Looking for the right blend of kitsch, humor and holiday nostalgia for an Oregon Lottery spot during the Christ-mas season, agency Moffatt/Rosenthal, Portland, Ore., gravitated to director Chel White, a partner in Bent Image Labs, Portland. The ad shop sought out White largely because of a cartoon he did a couple of years ago for Saturday Night Live, which spoofed Rankin/Bass’ 1964 classic stop-motion animation Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
For Oregon Lotto’s "Island of Unexpected Gifts," White once again recreated the style and feel of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, this time with stop-motion gift characters. The commercial opens at the snow-covered North Pole. Our hero—a stop-motion "Candy Cane Cash" Oregon lottery scratch-off game card with tiny green arms and legs—enters the winter wonderland scene and is approached by a group of Christmas gifts.
At the head of the pack is a tie rack who introduces himself. "I am Tommy the tie rack," he says. "I organize ties." To demonstrate, the carousel on Tommy’s head spins his collection of ties around.
Next, a white plastic kitchen appliance steps forward. With the raspy voice of a seasoned waitress, she says, "I am Gladys the kitchen gadget. I slice, dice and julienne." The stainless steel blade in Gladys’ chest starts rotating, shooting carrot slices at two other gifts—a bowling ball and a birdhouse—standing nearby.
"What is it you do?" asks Tommy of the lotto game card.
"I smell," the card replies proudly.
The other gifts are appalled and back away. But all is forgiven in the end, when Gladys scratches the lotto card and pronounces his scent to be "minty."
While creating the spot, the artisans at Bent had to resist the temptation of improving the look with technology that has emerged since Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was made. "You have to put yourself in a certain frame of mind where you are not going for what is most beautiful or smooth," related White. "If you update it, it simply wouldn’t be as funny. We wanted it to look clunky and have this sort of naïve quality about it—the camera movements, the way things are framed and everything else relates to that genre. There are even things we did during the animation that I am not sure anyone will notice, but it is important to stay as close to that style as possible."
For example, noted Bent executive producer Ray DiCarlo, "when the carrots are shooting out, they are all on wires that you can barely see. We could have easily taken them out, but we [left them in] for the people who might be looking closely."
The Bent ensemble consisted of White, DiCarlo (who also served as producer on the job), DP Mark Eifert, editor Steven Miller, stop-motion animator Jeff Riley, art director/model builder Bartek Prusiewicz, model builder Scott Foster, compositor/clean-up artist Orland Nutt and coordinators Andrea McDowell and Michelle Nati.
Online editor/visual effects Flame artist was Mike Quinn of Mission Control, Portland. Colorist was Jim Barrett of DownStream digital, Portland. Audio mixer/ sound designer was DownStream digital’s Lance Lim-bocker.
Music composer/arranger was Jim Casella of Big Red Music, Portland.
