Monsters University (2013) - Prequel Arriving June 21, 2013

Monsters University, Prequel to Monsters, Inc.

Monsters University (2013) is the upcoming animated Disney/Pixar prequel to "Monsters, Inc." (2001). John Goodman,, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, Frank Oz, Dan Gerson, Dave Foley, Jennifer Tilly, Julia Sweeney, Peter Sohn, Joel Murray, Ken Jeong, Rob Riggle, J. B. Smoove, and John Ratzenberger (of course) are all slated to voice Monsters University characters. Kelsey Grammer replaces James Coburn as Henry J. Watermoose, Chairman of Monsters, Inc.

Mike has arrived! Let the party begin!

"Monsters University" is being produced by Pixar and will be distributed by Pixar's parent company, Walt Disney Pictures. Once again, Goodman voices James P. Sullivan, Crystal is Mike Wazowski, Steve Buscemi is Randall Boggs, Jennifer Tilly is Celia Mae, Frank Oz voices Jeff Fungus, and John Ratzenberger is hte Abominable Snowman.

Reading on the green

Details about the plot remain secret. The film will be set about ten years prior to "Monsters, Inc. Sulley and Mike meet, become rivals, then join the same college fraternity and at some point settle their differences. According to Pixar:

"Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan are an inseparable pair, but that wasn’t always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn’t stand each other. Monsters University unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends. Screaming with laughter and fun, Monsters University stars the vocal talents of Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Dave Foley, Julia Sweeney, Joel Murray and Peter Sohn and is directed by Dan Scanlon and produced by Kori Rae."

Studious students at Monster University

The narrator of a television commercial says, promoting the "Monsters University" college:

"Your future is knocking. Open the door."

The spot was actually shown during California’s New Year Rose Bowl Parade, which takes place in Pasadena, north of Los Angeles.

Rowdy Frat monster

Georgian Progressive Metal band Mastodon have stated that they are contributing a song. Randy Newman is preparing the score.

Mike and Sulley get down

"Monsters University" will be accompanied by the short "Umbrella." Television commercials already are airing, and you may visit the Monsters University website. "Monsters University" will be in 3D computer animation. Dan Scanlon directs, Kori Rae is producing.

Below is the official trailer, and below that a television spot that began airing early in 2013:

2013

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Frankenweenie (2012) - Tim Burton the Reanimator Strikes Again

"Frankenweenie": Turning the Classic Horror Story into a High School Drama

The story goes that Tim Burton would only agree to direct "Alice in Wonderland" if Walt Disney Pictures, which owned the rights to his 1984 short "Frankenweenie," would permit him to direct a feature-length version of that work. As such stories go, it seems a little too good to be true, considering that "Alice" wound up making a billion dollars worldwide and "Frankenweenie" (2012) probably won't even make 10% of that, but he's Tim Burton and can do pretty much whatever he wants in Hollywood, so it is very possibly true. It is another stop motion extravaganza from the master of stop motion animation, so if you liked "The Nightmare Before Christmas" or "The Corpse Bride," this should be one that you enjoy. Burton has a very distinctive style that best can be called "creepy," so his films are best screened late at night when the wolves are howling in the distance and the moon is full. This is a take-off on Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," and, as always, Burton puts his own unique spin on the material.

Victor at the plate

Young Victor Frankenstein (Charlie Tahan) tends to keep to himself in the town of New Holland, so his father (Martin Short) encourages him to play sports and do other things besides scientific experiments. Hitting a home run in his first game playing baseball, Victor is thrilled, but his enjoyment ends abruptly when his beloved dog Sparky (Frank Welker) chases the ball into the street and is run over by a car.

Victor's classmates

Victor can't let go of Sparky's memory, so he digs the dog's corpse up and brings it upstairs to his attic laboratory. Adapting a science experiment presented by his science teacher Mr. Rzykruski (Martin Landau), Victor uses lightning to reanimate Sparky, who promptly sees a cat and bolts out of the attic and into the street. Victor's classmate Edgar Gore (Atticus Shaffer), who has a deformity giving him a hunched back, sees the dog and forces Victor to help him with his own reanimation project - a dead goldfish. Something goes wrong, though, and the goldfish doesn't just come back to life, it turns invisible.

Mr. Rzykruski

Edgar can't help but talk about the goldfish with his friends Nassor (Short), Toshiaki (James Hiroyuki Liao), Bob (Robert Capron) and "Weird Girl" (Catherine O'Hara). They are all fascinated and decide to reanimate other creatures as a science project.

Sparky

Victor's mom (O'Hara) and dad discover Sparky and almost pass out from shock. Sparky runs away, and the family winds up having to look for him. Meanwhile, Edgar and the others use his Victor's absence as a chance to steal his reanimation formula. Unfortunately, when they try to apply the formula to their own dead pets and other dead things that they found in the trash, they mis-apply Victor's work and turn the reanimated creatures into monsters: Weird Girl's cat Mr Whiskers turns into a vampire cat, Edgar's dead rat becomes a were-rat, and so forth. The monsters all break out and begin causing trouble in town.

The Master at work

Victor recovers Sparky at the cemetery, and while doing so he finds out about the monsters. Pandemonium follows as the monsters start exploding, dying and doing all sorts of crazy things. Elsa van Helsing (Winona Ryder) is kidnapped by Mr. Whiskers and whisked off to the town windmill, where she is held hostage. The town sees Sparky and, afraid that he is a monster as well, chases him to the windmill. The Mayor sets the building on fire, but Victor and Sparky enter it to save Elsa. During the rescue, Victor is trapped, but Sparky sets him free, only to be grabbed himself by Mr. Whiskers. The two pets thus are alone in the burning building, and it looks increasingly as if Victor will lose his dear pet once again.

Elsa - she looks a bit like young Winona, don't you think?

The release date for the film was pushed back a couple of times, but finally it was released on September 20, 2012. Most people seem to like it. It is loaded with references to classic movies such as James Whale's "Bride of Frankenstein," and the whole thing feels like a homage to great film moments of the past (the fact that it is in black and white underlines that point). Victor does not actually yell "It is alive," because that is too obvious, but he might as well have, seeing as how he is surrounded by copies of the equipment from the original "Frankenstein" film. Unfortunately, the flip side of that is what might be called a "lack of originality," though that really isn't the right phrase because everything that Tim Burton does is original. His genius, among others, is the ability to mix the profound and the mundane in such a way that mundane appears profound and vice versa. Here, the story is so well known that you sort of follow along, wondering what defining moment of some classic monster film Burton will lampoon next.

Edgar makes for a good Igor substitute

Danny Elfman does the music, which is almost a given in a Tim Burton stop motion film. It must be nice to have friends like that who will help you out with your pet projects! The voice actors are all top-notch. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter took a pass on this project, but Martin Landau, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara and Winona Ryder all do fine work. Elfman's moody score is very reminiscent of "Batman" and seems more repetitive than usual.

Mr. Whiskers and "Weird Girl"

As an homage, the film is brilliant. Fans of classic monster movies will have a field day picking out which scenes and movies Burton is referencing - and they sometimes are his own. As one example of this, Edgar makes a fine Igor. As an original form of entertainment, though, the film is lacking any kind of freshness. Everything leads nowhere, there is no resolution, no point, no real conflict - things just happen, people do quirky things, odd results happen from simple mistakes, and it is the usual parade of spectral imagery as the dead walk the earth and so on and so forth. By now, if you are a Burton fan, all that must sound painfully familiar. One hopes that he decides to expand his horizons beyond the "it's a thin line between life and death" mantra that consumes so many of his films, especially the stop motion ones. The mere fact that this film is so instantly identifiable as a Burton job is both the best and the worst things about it.

Tim Burton and his models

This one is for fans of Tim Burton and the stars. Anyone else wishing to see a quality stop motion animation project from the modern master of stop motion is advised to seek out his other such films listed above. It's not that this is a bad film, because it isn't - it's that Tim Burton has done it all before, better, and with more feeling, in films that aren't loaded with the equivalent of inside jokes for film geeks.

Below is the "Frankenweenie" trailer:

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Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) - A Disney Movie Gambling on Something New - And Very Old

Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Milo Under the Waves

Disney movies usually tackle fairy tales, or contemporary novels with cute animal characters, or something else that is extremely kid-friendly. With "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" (2001), directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise for Walt Disney Features Animation, a Disney movie did something else entirely. Science fiction stories usually appeal more to adults than children unless there is a cuddly robot or a high-profile princess or something added to bridge the gap (see Disney's own "The Black Hole" for an example of that). There wasn't anything like that in this Atlantis Disney movie based on Plato and Edgar Cayce, though, so the task of wooing the younger viewers fell to the spunky Michael J. Fox and company to create a warm and inviting atmosphere for boys and girls. Upon their success at doing that hinged the success of the entire film upon first release.

Milo meets the Captain of the Ulysses, Rourke

A tidal wave, triggered by an explosion, forces the evacuation of ancient Atlantis. The Queen of Atlantis is absorbed into a powerful crystal which powers the city and protects its heart. Her daughter, Princess Kida (Cree Summer), is left behind with the city. Atlantis quickly vanishes beneath the seas.

The sexy Helga

It is 1914, and Atlantis-specialist Milo Thatch (Fox) gets a lead on the location of a manuscript ("The Shepherd's Journal") which supposedly reveals the secret location of of the lost Atlantis continent. He is turned down by his employer, the Smithsonian, for funds by Fenton Q. Harcourt (David Ogden Stiers - his character's name being a subtle play on "Harcourt Fenton Mudd" of "Star Trek") to find it. However, a woman named Helga Katrina Sinclair (Claudia Christian - her character's name a nod to "Babylon Five") shows up and introduces Milo to the wealthy Preston B. Whitmore (John Mahoney). It turns out that Whitmore already has the journal and, purportedly as repayment of a debt to Milo's grandfather, offers Milo the chance to visit Atlantis once he translates it for him.

Commander Rourke

The expedition to Atlantis quickly sets off, commanded by Commander Rourke (James Garner), with a crew including: demolitions expert Vinny (Don Novello); geologist Mole (Corey Burton); medical officer Dr. Sweet (Phil Morris); mechanic Audrey (Jacqueline Obradora); radio operator Mrs. Packard (Florence Stanley); Cookie the cook (Jim Varney); and Helga. Their vessel is "Ulysses," a big submarine. They find Atlantis quickly enough, but the entrance to Atlantis is an underground cavern patrolled Leviathan (see "Farscape"), a giant lobster-robot. Leviathan quickly destroys the submarine. Most of the crew make it through the entrance to Atlantis.

Milo and the other main characters

The survivors hikes through the underground caves and finally finds Atlantis. Kida, the Queen's young daughter from before Atlantis, greets them. She is still young and cute despite being thousands of years old. The language of Atlantis is similar to modern languages, which derived from it, so there is no communication problem. Milo immediately comes in handy, because the Atlantis natives need someone to translate their writings, which no Atlantis resident can understand. This involves swimming down to Atlantis' submerged heart, the one that survived because of the crystal. Milo and Kida find that the crystal still functions down there to protect Atlantis, but it is getting worn out. A missing page from The Shepherd's Journal described the Atlantis crystal, and Milo wonders why it was removed.

Seriously, if I didn't know better, I would say this was something by Roy Lichtenstein

Milo leaves Atlantis and returns to the surface with Kida and confronts Rourke about the missing journal page. Turns out that Rourke indeed has the page and that the entire mission, known to everyone but Milo, was intended to recover the crystal and sell it. Rourke goes down to Atlantis to take the crystal, and in the process mortally injures Kida's father, King Nedakh (Leonard Nimoy). The crystal is beneath the King's Atlantis throne room, but when Rourke tries to steal it, the crystal suddenly merges with Kida because, as the dying King explains, the crystal has become sentient and seeks out Atlantis royals hosts with which to join when under threat. Rourke, though, does not care about the fate of Atlantis, so he decides to kidnap Kida, since she and the crystal now are one.

Kida, showing Atlantis to the crew

The crystal, of course, is required to keep Atlantis intact, so removing it would destroy the city. Milo argues with the mercenaries and gets them to change sides against Rourke. The Atlantis King also has a crystal, and before he dies he gives it to Milo in hopes Milo can use it to save Atlantis. A battle results, with Milo and Rourke facing off against each other inside a volcano with the fate of Atlantis at stake. However, the volcano erupts, and it looks like it may not matter who wins or loses, because Atlantis could soon be consumed by lava.

Can we sense "love affair"?

The entire process behind the creation of "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" was muddled. Disney once was a disciplined studio that had a clear mission and stuck to it. With the threatening rise of Pixar, however, and that studio's succession of blockbuster animated hits, the Disney brass became unnerved and went for more Pixar-like projects. At least, that is how it appears from the outside, because there is no other plausible explanation for the genesis of "Atlantis: The Lost Empire."

So, with the film industry ground shifting beneath its feet, Disney went with this half-baked idea conceived over a dinner table by the people behind "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," who were motivated to keep their jobs by moving on to another project. Rather than try to create another "The Little Mermaid" or "Beauty and the Beast," the studio green-lit a project with no clear intended audience in a genre it never before had attempted. One of the beauties of Disney movies, looking at their progression over the years, is their gradual, almost glacial evolution over time. That enabled the Disney movies to change remarkably little all at once, yet just enough to accomodate a changing audience that didn't even recognize anything had changed. "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" tried to accomplish about three decades worth of change in one gulp.

The Ulysses

With "Atlantis: The Lost Empire," Disney just about ditched everything the studio was known for except the process of animation itself. The problem was that with a reputation for making kid- and family-friendly fare, suddenly Disney with "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" was seeking out a whole new audience, one which wasn't particularly receptive to its charms. As one tiny example, Disney had an exclusive licensing agreement with McDonalds, which loved to promote Disney's films aimed largely at children. McDonalds did what it usually did and promoted "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" with Happy Meal toys and the like. However, there was nothing about this film to excite children, so focusing promotional activities on children was pointless.

Kida has an exotic look, but she's all girl

While Pixar or DreamWorks could crank out a "Toy Story" without too much trouble, Disney had a lot of baggage to overcome if it was to reach out to a skeptical new audience with something like "Atlantis: The Lost Empire." Good as it is in many respects, "Atlantis" failed to do that (competing against the new DreamWorks hit "Shrek" did not help, just as competing against "Home Alone" had not helped "The Rescuers Down Under"). "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" also continued an unfortunate Disney movie trend that began with "The Fox and the Hound" of making this a "message" film, the message this time being against greedy-pig capitalists with no respect for others.

Seriously, does anyone not love this guy?

"Atlantis: The Lost Empire" did not find its audience during its theatrical run, almost certainly lost the studio money on its initial release, and soon became forgotten by the general public. The skeptical part of the audience, just to be clear, is primarily boys who with very good reason think that every Disney movie must have a princess obsessed with all that yucky love stuff that gets in the way of the adventure. Another criticism is that Disney movies these days are brimming with political correctness which distracts from a good story. Girls, on the other hand, saw in "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" lots of gadgets and not too much of a high-profile princess, so....

Finding the crystal

All that aside, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" is not a bad film at all for girl or boys. Animators at three different Disney animation studios - Burbank, Orlando, and Paris - contributed, and it was shot in a wide-screen format which resembled old Cinemascope features of the 1950s and 1960s by auteurs such as Stanley Kubrick. The studio hired "Hellboy" creator Mike Mignola to give "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" a distinct visual style, and the pull-out scene at the end - showing Atlantis restored - is technically marvelous and quite breath-taking.

Kida, transformed

"Atlantis: the Lost Empire" is a Disney movie loaded with CGI, another departure for the studio. Problems arose because both 2D and 3D artwork was used, but everything was resolved through technical advancements. James Newton Howard composed the score, which is distinctive overall but has no individual songs on which the viewer can focus and start humming on the drive home.

Looks like more fun that my Jeep

The "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" actors are all very winning and amiable television veterans, mainly veterans of  (and I'm sure not coincidentally) science fiction products such as "Star Trek," "Babylon 5," and "Back to the Future." Claudia Christian of 'Babylon 5" voices Helga in a sensuous manner that gives her appearances some mystery, while Leonard Nimoy of "Star Trek" gives the role of the "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" King unexpected gravitas. Michael J. Fox of "Back to the Future" is a curious choice as the scholarly lead, given his "gee, whiz" delivery, but everybody loves Fox, so you can't blame him for the film's initial failure - but, much as we love him, the fact is that he is wildly mis-cast as the clearly nerdy character Milo.

The crew gets a view of Atlantis

Phil Morris as Dr. Sweet stands out for his rapid-fire line delivery, and John Mahoney gives the character of Whitmore enough energy to make it believable that he is not just a money man, but someone who actually would do some of the "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" dirty work himself. James Garner does a wonderful job in the first half of this Disney movie making Rourke amiable and paternalistic - all of which he then completely shatters in the film's final half hour. The Disney movie people obviously did a very thorough job of researching all that is known about Atlantis and incorporating bits and pieces of it in the script.

Atlantis restored

"Atlantis: The Lost Empire," as is so often the case with Disney movies, the studio recouped its fortunes after its release on home video, where it did gangbusters VHS and DVD business and almost certainly tipped the project form a net loss to a nice financial gain. There also are several enjoyable "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" video games, though most are out-dated by now. "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray on March 12, 2013, along with its sequel, "Atlantis: Milo's Return," and that should be a fun package to get for those who previously enjoyed the film or just the idea of Atlantis.

Below is the High Definition trailer.



2013

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The Fox and the Hound (1981) - A Heartwarming Disney Movie

"The Fox and the Hound": A Nice, Heartwarming, Uplifting, Dull Disney Movie

The Disney movie "The Fox and the Hound" (1981), directed by Ted Berman, Richard Rich and Art Stevens, marked a very subtle passing of the torch. Producer Wolfgang Reitherman, who had been an animator at Walt Disney Productions since the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" days and had directed every animated Disney movie from "101 Dalmations" through "The Rescuers," made this his last Disney movie, this time as a producer. He was still heavily involved in the Disney movie creative process, and even brought his son's pet fox in to help the animators model their characters. One of those animators was a talented young man just starting out named John Lasseter. Young Mr. Lasseter had his first animation assignment contributing to "The Fox and the Hound"'s climactic fight scene. Today, John Lasseter runs the whole animated Disney/Pixar Film show, just as, in his own way, Reitherman did in his day, and arguably is the single most powerful man on the creative side in animation since Walt Disney himself. Competition from the Pixars and the DreamWorks, the Rankin/Basses and the Ghibli Studios come and go, but transitions like that show the continuity at Disney and why it maintains its hegemony over the years. Disney thinks in terms of decades when other studios struggle to see past their next project.

Copper is so cuddly

Widow Tweed (Jeanette Nolan) takes in the orphaned red fox Tod (Mickey Rooney) because he reminds her of a child. Her neighbor, Amos Slade (Jack Albertson), is a hunter who around the same time brings home Copper (Kurt Russell), a hound puppy, to join his hunting dog, Chief (Pat Buttram). Tod and Copper become fast friends and intend to stay that way forever. They play together all the time, which isn't such a good thing for their owners.

Why, nice to meet you!

Slade places Copper on a leash because Copper always is leaving to play with Tod and is never around when Slade wants him. When Tod comes over to play anyway, he awakens Chief, who along with Slade chases him back to Tweed's house. Slade threatens Tweed and tells her to keep Tod away from his property. Tweed explains to Tod that dogs like Copper and Chief are born and bred to kill red foxes like him, so Tod has to stay away from them henceforth. Tod still wants to be best friends with Copper.

Could it be... true love?

When hunting season arrives, Slade goes out with his dogs. When they return, Tod goes to visit as usual, but Copper stiffly tells him that he is a hunting dog now, and he can't be friends with a fox. Slade and Chief find Tod there and almost catch him, but Tod runs outside. Chief chases Tod to some train tracks, but gets hit by a passing train and badly wounded. With Slade and Copper blaming Tod for the accident and wishing to destroy him, Tweed decides to leave Tod at a game preserver for his own safety.

Happy times for the Fox and the Hound

At the preserve, Tod meets Vixey (Sandy Duncan). Slade and Copper are determined to kill Tod and his new companion, so they enter the game preserve illegally and track them through the forest, setting traps. When a bear startles Slade, he falls into his own trap and loses his gun. Copper can't protect Slade from the bear, and things look bad for both of them. Tod intervenes to save them both, though, falling with the bear over a waterfall. Copper and Slade then appear, Slade with his gun, and it is unclear whether he will kill Tod or not.

Say your prayers, varmint

"The Fox and the Hound" was an adaptation of a 1967 novel by Daniel Mannix. Almost everything was changed from the novel, which was very dark with a lot of killings, but it did provide a central structure. Production commenced around the time that the previous animated feature Disney film, "The Rescuers," was released. The studio went through a lot of turbulence during this Disney film's development, as the old guard led by Reitherman was moving on and a new crop of animators was being ushered in. Veteran Don Bluth, who had played a key role on the animation of "The Rescuers," raided the Disney film animation ranks for his own new enterprise (which resulted in "The Secret of NIMH" not long after "The Fox and the Hound" was released), delaying release of the Disney film by a year as the studio rushed to train new animators. There were conflicts between one camp led by Producer Reitherman and the other led by Director Art Stevens, with Stevens eventually winning. Riven by factions, the studio barely survived the turmoil. In the end, the animation in this Disney film was of the usual high quality, but the harmony that had existed for fifty years was gone.

Do what I want or you'll be pushing up daiseys!

In terms of the quality of this Disney fillm, there are many who love it, and others who are bored by it. Unlike the animated Disney film features before it, "The Fox and the Hound" hammers home a message about how society shapes us into who we are and what we can do. Disney films aren't usually "message" movies, so it was somewhat surprising that the studio would go that route. One can read into this Disney film cautionary notes about prejudice and the importance of getting along. There are no tragic occurrences like in "Bambi," and it is a good family Disney film that makes some cry at the end in joy, not sadness, but there is an underlying sense of sadness that pervades this Disney film.

You can hear him cackling

A sequel, "The Fox and the Hound 2," was released in 2006, one of the last of the non-theatrical Disney film sequels before that process was terminated by Lasseter and the other reigning bosses at Disney. It covers happy times when Copper and Tod played together as youngsters, before the real world intruded. The Blu-ray edition came out on the film's 30th anniversary in 2011 and includes the sequel "The Fox and the Hound 2" as well as a lot of new bonus material.

That is a pretty cool bear animation

"The Fox and the Hound" is heart-felt and contains a strong message, which makes it ideal for the sentimental viewer and less so for those looking for a little unpredictability and adventure. It will make you think and relate to the characters in ways that are unusual for a Disney film. It isn't quite the classic that some would like to think it is, but rather a solid Disney film that lies somewhere in the middle of the Disney film pack.

Below is the theatrical trailer.

2013

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Norelco Santa Christmas Commercial

Norelco Santa Christmas Ad

The Norelco Santa Christmas commercial is one of the most successful in advertising history. Animation comes in all sorts of venues, not just films and television shows, and the Norelco Santa ad proves that quality animation can be effective advertising. The Norelco Santa spot is one of the most ubiquitous but little discussed instances of cutting edge animation. Norelco is the American brand name for the electric shavers and other personal care productions of the Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care unit of the giant Dutch Philips company. They adopted this name because, back in the 1940s, Philco objected that "Philips" sounded too much like their name. That problem went away many years ago (Philips bought Philco in 1981), but Philips has retained the Norelco trade name in the United States probably in no small measure because of the good will built up via the Norelco Santa Christmas commercial.

The Norelco Santa Christmas commercial has been running since the 1960s, but only hit its stride in the 1970s. During that decade, the Norelco Santa was one of the most advanced pieces of animation anywhere, and not just in television commercials. My personal favorite out of all the ads is the 1971 edition, which has turning snowman heads (including a female snow-person, in deference to who was almost certainly going to be the one buying the men their shavers) and an almost continuous Santa sleigh ride in the background. Later ads focused more on the actual products and less on Santa's sleigh ride - what nerve!

The Norelco Santa Christmas ad was the only animation that many people saw from day to day. In quality, the Norelco Santa Christmas ad rivalled the Rankin/Bass holiday specials and often aired during them (Rankin/Bass may have had a hand in making the Norelco spots, too). People would get confused as to whether the Norelco Santa Christmas commercial was part of the show, which is every advertiser's dream. In those days, animation on television was primitive, and it almost never was used in commercials, especially those targeted at grown-ups. Quality animation was not what you would expect to see during that commercial break when it was time to go into the kitchen and fix a quick sandwich.

The accompanying Norelco Santa Christmas Commercial jingle to some versions - and it sure was a jingle in different senses of the word! - went: "Floating heads, floating head, floating all the way/Norelco is the shaving gift to give on Christmas day." Apparently, the voice-over was by Peter Thomas (or maybe Art Linletter, they sounded alike).

The Norelco Santa Christmas commercials would end with the deliberate mis-spelling of "Norelco" to “Noëlco,” accompanied by the tag line, "Even our name says Merry Christmas." People "got" corny jokes like that in those days. Political correctness eventually put a stop to that version of the Norelco Santa Christmas ad. Those were more innocent and less culturally sensitive times.

Unbelievably, the Norelco Santa Christmas commercials are still shown in some places today. They do not have the same high profile as once they did, but rest assured that Phillips still gets mileage out of its razor-driving Santa.

The latest Norelco Santa ad rolled out in 2011. It is called "Santa's New Ride" and fuses stop motion animation with CGI. The stop motion elements for this recent Norelco Santa ad were created by BixPix, while the blend of CGI and the stop motion footage was handled by re-think studios. You may never see that ad, but it is proof that the Norelco Santa ad campaign not only survives, but continues to push the boundaries of animation technology.


2013

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