Among the latest clay animation characters created by Bristol, U.K.-based Aardman Animations and brought to stop motion life is that of reggae singer/celebrity chef/entrepreneur Levi Roots whom we see barbecuing in the back garden of a Brixton, U.K. apartment house. All the while he’s singing a tune with such lyrics as, “Somebody put some music in the food for me. Give me some Reggae Reggae Sauce…Its so nice I had to name it twice, Reggae Reggae Sauce.”
This song first made a splash some five years ago on the U.K. TV show Dragon’s Den, helping Roots seal the deal to gain needed financial backing to launch the Reggae Reggae Sauce product, giving a Caribbean flavor and culinary kick to varied foods and recipes.
In this Aardman-produced TV/cinema commercial, Roots is accompanied by sausage, kebab and chicken drumstick characters who are singing and dancing to the beat. These clay animation food characters are swaying to and fro on the barbecue grill, anxiously awaiting being brushed with Reggae Reggae Sauce.
Not only the food but the neigborhood also starts getting into the musical flow as we see tropical trees pop up, propping up a clothesline, and a local resident or two enjoying the new flavor that’s come into their backyard.
Titled “Levi Roots Reggae Reggae Sauce,” this charming spot is part of a campaign from JWT London to make Reggae Reggae, which is established in the jerk BBQ sauce sector, more of a mainstream condiment and a kitchen cupboard staple. With this goal in mind, a new milder variant is being introduced to help extend the product’s reach to more households.
Tim Beard, Reggae Reggae Sauce’s marketing controller, explained why the company gravitated to animation and Aardman. “We wanted to show the sauce’s transformative effect, its ability to liven up any dish, and felt that that best way to do that simply was through the use of animation. Of course the best people for the job, in our view, were Aardman. We knew that they would be able to make the food look both fun and appetizing–and when it came to Levi, we felt that the Aardman team could create a Levi model which could truly bring out his character as well as capture his look and style perfectly.”
Two seconds per day
Directed by Aardman’s Merlin Crossingham, this :60 was crafted at the Bristol studio during a three-month stretch using 44 pounds of clay and 25 people. It took a team of six model makers four-and-a-half weeks just to create Roots’ claymation character. Those modelmakers were: Enty, Alexis Hoskins, Johnny Tate, Gary Losh, Sarah Edwards and George Watson. On average, it took the Aardman ensemble an entire day to create two seconds of filmed animation.
The JWT London creative team on Reggae Reggae included creative director Jason Berry, creatives Bruno Xavier and Christiano Neves, and producer Denise Connell.
Roots now joins a select group of celebrities–Melvyn Bragg, Barry White, Peter Gabriel, Nina Simone and The Spice Girls–who have been immortalized in clay by the Aardman animation studio. But at nearly 20 inches, Roots’ clay animation rendition stands as one of the tallest clay animation characters created by the Aardman artisans.
Aardman vet
Director Crossingham is quite a character himself, having been with Aardman Animations since 1996. He was a key animator for Aardman working on feature films such as Chicken Run, and Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Ware Rabbit. He was also the supervising animator for Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death.
Later Crossingham became a director and key animator of commercials and broadcast work for both U.K. and American television. He also co-directed the series Creature Comforts USA, which in 2008 won an Annie Award for Excellence in Animation in the TV category. Crossingham currently serves as creative director for Wallace & Gromit.
