Tennis, anyone? Used to be that this sport was considered a healthy outlet, physically and emotionally. But in "Racket Hands," a game of tennis spawns a monstrous inferiority complex, landing a player on the psychiatrist’s couch. "Racket Hands" is one of three animation spots in a campaign for the Wilson Triad tennis racket, out of Chicago agency Euro RSCG McConnaughy Tatham.
Directed by Bill Plympton via Hollywood-based animation studio Acme Filmworks, the commercials will be released on the Internet through the Wilson Sports Web site, www.wilsonsports.com. Plans call for one of the ads to also be shown on TV. At press time, which commercial will make its broadcast debut was yet to be determined.
Animated throughout "Racket Hands" are vivid drawings resembling those of a child illustrating his horrible nightmare. The spot opens benignly on a hand bouncing a tennis ball. That hand belongs to a player getting ready to serve, and we hear the player reminiscing in voiceover, "I keep dreaming about that match, Doc."
The doctor’s voice encouragingly responds, "Against your opponent, with the Triad racket."
Suddenly that opponent looms over the net, growing steadily taller until he towers like a giant above the court.
"Yeah, he was unstoppable," recalls the overmatched player.
The monster-like opponent sprouts multiple "tennis racket arms" and bounces back a barrage of balls at our cowering puny player. But the bullying has just begun. The relentless onslaught of balls breaks the little man’s racket, leaving him helpless and seeking cover. One of the tennis monster’s appendages turns into a tennis-ball cannon, shooting a seemingly endless stream of ammo—the final blast being a ball that plummets like a bomb. The explosion hurls the tiny man into the air, as if he were no more than a tennis ball himself. "Racket Hands" intercepts and smashes him off the court and out of sight.
A parting super against a neutral background simply reads, "Make sure it’s your opponent on the couch, not you." The end tag reveals the Wilson Sporting Goods and Triads logos, under which appear the words, "Power. Comfort. Control." Below these is a Web site address: wilsontennis.com.
The core Euro RSCG McConnaughy Tatham creative team consisted of creative director/art director Jeff Dechausse, copywriter Rob Powers and producer Elena Robinson.
"The agency had these psychological Freudian subconscious drawings," said Plympton. "The concept was not to make the drawings realistic. The artwork becomes more emotional and less rational as the stories are played out."
Creative director/art director Dechausse related, "What attracted us to Bill [Plympton] was his twisted and childlike sense of humor that is really geared for adults. At the same time he gave us simple yet thematically serious illustrations. Bill has a great sense of timing and comedy, and his passion for art and humor really brought the clear and simple ideas that we had, along with the characters, to life."
The Acme team supporting director Plympton included executive producer Ron Diamond, head of production Peter Barg, associate producer Holly Stone, production coordinator Rosa Grossman, Flash animator Andrea Breitman, offline editor/postproduction supervisor George Khair and digital supervisor Michael O’Donnell.
Jeff Charatz of The Filmworkers Club, Chicago, served as Fire artist. Audio engineer was Grant Martin of Another Country, Chicago.
