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Wild Brain Spoofs Action Movies in Coke Campaign

Wild Brain director Gordon Clark recently completed NINJA, the second animated spot in a comedic campaign for Coca-Cola via Z Publicidad/Mexico. The first spot, BULLFIGHT aired last month and NINJA began airing this month. The two :30 spots are geared to a Spanish-speaking audience and are currently airing throughout Latin America.

Wild Brain used a loose, painterly technique with watercolor textures in the animation. They wanted the characters to look cartoon-like while maintaining a more adult vibe.

Z Publicidad wanted the spots to be funny for grown ups as well as kids, explained Clark. They gave us witty scripts and allowed us the freedom to create. Because there are so many clichés in macho action movies, it was a challenge to cut down our spoof ideas.

Horns blow and roses fall from the stands in BULLFIGHT as a matador stands fit for battle. In one corner a black bull busts through a door as another brown bull stands opposite. The matador finds himself surrounded by two teams of bulls and the crowd goes wild. Not knowing what else to do, he sits on the ground, sucking his thumb as the bulls kick him about. An aerial view reveals a soccer field of bulls kicking the matador across the field. The sports announcers toast each other with cans of Coke and the spot ends with an animated bull bicycle kicking the matador and scoring a goal.

NINJA, an homage to 70s martial arts movies, opens with an army of Japanese warriors in training. A band of silent ninjas sweep through a forest of bamboo and confront the army. The master of the army pops out of his outfit and shows his fancy sword work but when he stops the army behind him falls the master accidentally split everyone with his sword! He runs screaming but quickly returns with geisha-like make-up and woos the band of ninjas by throwing them cans of Coke. The spot ends with the master and a ninja drinking Cokes amid a romantic flurry of hearts.

The spots were animated traditionally and inked with brush pens. The characters and background elements were rendered with U.S. Animation and then composited in After Effects.

Wild Brain Inc. (www.wildbrain.com) is an award-winning animation studio that develops and produces content for the global film, TV and commercials markets. Founded in 1994 by senior business and creative leaders Jeff Fino, John Hays and Phil Robinson, Wild Brain's client list includes Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Bros, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Oxygen. Wild Brain is also a top U.S. producer in the animated commercials sector, with a client list that includes Nike, Coca-Cola, Ford, Nabisco, Sony, McDonald's, Target, Nestle, The Wall Street Journal, Chevrolet, Mattel and Levi Strauss.

Bill Desowitz's picture

Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.

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