Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Toys Come To Life


I don't know what it is...maybe there is even some kind of name for liking objects put to animation. Maybe I am a bit like Frankenstein wanting to see clay animated...reversing static "death' to animated "life"...but these videos are examples of an visual experience I find so fascinating.

I love the Barbie animated commercials. I've never rented one of these contemporary CGI films for kids...never even seen one...but when the commercials come on tv...I wake up! It's as if all the hours I spent playing with Barbie are fulfilled and she is reborn. She is alive and how I saw her as a child....


I just thought this one was cool of animated GIJoe's...I love the cityscape...


Look...I don't even think of myself as bbeing into mascots or ads...but I do get a real lift when I see the Michelin Man come to life. I like Tony The Tiger all loud too. Once in San Francisco I went to a gallery called "The Museum of Contemporary
Anthropology"(I think that is what it was called...) and they had on display hundreds of brand mascots. It was overwhelming and kind of beautiful. They also had a collection of 5,000 polyester shirts.


Though most Americans recognize the Michelin Man--the symbol of what is now the world's leading tire company by market share (No. 294 on FORTUNE's Global 500)--their appreciation for him is only tread-deep. They think of him as a younger cousin to the cuddly Pillsbury Doughboy, who was created in 1965. But the Michelin Man has been promoting tires since 1898. Though not the oldest corporate mascot (the Quaker Oats Pilgrim goes back to 1877, and Aunt Jemima to at least 1893), he has probably been drawn, painted, sculpted, die-cast, injection-molded, animated, and pixelated in countlessly more postures--and in infinitely more imaginative postures--than they or most of their protégés put together, including the Morton Salt Umbrella Girl (1911), Mr. Peanut (1916), Betty Crocker (1921), the Jolly Green Giant (1925), and Reddy Kilowatt (1926). (I exclude Mickey Mouse, born in 1928, because he is Disney's product itself, rather than simply an emblem of its product.)


Anyone have any theories on why I like to see the Terminator fight Cleatus, or Barbie able to move of her volition? I think it must be something to do with mythology and the idea of making a toy boy have life like Pinnochio or Frankenstein...having alchemy to make birth or regeneration...like the seasons...some primal emotion...but I can't think of how to describe it...

RELATED LINKS:
Action Figure Insider
Cleatus Fox Tv Robot this is a curiously intense article about an action figure.
Michelin Man history
Who brings product Mascots to life?
Making mascots into characters

7 comments:

rauf said...

We have good old Mharaja icon of Air India, much recognised face. You can see him in Air India commercials.

Animation is getting better and better, Hope they don't replace actors.

How are you Candy ? its been a while, been traveling a lot. i have slowed down in posting as well. All my four blogs don't open in firefox. They open only with Internet Explorer.
Hope you are doing fine Candy.

Martha Elaine Belden said...

what an interesting post! i would never have thought so deeply about these animated characters. the barbie ones creep me out a little, to be honest. but i've always loved the michelin man and the pillsbury doughboy. they somehow convey so much emotion... esp considering they're just squishy white CG cartoon things.

anyway... not a very interesting comment, on my part. but very interesting post :)

Amy Ruttan said...

I love claymation. Maybe it's when I grew up and all the cartoons were claymation. I love them.

FOUR DINNERS said...

Wallace and Gromit rule ok!!!!

Bridget Jones said...

A nale friend at an office I worked in a while ago had 400+ GI Joes. He put them all around my office plants.

One day I and my office-best bud (female) got drunk. We put the GI Joes into ummm unnatural positions.


That didn't go over well, for some reason....

Candy Minx said...

Rauf...wonderful to see you...and thank you for telling me about Firefox...I started using it to and surf in the past year...aha! Hey don't get me started on Indian icons. You know...there was a movie that had keanu Reeves playSiddhartha (Little Buddha) and I've never felt os emotionally charged and turned on by the blue man come to life! I love pictures and paintings of Khrishna...I am like a "gopi" in love with the come to life images!

Martha howdy! Yes, i suppose I get a little carried away with weird tpics...but I blame meditiation...I find that I have always been a day dreamer and visions and emotions come to me when I meditate ro day dream or pray ha ha!!! And in some way...these Mascots animated...or Barbie animated seem to strike my day dreamer insides...I don't know why. I remember onetime, I killed my daughter...I told her I though Crash Bandicoot was good looking...I mean, she also couldn't breathe. Uh oh...I think I've made a terrible revelation in public!

Do you all remember when Garth and Wayne were at the airport and the planes were flyingover? Garth asks Wayne if he ever when watching Bugs Bunny and Bugs had to put on the mannequins legs to hide from the operatic butcher (????) if he found Bugs "sexy"...

My attraction to animated characters previously static Ithink is a bit like that. I also love comic book movies...I am absolutely nuts for them...can barely tell if they are a "good movie" or "bad" movie...

Amy, I love clamation too...and stop action animation...still love Gumby and Pokey and I adore the penguin Pengu!

4Dins, ooh Walalce andGrommit CHEEESE!!! I've watched them endless times...over and over...

blue..i love your prank! What fun...I have collected Barbies...and "my little pony" I have one "my little pony" on our desk here...I also have a "pee Wee'' Herman" doll, about 12 inches and if you pill a string he talks..

Gardenia said...

Candy, get some of those kids' movies and watch them, I think you'll be delighted. I've seen them because of the little person in our home, but they've been great.

The only one that disappointed me - animation - was Beowulf - with Jolie...

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