Bully Pictures Director Craig Tanimoto has directed a new spot for Panda Express in which a bears pulls off a heist worthy of the gang from “Ocean’s Eleven.” Conceived by Siltanen & Partners Advertising, the spot promotes the restaurant’s new Kobari beef and opens on a pair of pandas swigging bottles of the sauce used in the product as if it were beer. When asked how he acquired so much of the savory liquid, one of the bears is shown being lowered by harness into a kitchen. He swipes a case of Kobari sauce while a nearby Chinese chef chops vegetables, unaware.
Tanimoto created the sequence with the bear in a harness in tandem with visual effects artists from Bully Bros. Post. The bear is actually a composite composed from various shots of real bears and an actor in a bear costume.
“We used an actor with costume arms to grab the box so that we could get the timing right and make it as funny as it could be,” Tanimoto explains. “That’s not something you can do in CG.”
“What really makes the spot funny is the interaction between the bears and people,” Tanimoto adds. “We took the bear out of his normal context and gave him a Chinese chef as his straight man.”
Tanimoto applied a similarly comic touch to a new spot for Disney’s Baby Einstein Discovery Kits. Also conceived by Siltanen & Partners, the spot shows a mom reading to her toddler. It then shifts into an elaborate fantasy sequence where the baby is seen riding a dolphin, a rhinoceros and a Canada goose.
About Bully Pictures
Bully Pictures was formed in 2004 by Executive Producer Jason Forest as a full-service TV commercial, internet viral, short film, and international production service company. The company represents directors Fredrik Callinggard, Gaute Hesthagen, Daniel Kaufman, Christian Lyngbye, Franco Marinelli, Jeroen Mol, Michael Shapiro and Craig Tanimoto. For more information, write info@bullypictures.com
Credits
Spot: “Bottles”
Client: Panda Express
Ad Agency: Siltanen and Partners. Joe Hemp, Scott Bremner and Rob Siltanen, Creative Directors; Scott Bremner, Art Director; Brian Howell, Copywriter; Maricela Rogers, Producer.
Production Company: Bully Pictures, Los Angeles. Craig Tanimoto, Director; Jason Forest, Executive Producer.
Post: Bully Bros. Post, Los Angeles.
Spot: “Journey of Discovery”
Client: Disney Baby Einstein
Ad Agency: Siltanen and Partners. Rob Siltanen, Joe Hemp and Juan Perez, Creative Directors; Rob Siltanen, Copywriter; Joe Hemp and Juan Perez, Art Directors; Jackie Vidor, Producer.
Production Company: Bully Pictures, Los Angeles. Craig Tanimoto, Director; Jason Forest, Executive Producer.
