New York-based animation and design house, So! much, has created a 3D animated 30-second spot for MCI Worldcom and Blockbuster Video. The "FreeFlix Follies" campaign highlights the free movie bonuses of signing up for MCI with a send-up of vaudeville shows. The commercial reunites Abbott and Costello-like characters Seymour the Movie Ticket and Answer the Telephone, which were created for a previous spot by So! much three years ago. "We’re really committed to marrying thoughtful, passionate design work with top-quality CG animation," says Jennifer Yeh, executive producer at So! much. "For ‘FreeFlix Follies,’ we wanted to blend the old with the new, not only by bringing vaudeville into the new millennium, but maintaining the successful elements of our original spots. That meant bringing brand new CG characters to the message already established in previous spots. We came up with a "show-must-go-on" concept and submitted a written treatment to MCI. Once it was accepted, we created a storyboard." To complete the vaudeville feel creative director Lauri Salladay designed and created title graphics in addition to hand painted vintage backdrops. The work was composited together using a combination of extreme lighting, heavily saturated colors and subtle visual effects in Avid Media Illusion. Rob Cazin and Salladay served as creative directors and Robert Vargas as animation director.