Director Richard Bazley has just completed a :60 spot titled COOL CAT for Sky through WCRS and Hibbert Ralph Animation. Exec produced by Jerry Hibbert and produced by Charlotte Loynes, the spot follows the character of Cool Cat as he makes his way through the idyllic English countryside to the beat of Three Dog Night's song "Joy to the World." The tagline, "The World is a beautiful place, we'll carry on doing our bit to keep it that way, Sky, believe in better," reflects Sky's global concerns and draws attention to the website detailing Sky's ongoing action in working as a carbon-neutral company. With animation ranging from the '30s rubber hose style and backgrounds influenced by Miyazaki, Bazley has created an ad that feels like a short film in its own right.
"I had just got back from another stint... and was doing some storyboard work for HRA, when Jerry Hibbert mentioned that there was a project 'just up my street,'" Bazley recalled. Creative directors Luke Williamson and Yan Elliot were also aware of Bazley's work on IRON GIANT and other projects at Warner Bros. and Disney. "I was delighted at the choice of music, which was integral to the idea of the ad. I had always loved [Three Dog Night] and was very excited at the prospect of animating to this song."
While drawing the storyboard and getting an animatic together, the director prepared his team. "Whilst at Disney, I had been aware of a very talented background artist called Peter Moehrle, especially his wonderful watercolor backgrounds in LILO AND STITCH. The backgrounds in the commercial, however, I wanted to look more like the spectacular paintings in Miyazaki films, but I knew Peter was very capable of adapting to any style. I found he was available and he started work from my layouts. Also, as the music is so upbeat, I wanted the artwork to reflect this...
"To get this look, I had at my disposal one of the best art directors in town: Gethyn Davis. He was able to pull everything together on every shot and make sure all the shots looked great from the composition, the lighting and compositing. We studied the masterful shots of Miyazaki and tried to figure out what made them work so well. I would even study the landscape in motion on the Friday night train home from London to Bath and see how the hulls would pan in relation to the nearby bushes and try and take a mental picture. The evening skies with a hint of red and yellow tinge were also an inspiration for the end shot.
"The original sketch of the cat in the pitch had a '30s look to it so when I designed the rest of the characters, I wanted to make sure the theme carried through all of them. The little triangle cut out in the eye, the rubber hose limbs. The agency, although they liked the retro influence, didn't want it to look like 'an old cartoon', so the anime influence on the backgrounds made an interesting hybrid. What the old black-and-white cartoons and anime have in common is a strong sense of light and dark and use of shadows so I knew it would marry together well.
The wonderful thing about the style of the '30s' characters was that we could be loose and have fun with the animation. The cats legs and arms could stretch ridiculous lengths so in one scene his arm stretches out to the other side of the road to shake some children's hands and in another his legs stretches over a lake to get to the other side."
Bazley also singled out the contributions of animators Teddy Hall, Andy Powell, Al Gaivotto, Goeff MacDowell and Jerry Forder, as well as Coordinator Alan Bassett, who additionally animated such 3D elements as the houses and trees, which bounce to the music.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
