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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.1 - April 1999

Commercials

"Peeps Choir." © Will Vinton Studios.
 (l. to r.) Noggin's "Brain Food" and "Bacteria" spots. © Head Gear.

Seeing Spots. Portland, Oregon-based Will Vinton Studios (WVS) has completed a CG-spot for Griffin Bacal's client, Just Born, featuring "Marshmallow Peeps." The 15-second spot, "Peeps Choir," which began airing on March 8, is the first-ever television commercial for the 76-year-old company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The commercial features marshmallow chicks and bunnies performing in a musical revue to a reworked version of "Rockin' Robin." "The challenge was...to give each Peep its very own, special personality..." commented Jill Bazos, Griffin Bacal group account director. "And in addition to their personalities, each Peep had to look beautiful, delicious and realistic." The spot was directed by Gayle Ayers, produced by Rachel Walchak (WVS) and Matt Hill (Griffin Bacal), and exec produced by Sharon Esposito. Animators were Allan Steele, Dyche Alsaker and Tom Sorem; technical directors were Clay Connelly, TJ Nabors and Jim Hardison. . . . Toronto-based Head Gear produced a program package for Noggin, a joint-venture cable network of Nickelodeon and Children's Television Workshop. The package, which utilized both stop motion and cel animation, consists of 3 ids - "Bacteria" (15 seconds), "Straw" (13 seconds), "Lamp" (10 seconds), - and "1-2-3 Sesame Street" (13 second show open), and "Brain Food" (18 second interstitial). The spots were directed by Julian Grey ("Brain Food," "Lamp"), Steve Angel ("Straw," "1-2-3 Sesame Street") and Neil Burns ("Bacteria"). Persis Reynolds was the executive producer of all the pieces. . . . San Francisco-based (Colossal) Pictures created a 30-second PSA for Partnership for a Drug-Free America called "Hombeez Bee-Ball Game." The spot, which will begin airing in May, features bee-like characters from, Hangin' With The Hombeez, a series of books written by Dann Gershon and illustrated by David Robinson. Music and narration for the PSA are provided by the well-known New York hip hop and R&B producers Full Force. The message-driven piece pits a group of Drug Bugs against the clean and sober Hombeez in a game of basketball, and the results are obvious. Credits for "Bee-Ball Game" are: Tom Rubalcava (director), George Evelyn (creative director), Jana Canellos (executive producer), Tom Rubalcava, Charlie Canfield, Alan Lau (animators) and Just Kid Inc. (agency). . . . Chicago, Illinois-based Tricky Pictures has produced a 20-second main title animation sequence for Nickelodeon's I Am Poem series. In addition, Belgian director and animator Dirk van de Vondel, represented by Tricky Pictures, was selected from more than 200 candidates to create a visual adaptation of "I Used To Be," one of the 15 poems in the series. Produced by Nickelodeon's Creative Lab to serve as interstitial programming, I Am Poem is a new series of short-form films based on original kids' poetry. The title sequence was produced by Dawn Rubin and co-directed by Tricky Pictures' co-owner Bruce Alcock and independent filmmaker, Ann Marie Fleming. Tricky Pictures' Harriet Katz was exec producer. Alcock, who conceived the main title design, oversaw the production which combines mini-DV (digital video) live-action, stop motion, CGI, paint, wood, plastic, metal, plasticine and other mixed-media. Vondel's sequence, "I Used To Be," is based on Kenseth Armstead's original artwork and designs, and features a blend of hand-drawn charcoal and dry pastel animation, which were later composited in Fractal Painter and Adobe After Effects. . . . Burbank, California-based Renegade Animation has animated a three-spot McDonald's campaign, "My Hero," "Napkin," and "One," which will air in Singapore. The three commercials introduce Fast Fry and Steam Marinate, two muscle-packed superheros who protect the universe from...dried-out fried chicken. The spots, which combine animation with live-action, were created by Leo Burnett (Chicago) to introduce the new Chicken McCrispy sandwich being tested in the Singapore market. The spots' animation director Darrell Van Citters noted, "They wanted hero characters, but they wanted them to be just a little off because they're selling chicken after all." Ashley Postlewaite was Renegade's executive producer. . . . New York-based Spontaneous Combustion created a 10-second animated logo for design company Number 17 New York, which will be shown at the head of all future Saturday Night Live (SNL) theatrical releases. It will debut later this year with the release of Superstar which features the neurotic Catholic schoolgirl Mary Catherine Gallagher, who is portrayed by Molly Shannon on NBC's long-running sketch comedy series. The opening is a dreamy and abstract representation of nightime in New York City with lights of different speeds, scales and densities resolving through to the SNL Studios Logo. Using live-action footage as reference, Spontaneous Combustion created all the elements in post. Representing Spontaneous was executive director/creative director/Flame artist Tony Robins, Flame artist David Reynolds and producer Danny Jones; while Emily Oberman and Bonnie Siegler, owners of Number 17 New York, served as art/creative directors, designers and producers for the project.

"Hombeez Bee-Ball Game." © (Colossal) Pictures. Fast Fry and Steam stir things up in McDonald's Singapore campaign. © Renegade Animation.
 Spontaneous Combustion's "SNL Studios" opening. © Spontaneous Combustion.

Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.