Every picture tells a story, but at Calabash Animation, the story is the picture—notably the animated commercial icons we’ve known for years: Lucky the Leprechaun, the Trix Rabbit, Little Caesars’ Pizza! Pizza! guy and Mr. Clean.
Now 15 years old, the Chicago-based company has seen enormous change in the animation business—owing to the emergence of digital technology.
“Computers have taken this art to another level,” said Ed Newmann, president and animation director. “While we will never abandon traditional cel animation, which the computer can’t match for warmth and emotional expression, the new technology has been a tremendous asset. Some of our most exciting work is a blend of 2-D and 3-D.”
For example: a Honey Nut Cheerios spot starring the Cheerios Bee and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster. In the ad, created by Saatchi & Saatchi in New York, the cel-animated character—which replaces the digitally removed blind man in a scene from the original 1931 Frankenstein movie—serves the monster a bowl of cereal.
Lo and behold, the monster likes it, and the spot has a happy ending.
Boris and the bee
