starring a puppet Danny DeVito and featuring the actor as his own voice talent. Co-stars were the regular cast of BRISK characters including Burgess Meredith, Phil Morris (the "Jackie Chiles" character from SEINFELD) and James Brown.

With a brief from client B Sky B to create a composite of classic British rock icons, London-based Uli Meyer Studios has delivered Li'l Red Button Man, a rockin' 3D character who embodies the new interactive features of the network's digital broadcasting. The commercial begins with a track into a remote control on a coffee table in front of a wide screen television. The red button on the remote becomes the hair of the character Li'l Red, as he levitates out of the remote while the coffee table and wide-screen television become a rock stage. The music kicks in and Li'l Red comes to life.

A four-minute animated short film about the dangers of drinking and driving has been created to teach elementary school children about the importance of making the right choices when it comes to drinking. Stone Soup produced the film for the Texas-based Gulf Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Animated in a limited but colorful style, the character "Dudeasaurus," a half teen/half dinosaur, morphs into a super hero called MADDasaurus after saving a man’s life.

For General Mills’ new 30-second spot, "Skateboarding," ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, New York commissioned the artists at SimEx Digital Studios to complete 2D and 3D animation, compositing and editing. "Skateboarding" features the classic animated character Sonny the Cuckoo Bird and Cocoa Puffs cereal. As two young children watch Sonny skillfully control his skateboard up and down a half pipe he lets them know that Cocoa Puffs cereal will provide them with the energy they need for an action-packed skateboard run.

Digital effects designer Cassie Scroggins of Minneapolis-based Hi-Wire recently finished a complete visual identity, including a logo, program open, interstitials and graphical interface, for DragonflyTV, a PBS program created by Twin Cities Public Television (TPT). DragonflyTV, a new children’s program that began airing on PBS stations nationwide on January 19, 2002, is geared towards children ages 9-12 and features ordinary children and their own science investigations.

Berkeley-based Tippett Studios is the visual effects company behind Blockbuster’s newest advertising campaign "Carl & Ray," which premiered on Super Bowl Sunday, February 3, 2002. In partnership with agency Doner Advertising and director Steve "Spaz" Williams of Complete Pandemonium, Tippet completed six 30-second spots featuring the lifelike animated denizens of a pet shop across the street from a Blockbuster Video Store. Guinea pig Ray, voiced by Jim Belushi, and Carl the rabbit, voiced by James Woods, are the stars of the spot titled "Gotta Dance," which aired during the Super Bowl.

Visual effects and design studio A52 recently completed work on a series of 30-second spots for the FOX network, which debuted on January 18, 2002 and counted down to February 3, 2002, Super Bowl Day. The spots promoted the scheduled live Super Bowl performances of U2, Paul McCartney, No Doubt and other artists, and featured multiple layers of high-contrast imagery composited with text and other graphic elements. A52 also provided visual effects on the spots.

TV-Loonland subsidiary Loonland Animation in Budapest has created and donated a short film in support of UNICEF. "Cartoons for Children's Rights" is a UNICEF broadcast initiative that aims to inform people around the world about child rights. So far, the effort has forged partnerships with nearly 70 animation studios in 32 countries that have developed 30-second non-verbal public service announcements (PSAs). UNICEF distributes the PSAs to broadcasters for the cost of the tape.

J.J. Sedelmaier has taken the wacky sensibility of the SNL TV Funhouse spots (AMBIGUOUSLY GAY DUO and X-PRESIDENTS among others) and hit the links. In a cross-media marketing campaign for golf footwear and accessories company Footjoy, J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, via agency Arnold Worldwide in Boston, has created the "Golf Gods," who will be featured in four 30-second animated commercials as well as print ads, posters and on the Footjoy Website.

New York-based production company Dogmatic has created six Webisodes based on the new 90-second Pepsi campaign "Now and Then" that premieres during the Super Bowl on February 3, 2002. For the new campaign, singer Britney Spears travels back through stylized musical time inspired by Pepsi jingles from the last five decades. In the original Webisodes, Dogmatic used Flash animation to frame live-action behind-the-scenes and rehearsal footage and carry Britney from one era to the next via a Pepsi time-travel machine.

Film Roman Commercials has created a youth-targeted animated television public service announcement for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA). The 30-second spot was produced in-house by Film Roman Digital who utilized a combination of Adobe software, including Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects. The spot, titled "The Works" creatively illustrates how drugs can break down one’s body. Targeting 6 to 8 year-olds, it will begin running in pro-bono media in January 2002.

Los Angeles-based Hornet Animation along with New York production company SCTV has created some innovative pre-game intros for the New York Rangers hockey team that pay special tribute to the city of New York. Rangers game operations manager Ryan Halkett explained, "The goal for the Rangers’ opening video was to celebrate our great country and city, the fact that we play in Madison Square Garden, the Ranger’s organization and its players.

Playground, the recently launched digital design and production studio, has produced a fully computer animated television spot for information services company EMC that compares data management to a golf ball. Designed by Playground creative director Craig Price for Boston agency Arnold Worldwide, "Golf" debuted during the November World Golf Championship-EMC World Cup telecast. The spot begins like a sports promo as a golf ball arcs over the fairway. A closer look reveals that this is no ordinary ball, as its dimples are shaped like monitors and in a moment it has shot into space.

For Saatchi & Saatchi’s "Unleash the Power of the Sun" campaign for Sunny Delight, Charlex produced two 15-second spots integrating 3D animation with filmed action by director Michael Schrom. The fast-moving 15-second spots, called "Choker" and "Escape Artist," get right to the point, showing a chained beverage breaking loose from its bonds, and a straight-jacketed bottle escaping from its constraints. The spots, aimed at a "tween" audience, began airing nationally on December 3.

R!OT provided visual effects and post-production services for a new 30-second spot for Honda that delivers a message about the new Accord in two languages. Conceived by Los Angeles ad agency Muse Cordero Chen, the spot shows a red Accord gliding back and forth across a white background. As it rolls along, the car leaves a black trail. It's only when the camera pulls back at the end of the spot that it becomes apparent that the car's path had a purpose, as the black lines form an elegant calligraphy character.

NY-based design studio Pitch has created four :30 animated spots for the New York Metro. The spots use a ‘50s retro art direction with minimalist animation to illustrate the whimsical situations devised by agency DeVito/Verdi. For example, in one spot two men walk into a bar and marvel at all the women –- then realize the nightspot caters to lesbians. The spots all have a comedic element and wind up with the same message: Use New York Metro to guide you to the best bets in entertainment, shopping, food and recreation.

With award categories like "Your Song Kicked Ass But Was Played Too Damn Much" and "Is It Hot in Here or Is It Just My Video?" the 2001 My VH1 Music Awards is clearly not your average music awards ceremony. For one thing, it is the fans that call the shots: the category names, nominees and winners are all determined through an online vote. That distinctly democratic impression was enhanced by a graphics and animation package created for the December 2 broadcast by visual effects/creative design house, PSYOP, NYC. This is the second year that PSYOP had been responsible for the package.

The first commercial project from the newly-opened London branch of Wild Brain, Inc. has been completed. Created for Parfum du Coeur's Body Fantasies fragrance line, the "Just For Me" :15 and :30 ads began airing on November 30 in major markets across the United States. Produced out of Wild Brain UK, LLC conceptualized by WSAA, Inc. and directed by Mike Smith, the "Just For Me" campaign is animated using traditional 2D animation techniques, painted and rendered by hand. The images were then re-worked with digital effects and composited in AfterEffects, Flame and Edit Box.