That’s the question that’s been bouncing around the Internet this morning. Particularly among Disneyana fans.
As in: “Did you see the ‘Happiest Celebration on Earth’ ad that debuted this past Saturday morning as part of the Tournament of Roses’ television coverage? That TV commercial that cleverly mixed CG versions of classic Disney characters and live action settings to get people all excited about the Walt Disney Company’s upcoming 18-month long celebration of Disneyland’s 50th birthday?”
If not … Well, not to worry. Your friends at JHM have you covered. Thanks to the technical expertise of Jeffery Lange and Nancy Stadler, we’ve actually got some images from the ad as well as a full transcript of the commercial to share with you today.
First a little background info. This 60-second long commercial — entitled “Coming Home” — was actually created for Disney’s Theme Parks & Resorts division by the whiz kids over at Leo Burnett. This ad — which features a score by “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” ‘s composer, Alan Silvestri — is actually the first of the series. So look for other installments to get rolled out as we get closer to the official launch date of the “Happiest Celebration on Earth.” Which will be May 5, 2005.
WARNING!! There be spoilers ahead. If you don’t want to know how “Coming Home” plays out before you actually get to see this ad on television, then I suggest that you bail out of this story right now.
FADE IN …
The commercial starts with a live action shot high over Manhattan. As the Empire State building stands proudly in the background, a CG Dumbo swoops into the shoot. After smiling for the camera, the playful pachyderm flies off over the city.
Copyright 2005. Walt Disney Company
CUT TO … A palm-tree lined street in a quiet Florida suburb. A CG Goofy (Dressed in a red & white Hawaiian shirt with a bedroll strapped to his back) glances at his watch. He’s obviously waiting for someone.
CUT TO … CG versions of Iago and the Genie from “Aladdin” — riding atop a live action camel — cross the desert sands in Egypt. As they pass a pyramid, the parrot sputters.
IAGO: No! No! You should have turned right at the pyramid!
CUT TO … Laughing manically, a CG version of Stitch (In one of the wittier touches of this advertisement, the little blue Alien is dressed in the exact same outfit that the late Marlon Brando wore in 1953’s “The Wild Ones”) rides a motorcycle across Monument Valley.
CUT TO: … The Alaskan Wilderness. CG versions of Rutt & Tuke (You know? The two moose who talked like Doug & Bob McKenzie in Disney’s Fall 2003 release, “Brother Bear”?) struggle to swim across a beautiful mountain lake.
RUTT: Hey, we’re gonna miss the anniversary.
TUKE: Maybe we should dog-paddle, eh?
CUT TO: … The African desert. A CG version of Donald Duck drives a tour bus that’s packed with all those ballet-dancing hippos from “Fantasia.” As live action giraffes walk through the background of this shot, we see one hippo ballerina who’s on foot, who’s desperately trying to catch up with the bus.
WE CUT BACK TO … That quiet suburban street in Florida. Goofy’s ride has finally arrived. It’s a live action version of Herbie the Love Bug, driven by a CG version of Mickey Mouse. (And — if you look really close — you can see that Hewey, Dewey and Louie are sitting the car’s back seat.)
As Goofy tries to cram himself & his gear into Herbie’s front seat (There’s some great squash ‘n’ stretch here), Mickey asks:
MICKEY: Have you got everything, Goofy?
As his head pops out of the Love Bug’s sun roof, Goofy says:
GOOFY: Ready!
Copyright 2005. Walt Disney Company
With that, Mickey stomps on the gas and Herbie zooms off — out of the shot.
CUT TO … The lobby of the Paris Opera House. A CG Cinderella — in her beautiful blue ballgown — hurries down the steps, obviously rushing to get somewhere important.
WE CUT BACK TO … The African desert. Live action zebras cross the road, which prevent the CG tour bus from going forward. Through the bus’ windshield, we see Donald fuming:
DONALD: Come on! Move it!
Directly behind Donald, we see Ben Ali Gator (I.E. Hyacinth Hippo’s dance partner from the original “Fantasia”) slowly opening his jaws. As the alligator gets ready to bite the duck’s head off …
Copyright 2005. Walt Disney Company
… Donald suddenly turns and looks accusingly at Ben Ali Gator. Feigning innocence, the alligator quickly looks off in the other direction.
Copyright 2005. Walt Disney Company
CUT BACK TO … The Genie and Iago continue their journey across the burning sands. As their live action camel stumbles, the CG parrot temporarily loses his grip on the dromedary and squawks.
IAGO: Hold your horses! I almost fell off that time!
Copyright 2005. Walt Disney Company
CUT TO … Rutt & Tuke walking through the streetx of Manhattan. As live action New Yorkers get ready to cross at the corner of 57th & Broadway, Tuke turns to Rutt and says …
TUKE: Hey, this herd’s moving kind of slow, eh?
Copyright 2005. Walt Disney Company
CUT TO … Paris at night. With a beautiful lit-up Eiffel Tower off in the distance, Cinderella hurries along a wet cobblestone street. “Where’s the princess headed,?” you ask. Well, if you look beyond the live action limos in the foreground that are waiting at curbside, you can see a CG version of Cinderella’s pumpkin coach off in the background — waiting to pick the princess up.
CUT TO … Still on his motorcycle, Stitch pops a wheelie as he roars through a four way intersection in the middle of the desert. Seconds later, Mickey & Goofy (who — along with Donald’s nephews — are still riding in Herbie) come zooming up to this same intersection. The only problem is, Mickey’s having trouble following Goofy’s directions.
GOOFY: We’re almost there.Go left.
MICKEY: Right.
GOOFY: No, left is right.
CUT TO … The Golden Gate bridge. Still riding on the back of their live-action camel, Iago and the Genie find themselves at a toll gate. The parrot squawks down at the bridge’s toll-taker.
IAGO: No, I don’t have any quarters.
As if to back up Iago’s claim, the Genie reaches into his harem pants and turns his pockets inside out — revealing them to be empty.
CUT TO … Cinderella and her pumpkin coach, rolling down the live action Chans-Elisee. Though the real life Arc de Triomphe looms in the background, the animated princess has her head out of the pumpkin coach. She stares intently at something off in the distance.
CUT TO … Donald Duck and that tour bus full of hippos. Only now they’re driving along the top of the Great Wall of China. And — if you look closely — you can still see that one lone hippo ballerina. Still racing after the bus, trying to catch it.
An off-screen narrator (AKA “Frasier” star Kelsey Grammer) now chimes in:
NARRATOR: It’s our biggest celebration in 50 years.
CUT TO … Donald driving his tour bus, Mickey driving Herbie, Cinderella riding in her pumpkin coach, Genie, Dumbo, Rutt & Tuke have all arrived at their destination at the same time. They “Ooh” and “Aah” at something right off-camera.
NARRATOR: And everybody’s going to be there.
CUT TO … A live action boy in rural America. He runs through his own backyard as the CG Dumbo flies overhead.
NARRATOR: The only thing missing …
CUT TO … A close-up of the smiling boy as Dumbo flies off.
NARRATOR: … is you.
CUT TO … The CG version of Dumbo flies off to a brightly-lit castle in the distance.
CUT TO … Earth as it would be seen from deep off in space. As golden fireworks erupt above the northern hemisphere, it briefly appears as if the planet is sporting Mickey Mouse ears.
NARRATOR: Logo on to find about all the new attractions coming this year to the Happiest Celebration on Earth.
Below the earth in space hangs this web address: disneydestinations.com
CUT TO … Stitch still out in the desert, sitting on his motorcycle. Clearly depressed because he’s just been pulled over the highway patrol.
Copyright 2005. Walt Disney Company
FADE OUT …
That sounds like a pretty neat teaser ad, don’t you think? Witty, understated, with really great production values. It’s a commercial that successfully plays to the general public as well as the hardcore Disneyana fan.
(Of course, if you’re one of those “Seeing is believing” types … Well, you can just go take a look at this ad yourself by following this link over to disneydestinations.com and then going to the “Experience the Excitement” box that you’ll find on that page. Once there, just chose the “Long”or “Short” form of the TV commercial. And you should be good to go.)
Anyway … You wanna know the best part about “Coming Home” ? With the exception of that one castle off in the distance, you never actually see a theme park in the ad. This TV commercial truly is a teaser. It shows all of these Disney characters journeying from the four corners of the map to take part in some sort of significant event that’s about to occur at the Disney theme parks.
“But what sort of event?,” you query. “And inwhich Disney theme park will it happen?” Ah — but that’s the beauty of “Coming Home.” This commercial is specifically vague. While the off-screen narrator says things like “It’s our biggest celebration in 50 years,” Disneyland’s 50th anniversary (I.E. The event that the Walt Disney Company is really celebrating here) is never actually mentioned.
“Why for?,” you query. Because were this ad to emphasize the Anaheim resort, that’s where you’d undoubtedly want to go to attend this once-in-a-lifetime event. But that’s NOT what the Walt Disney Company wants you to do, folks. The Mouse wants to spread the wealth around, so to speak.
That’s why Disney is describing “The Happiest Celebration on Earth” as ” … a salute by all 11 Disney theme parks around the world (including Hong Kong Disneyland) to the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland.” With the idea being that you don’t actually have to go to Anaheim to get in on this 18-month long festivities.
This might explain why Jay Rasulo — president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts — has been telling reporters that:
“I think of Disneyland not just as a wonderful physical space, but also as a state-of-mind … Now as we near the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland in China, we have the Disneyland concept all over the world, creating a great opportunity for us to produce a truly global celebration that conveys the international appeal and emotional equity of the Disneyland concept to connect with our guests.”
“The Disneyland concept”?! I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this, folks. Me personally, I guess I would have actually preferred it if the Walt Disney Company had kept Disneyland’s 50th anniversary celebration as a Southern California specific event. So that the “Happiest Place on Earth” would have gotten all the attention & acclaim that the world’s first theme park so richly deserves.
But — at the same time — I recognize that the Disney Corporation is a business. More importantly, that the Mouse has other resorts (I.E. Walt Disney World & Disneyland Paris) that could really use an influx of tourists right about now. So if the “Happiest Homecoming” helps put heads in beds in all those empty hotel rooms at Lake Buena Vista and Marne La Vallee … Well, who am I bitch & moan?
Of course, some of you animation fans out there may still bitch & moan once you realize the “Coming Home” commercial actually offers you a brief glimpse into Disney’s future. How so? Well, how many of you remember “Dumbo II,” that direct-to-video sequel to Disney’s 1941 animated classic that was supposedly cancelled because the studio (which really wanted this video premiere project to be done in CG) could never come up with a computer-animated flying pachyderm that everybody at WDFA could live with.
Well, based on how often that CG Dumbo appears in the “Coming Home” ad, this is clearly no longer a concern of the Walt Disney Company. So I’m guessing that we can expect to see a CG follow-up to this traditionally animated classic sometime over the next two or three years.
Likewise that computer-animated Rutt & Tuke that pop up so prominently in this commercial … SCTV vets Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas have been recording dialogue for “Brother Bear II” for the better part of a year now. And my understanding is that Disney is currently leaning toward to doing this direct-to-video sequel as a CG product. (Though I should also note here that “Brother Bear II” is supposed to be a film that’s very much in the spirit of “The Lion King 1 1/2.” As in: This video premiere to Disney’s Fall 2003 release will basically star Rutt & Tuke. Kenai & Koda will make a token appearance in the picture, but the moose are really the main stars of this still-in-production film.)
Anyway … In honor of “Coming Home” and all of this TV commercial’s cleverly stylized CG versions of classic Disney characters, I’ve got a trivia question for all your JHM readers out there.
QUESTION: Who was the first Disney character to be rendered in CG? And for what film/project was this classic character computer animated?
BONUS QUESTION: What’s so ironic about the company that Disney hired to do the computer animation for this film/project?
The first three JHM readers who correctly answer this question win a pound of Just Plain Joe Coffee. The first person to correctly answer both this week’s trivia question AS WELL AS the bonus question win a pound of coffee plus a limited edition “Just Plain Joe Coffee” t-shirt.
Good luck, everyone. And have a happy Monday!
jrh
P.S.
I don’t know how many of you have actually already read Wade Sampson’s great article from last Friday? You know, the one about the history of the Walt Disney Company’s participation in the Tournament of Roses Parade?
Well, due to some technical difficulties, a few images that Wade had wanted us to use to illustrate that article (including a picture of the Disneyland promotional float from the 1955 Tournament of Roses parade as well as Walt’s appearance as Grand Marshall in the 1966 parade) weren’t actually able to be inserted into that story ’til just this morning.
So — as an extra added incentive to get JHM readers to go back & check out Sampson’s “Disney Goes to the Rose Parade” article again– we’ve added those images as well as a bonus photo. A picture of the Walt Disney Company’s entry in the 2005 Tournament of Roses parade. You know, that snazzy new purple-and-gold version of Sleeping Beauty Castle?
So please go take a peek at that piece that now includes some very pretty pictures, okay?
j