Getting snow right up their... Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney join Dawn French, to voice the 3rd annual animated Xmas advert for the British retailer Marks & Spencer featuring Fairy joined by two lovable and mischievous mittens.
Once again, VFX and content creation studio The Mill was called upon by British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) for their holiday commercial creation. This year, the third annual Christmas Fairy spot for M&S, directed by Dom & Nic, reunites The Mill’s team with Fairy (voiced by iconic British actress/comedienne Dawn French), joined by two “lovable and mischievous mittens” (voiced by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney) enjoying their first taste of Christmas.
Combining puppetry and CG animation, the spot follows Fairy’s discovery of Left and Right, two conjoined mittens accidentally dropped in the snow by their owner, a little girl named Lilly. Once inside, Fairy treats the reindeer-shaped mittens to some Christmas fun and games before leading them to a magnificent feast set on a dining room table. “This is not just food... This is M&S Christmas food,” says Fairy in closing the spot, delivered with the brand’s signature wry humor and tradition.
“The mittens were two of the most complex characters I have ever been involved in creating!” commented The Mill’s creative director, Andy Steele, who explained how the team remade the underlying animated structural rigs several times to capture a range of motion and emotion.
Steele noted, “Having all this functionality in one rig – being able to see every knitted thread in the mittens, for example – offered creative freedom to shoot without cutting corners.”
The filmmakers even hired a professional knitter to fabricate real-life mittens as an essential on-set camera and lighting reference. The material approach was key to creating the look and feel of a small child’s mittens.
“These practical mittens were an essential reference for both the assets team and lighting team,” continued Steele. “We took the mittens on set and posed them as a lighting reference and for the shoot crew to line cameras and lighting too.”
“We found inspiration for their movement style by referencing Forky in Toy Story 4 (who is made up of plastic and wooden ice lolly sticks for legs),” explained The Mill animation director David Bryan, who also attributed Sesame Street and the Muppets as inspiration. “The characters can speak convincingly with limited tools, focusing on syncing the head and body of the mittens, paired with a simple yet charming mouth action, to match the energy in Rob and Ryan’s voiceovers.”
“We gave extra attention to secondary movements, focusing on how the knit reacts on a miniature scale to specific movements,” continued Bryan. “For example, the antlers on our mittens have plenty of movement, but they are relatively stiff, avoiding dragging, slow movements that would make them appear larger and heavier than they are. The antlers were also a useful tool for expressing emotion. Such as drooping when expressing sadness and standing up when they are excited.”
“It is a brilliant example of how endearing a character can be when it uses its materialistic properties to build a performance around,” added Bryan. “Sesame Street and the Muppets have done a wonderful job over the years of getting their characters to speak convincingly with very limited tools, and so we focused on syncing the head and body to match the energy in Rob & Ryan's voice-over, along with a simple mouth action which in turn gave their performance a plenty of charm.”
Steel shared, “With such amazing voice talent for the performances, the animation team really invested themselves in the project. It’s not every day you get the chance to work with the likes of Dawn French, Ryan Reynolds, and Rob McElhenney. Everyone involved was really pumped about it, and you can see it in the creativity of the spot.”
Source: The Mill
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
