Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Stranger Things) and Will Gluck (Easy A) co-directed via Pacific Rim Films this DICK’s Sporting Goods’ spot out of Anomaly New York. Titled “The New Kid,” the ad shows us the arrival of a new Nike Air Max 270 React shoe at DICK’s. But the shoe’s (aka the new kid’s) first overnight turns out to be anything but a silent night. When the sun goes down, the fun heats up. And our store comes alive as “The New Kid” embarks on an epic journey of discovery and play, meeting new friends along the way. It’s all fun and games in this night at the store, until morning shows up and tries to crash the party.
MPC served as VFX/animation house, bringing the shoe and varied other sports apparel and equipment to life.
Director Levy said the commercial “reminded me of my Night at the Museum films with the combination of humor, wonder and magic.” He observed, “I saw the impact that those Museum movies had on audiences, the way they not only increased actual attendance at the Museum of Natural History, but in the way I saw kids looking up at those exhibits. I could see first-hand the deepened connection, the way that inanimate objects were suddenly imbued with life — with the magic inherent in asking “What if…”
Gluck said the spot was “achieved through an extensive mix of CGI animation and live-action filming; a hybrid style which I’ve become enamored of after making my Peter Rabbit films. But this spot was even more challenging, for instead of cute animals we were working with sporting goods which needed to be imbued with personalities, feelings and emotion.”
Ashley Bernes, creative director at Moving Picture Company, “Modeling, rigging and animating 46 characters; creating emotion through motion; close collaboration with a world-class production company and agency–this is the sort of work that makes us at MPC tick. Levy and Gluck brought an incredible wealth of experience in both live action and animation which proved critical in defining the rules of this film. It’s rare that a project of this scale has such a profound effect on everyone who worked on it, and I think that shows in this fun, playful and energetic film on screen.”
