Supervising Animator
Posted:
Feb 7, 2012, 9:31 PM
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Met Life...Everyone
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The Super Bowl has gave us many good commercials, some good heart-throbbing plays, a controversial Half-Time Show, and did I mention the commercials?
Well...though I liked the King Elton John-Pepsi commercial, the Brown M&M (Now I can see why The Brown M wasn't shown until now...she looks naked), and many more. But the one that stands-out is this MetLife Commercial....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1RCplpVaQ0
This commercial features The Peanuts Kids, Pepe le Pew, He-Man, Speedy Gonzales, The Jetsons, Voltron, Deputy Dawg, Fat Albert, and many more. It's like one of the best commercials out there! It's like a-la "Roger Rabbit"...without Roger Rabbit and some other characters, but this is a great Super Bowl Commercial!
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Thank God for kids who love obscure things-Lee Hazelwood (1929-2007)
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Feb 8, 2012, 6:46 AM
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I was actually spoiled, as I saw the MetLife ad before the Super Bowl when it was leaked on Cartoon Brew. Anyway, it was a good commercial, but not especially exciting, since none of the characters actually did anything besides walk up to a point and pose as if for a picture, but then, it was only a 30 second ad, so it's not like I was expecting them to break into a splashy musical number or anything.
There a lot of characters present for the commercial, but there were noticeably no Disney, DC or Marvel comics characters present (not to be picky, but I would have chosen to see Superman, Wonder Woman, Goofy or Donald Duck over Squiddly Diddly or the Grape Ape in split second!), but the fact that this happened at all was amazing enough, since as we know, getting rival companies to work together is like pulling teeth: very hard.
I wasn't expecting to see, say, SpongeBob SquarePants, Goku from Dragon Ball/DBZ, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Powerpuff Girls, Dexter, Johnny Bravo or the My Little Ponies to show up (although it would have been epic if they had), but I'm somewhat surprised that FOX ddin't seize the opportunity to put The Simpsons in the commercial, or does FOX still choosing not to think of those characters as "toons"?
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Visit mine and my twin brother's blog. It goes down smooth.
www.astralcity.blogspot.com
(This post was edited by SpaceDemon on Feb 8, 2012, 6:58 AM)
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Feb 8, 2012, 1:58 PM
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The title of this thread is somewhat misleading, since the ad in question didn't feature every cartoon character by a long shot. Several Hanna-Barbera characters, a few Looney Tunes characters (though the Big 3 of Bugs, Daffy and Porky were notable by their absence), a small handful of Filmation characters, the Peanuts gang, Deputy Dawg, Richie Rich and Voltron, that's about it. All or most of these characters fall under the Time-Warner/Classic Media ownership/distribution umbrella, so it wasn't that much of a coup getting them all. (Note that WB only has limited rights to the Charlie Brown characters, mainly TV rights, which could possibly explain why Charlie & co. were only seen once at the beginning and never appeared alongside any other characters.)
It was a cute ad, though I would've enjoyed it a lot more if the characters actually, you know, said or did something besides just walking up a hill, but then, it was only a 30-second spot, and getting all of those various characters on screen together was probably expensive enough, paying to have them talk or do any action sequences would likely have sent the budget through the roof.
I also would've enjoyed the spot more if we had gotten some more relevant and noteworthy characters in place of 3rd stringers like Squiddly Diddly, Grape Ape and Atom Ant, and like Space Demon I personally would've gotten a kick out of some more contemporary toons appearing alongside the old-schoolers, but it's an ad for insurance, which is typically aimed at adults 40 and over, most people in that (my) age bracket are more into nostalgia and wouldn't know or care about most cartoon stars who've made their debut after the 80's.
BTW, did anyone else notice the animated versions of the Banana Splits in the final group shot?
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An unemployed court jester is nobody's fool.
(This post was edited by Starburst on Feb 8, 2012, 2:02 PM)
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Zinc Saucier
Posted:
Feb 8, 2012, 2:20 PM
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The title of this thread is completely accurate. It is the title of the commercial.
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Feb 8, 2012, 6:36 PM
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:^: Ah, OK. I didn't know that.
Now the ad seems to be running all over TV. Today I just noticed Jabberjaw and Casper the Friendly Ghost in it.
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An unemployed court jester is nobody's fool.
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Feb 8, 2012, 7:47 PM
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Wile E. Coyote is too much of an insurance risk.
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"Don't chew gum on camera. Don't whistle. You may kiss Bob Barker but please don't kill him." -announcer Johnny Olson briefing the audience of potential contestants for "The Price is Right"
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Directing Animator
Posted:
Feb 8, 2012, 8:13 PM
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I also saw this one before the Super Bowl. It's cute and I thought they did a good job with the characters.
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Supervising Animator
Posted:
Feb 11, 2012, 5:27 PM
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Now I know they didn't add everyone from the H-B Library like Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, or even the more obscure Loopy de Loop...but it's interesting that Deputy Dawg was in that commercial.
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Thank God for kids who love obscure things-Lee Hazelwood (1929-2007)
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Key Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Feb 11, 2012, 5:52 PM
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As was Underdog: front row center.
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Feb 12, 2012, 8:44 AM
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Just yesterday I noticed Penelope Pitstop and Cindy Bear (both present in the foreground in the final group shot) for the 1st time.
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Visit mine and my twin brother's blog. It goes down smooth.
www.astralcity.blogspot.com
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Feb 12, 2012, 8:47 PM
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Recently I spotted some of the Wacky Racers: the Slag Brothers in the Boulder Mobile (#1) and the Gruesome Twosome in the Creepy Coupe (#2).
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An unemployed court jester is nobody's fool.
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Directing Animator
Posted:
Feb 16, 2012, 3:11 PM
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I'm glad this commercial can be viewed on YouTube. By pausing, I could see that they were carrying Fat Albert. 
And speaking of MetLife, I noticed another commercial with Schroeder and his piano.
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Directing Animator
Posted:
Feb 17, 2012, 1:08 AM
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I still don't get the point of the commercial; are they saying that Met Life is available to anyone who wants to sign up?
It's interesting that none of the characters speak during the actual commercial; then again, paying all those different voice-actors might have driven the costs sky-high...
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"I'd like to cover you with furs and automobiles!"
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Inbetweener
Posted:
Feb 25, 2012, 5:08 PM
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The GAC forum is coming out in some of you...tsk tsk tsk. I wonder how many of us, ummm, them  are posting below that video. LOL somebody is down there trying to TELL PEOPLE THAT KING FEATURES AND UNITED FEATURES ARE RIVALS!
I think the point of the commercial was just to get everybody's attention. Like most SB commercials, selling the product isn't necessarily the point. The cartoons looked fantastic. I have watched the commercial many times and haven't spotted a single movie foul in the designs.
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Supervising Animator
Posted:
Mar 4, 2012, 7:32 AM
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The GAC forum is coming out in some of you...tsk tsk tsk. I wonder how many of us, ummm, them are posting below that video. LOL somebody is down there trying to TELL PEOPLE THAT KING FEATURES AND UNITED FEATURES ARE RIVALS! I think the point of the commercial was just to get everybody's attention. Like most SB commercials, selling the product isn't necessarily the point. The cartoons looked fantastic. I have watched the commercial many times and haven't spotted a single movie foul in the designs.
That commercial made me want to rewrite a script I had in the making called "Fantasy", It's Part 4 of a Fantasy Series I made from a guy named Ted. So whoever buys the script...can probably ask the studio library if I can have the go-ahead with using these characters.
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Thank God for kids who love obscure things-Lee Hazelwood (1929-2007)
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Zinc Saucier
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Mar 4, 2012, 10:57 AM
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Just to clarify, the Met Life "Everyone" commercial is just the first in the campaign. So far, there have been others- at least two using Schroeder (Snoopy, Lucy, and Charlie Brown are in the others). I have to assume that the rest will feature one of the Peanuts characters in some way, since Met Life has been using Snoopy since 1985. Additionally, there are several "behind the scenes" shorts on the web from Met Life featuring characters from the "Everyone" ad.
(This post was edited by krisAHQ on Mar 8, 2012, 10:09 AM)
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Mar 8, 2012, 7:10 AM
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Yeah, so far, all of the subsequent MetLife ads have featured only Charlie Brown and company. CB, Snoopy, Lucy and Schroeder almost exclusively. And Schroeder has yet to speak in any of the commercials. The writers could focus on some other aspects of Charles Schultz''s strip besides Lucy's unrequited crush on Schroeder, but then, those are among the few times when Lucy comes off as being semi-likable.
So far Snoopy has been surprisingly low key in these spots. He's just been "there".
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Visit mine and my twin brother's blog. It goes down smooth.
www.astralcity.blogspot.com
(This post was edited by SpaceDemon on Mar 8, 2012, 7:26 AM)
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