Happy 4/20, everyone! Thunderbean is humming along. Having most everything done on several projects is really gratifying right now since it opens up time for the next projects– and it’s a full plate of things in progress over the summer. When the school year wraps I’ll be doing some traveling to look at materials all over the place, on both coasts and around the country. While a majority of the next projects have most of their materials in one place, picking the materials of each one to scan becomes a whole process. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the single Tom and Jerry and Little King film (one for each set) will be scanned soon; those projects are both basically complete otherwise. I’ve herd that Flip may be wrapped next week too, knock on frogs….
As we prepare to replicate three titles in a short period of time (and because we’ve been getting a lot of emails) we’ve made the old special sets available this week at the Thunderbean shop. They’ll be available through this Friday only.
I’ve been prepping a few films for a film-out this week, and as I was doing so I pulled up the Stop Motion Marvels blu-ray archive and really enjoyed looking at the commercials on the set— so here they are! I really like these compilation sets since we’ve been able to put really cool little things on a lot of them.
Here’s the stuff on this reel:
Stop Motion “Butter” Commercial. Im not sure of the production studio on this short, but the print is on 1954 stock. My guess is that it was produced in California (and maybe produced by Cascade). You cartoony folks will recognize Thurl Ravenscroft as one of the Milk voices. Print courtesy of Mark Kaulser.
Camel Stop Motion Promotional film: We’ve posted this film before. It most likely was never finished, but this is a silent work print of the film. Also courtesy Mark Kausler.
Brylcreem Commercials: The first of these has animation by Lou Bunin, and the second is by Bill Sturm productions. Prints courtesy of Jeff Missinne and Ira Gallen.
Chocks Commercial: This one may be my favorite. Also most likely a west coast spot. Sounds like Paul Winchell as the Panda… can you identify the other voices? You may find yourself singing the jingle later, or at least saying “I’m a Tawkin’ Horse”. Print courtesy of Craig Davison.
Glow-coat commercials: These date from the mid 60s. Who knows who did the effects, but they’re pretty fun. Sounds like Dick Tufeld as the announcer.
David Allen’s King Kong Volkswagen commercial: An all-time classic commercial— with test footage at the beginning. Prints courtesy of Jeff Joseph and Eric Grayson.
It’s short but merry this week. We hope you enjoy the spots and please comment if you liked (or hated!) them.
Have a good week all!
Steve Stanchfield is an animator, educator and film archivist. He runs Thunderbean Animation, an animation studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has compiled over a dozen archival animation DVD collections devoted to such subjects at Private Snafu, The Little King and the infamous Cubby Bear. Steve is also a professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
Classics all, especially the Kong VW spot. Stop Motion Marvels Vols 1 and 2 are amazing sets. Thank you so so much for all you do.
“Excitingly clean! Disturbingly healthy! So full of life!” Sounds like Dr. Frankenstein assessing his creation.
I agree, that sounds like Dick Tufeld in the Glow-Coat commercial. The sound effects were generated by a ring modulator, the same device that created the “electronic tonalities” in “Forbidden Planet”.
The blonde in the Camel ad reminds me of Doris Day. She was a smoker herself, but as far as I know she never appeared in any cigarette advertising.
The voice of the horse in the Chocks commercial sounds so familiar to me. For some reason I got a Rankin Bass vibe from his voice but that might just be because of the stop motion.
Steve, if I had to guess, I’d say the talking horse in the Chocks spot is Shep Menken, I don’t think it’s Lennie Weinrib.
Yowp
And a very happy Backstreet Boys 30th anniversary to you too, Steve. That IS what 4/20 is about, isn’t it?
It’s been a lot of fun watching the progress on Flip; feels like it’s been your Sistine Chapel with the amount of time and effort put in. That said, if you’re alright with sharing, what’s the next big project after Flip? (If anything, maybe a break is in order given how long it took, although I dunno how that would look on your books)
As much as I abhor cigarettes, the design of the Camel short look really nice. Maybe that’s how they get you. The animation of the guys on the… glass hoverboards I guess in the Glow-Coat is so interesting as well. (I think they did a similar effect on the Backstreet Boys Larger than Life video, har har har) Dunno why I haven’t picked up the Stop-Motion Marvels bluray yet.
If you haven’t seen Hector the Pup (1935) get Stop Motion Marvels just for that! Early thirties surrealist sensibilities come to 3D stop motion life in a beautiful and sharp print. I enjoyed the whole disc very much myself.
The camel work print always fascinated me. If it was originally going to be a B&W TV commercial, that’s kind of a bummer because the color stock that was used (Kodachrome?) certainly adds a charm to it. Makes me only wonder how the proceeding butter commercial and other stop motion TV commercials would have looked in color….
Wasn’t there an extended version of the Chocks ad with a coocoo bird?
I throughly enjoyed viewing these classic ads, especially the Glow coat ones. They kind of have that retro futuristic vibe to them. The King Kong one is also top tier! Greatly appreciated as always, Steve.