A shiny red Dodge Journey crossover vehicle emerges from a home’s garage. Friends then climb into the vehicle.
But like the garage and all the surroundings, including the countryside itself, the driver and passengers appear in black and white. And they look like character drawings but are far more expressive than what is normally associated with that medium. We see them all interact with the features of the innovative vehicle, ranging from a refrigerated storage compartment to third row seating to the kids dueling on a gaming monitor, which also screens DVDs.
The Dodge Journey makes its way through the city, which we see both as the crossover vehicle zips along and from an overhead view. A voiceover introduces us to the Dodge Journey, an innovative new vehicle which underscores the slogan, “If you can dream it, do it.”
Turns out the hyper-realistic Dodge Journey is occupied by pen-and-ink textured CG characters traveling through a dimensional illustrated pen-and-ink world. This different, distinctively styled commercial came from the teaming of animation/FX/design studios Charlex in New York, and XYZ Studios, Melbourne, Australia, as well as production house The Ebeling Group in New York–all working in concert with BBDO New York.
Tim Kentley served as director/designer/creative director for XYZ with illustrations by Celeste Potter and character models by Jaime Fernandez.
Mick Ebeling and Dex Deboree executive produced for The Ebeling Group with Sue Lee serving as senior producer.
Heading the Charlex ensemble were CG supervisor Gong Myung Lee, VP/senior producer Steve Chiarello and co-producer Jennifer Scelia. Alex Cheparev was lead modeler, Stephen K Mann the lead character technical director, Antony Tabtong the lead animator and James Fisher the lead lighting technical director.
The BBDO team included chief creative officers David Lubars and Bill Bruce, VP/creative director James Clunie, creative director Michael Folino and senior producer Kevin Wilson.
“One of Them Days” and “Mufasa: The Lion King” In Tight Race For Top Spot In Weekend Box Office
The Keke Palmer buddy comedy "One of Them Days" opened in first place on the North American box office charts on a particularly slow Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
The R-rated Sony release earned $11.6 million from 2,675 theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, beating Disney's "Mufasa: The Lion King" by a hair. By the end of Monday's holiday, "Mufasa" will have the edge, however.
"One of Them Days" cost only $14 million to produce, which it is expected to earn by Monday. The very well-reviewed buddy comedy stars Palmer and SZA as friends and roommates scrambling to get money for rent before their landlord evicts them. Notably it's the first Black female-led theatrical comedy since "Girls Trip" came out in 2017 and it currently carries a stellar 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
But the marketplace was also quite weak overall. The total box office for Friday, Saturday and Sunday will add up to less than $80 million, according to data from Comscore, making it one of the worst Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekends since 1997.
"For an individual film like 'One of Them Days' this was a great weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "You can still find success stories within what is overall a low grossing weekend for movie theaters."
The Walt Disney Co.'s "Mufasa" was close by in second place with $11.5 million from the weekend, its fifth playing in theaters. Globally, the Barry Jenkins-directed prequel has made $588 million. It even beat a brand-new offering, the Blumhouse horror "Wolf Man," which debuted in third place with $10.6 million from 3,354 North American theaters.
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