Channel Frederator Blog

These Gatorade spots are great. They have a feel similar to Disney’s Jungle Book. The new commercial campaign is from TBWA\Chiat\Day, and features a young Tiger Woods, learning how to be the best player he can be. Colonel the Grizzly Bear is based on Tiger’s own father, Earl. His voice is provided by Samuel L Jackson.

The commercials also features original music composed by Boosty Collins of Parliament Funkadelic fame, and includes voiceovers by Tiger’s swing coach Hank Haney and caddie Steve Williams.

The quality of these spots is amazing. I really like the way the characters look and move, and they do a very nice job of capturing the feel of a young boy learning about life.

-Floyd Bishop

It is storming outside my window, so I think I’ll stay in my toasty apartment and contemplate superb snowy art today. First off, a sensitive and atmospheric Lexus commercial by Yves Gelyn. Called “Bow Farm”, it was greatly inspired by the nature illustrations of Charley Harper.

Since the YouTube version has embedding disabled, you must go here or here to watch the full spot.

See the work of Charley Harper at The Online Home of The Charley Harper Art Studio.

And here’s a young artist particularly adept at the depiction of inclement weather: Joey Chou. While frantically trying to cover the floor of New York Comicon in a brief afternoon visit, I came upon Joey’s table (which he was sharing with Grace Lee).  This duo was my big discovery of the day. Here’s an example of Joey’s work:

After the jump, something by Grace with a winter theme… [Read more…]

The Superbowl is going to be on TV this Sunday. While the Superbowl is usually not an event that is considered a “must see” for many artist types, there are many animated reasons to watch this year.

First of all, there are the commercials. Even in such an economically depressed times, there should be many animated commercials. In other years, the Superbowl commercials have been like a mini film festival, with many different styles and techniques on display.

Secondly, we should be seeing a new trailer for the Disney/Pixar film “Up”. I would love to see something along the lines of the Mike & Sully through the closet door type of thing, where the trailer is not made up of content from the film. I think that tends to give away too much.

Another great reason to watch is the 3D trailer for the Dreamworks film “Monsters Vs Aliens”. Before the game, be sure [Read more…]

Happy new year! If you had a crazy night of celebration, maybe Speedy can help. Radio Actor, Dick Beals was the voice of Speedy Alka-Seltzer on the Alka-Seltzer commercials. Speedy Alka-Seltzer was originally known as Sparky, but the name was changed by a sales manager, Perry L. Shupert, to reflect that year’s promotional theme, “Speedy Relief”.

The Speedy Alka-Seltzer character was created at the Wade Ad Agency in 1951. The original working model was 6 inches tall and sculpted by Duke Russell. It appeared in more than 200 commercials over a 10 year period from 1954-1964.

I really like these types of ad campaigns.  Today’s mascots can all trace their roots back to Speedy and his peers.

-Floyd Bishop

I found this clip of various commercials, showing the CG steps involved with improving reality. Bunny heads, swirly water, and butt wrinkle reduction abound.

-Floyd Bishop

You have to see this to believe it. It is hard to explain without ruining it. If you are a YouTube user (and who isn’t), then you will want to watch this.

The marketing people at Nintendo knocked this one out of the park.

-Floyd Bishop

Check out this new series being produced over at Worldwide Biggies. On the Bubble is a news show hosted by four college kids - an anchorwoman (the only one that takes the show seriously) and three goofy guys. The series does a good job of mocking very current events, a special challenge for animated content. It’s great to see the Internet finally enabling us to break that barrier. The series was created by Adam de la Peña (well known for his work on The Man Show and Crank Yankers) and written by Glasgow Phillips (South Park) and is part of a Sierra Mist campaign.

All in all, the animators over at Worldwide Biggies have done a great job. It’s great to see some really nice art and animation on an Internet series that probably turns around an episode a week.

Above you’ll find a promo for On the Bubble that’s running on the front page [Read more…]

This commercial is a bit odd, but it works well enough. The set up is that babies used to get all of their mother’s attention, due to their soft smooth skin. Fathers have now discovered the Wilkinson Sword razor, allowing them the same smooth soft skin. What will babies due to get back the attention of their mommys?  The battle continues at the Fight For Kisses website.

I don’t know how many razors this will sell, but it is an interesting way to promote a product.

-Floyd Bishop

Back in the 1950’s, the Kool Aid man was not much more than a pitcher with a face. As time went by, Kool Aid Man gradually became a guy in a suit with an animated mouth. The commercials began to feature other animated elements as well. In a few of the commercials, Bugs Bunny and the Monkees even helped out as pitch men.

While I’m not sure the wall wrecking Kool Aid Man sells the powdered drink mix any better than his hand held ancestor, it was interesting to see the progression of the character though the years.

-Floyd Bishop 

I caught this commercial today at Jeaux’s personal blog. I’m always drawn to animators from the vintage years of Hanna-Barbera, but I must say I never thought any of them had made it into network commercials. Go Carl!

–Fred