Lloyds TSB Advert

I like this advert and concept. Its something that doesn't necessarily relate to the bank until you see the end. I like this technique, in a similar way to the Alfa advert someone commented on in their blog last week, it allows you to be pulled into the visuals and music. By the time you get to the end you are actually quite curious about what it is promoting. The animator Marc Craste has created a really stylized scene and characters. It flows well and doesn't over complicate things. Its an interesting direction for a bank to go in but one I think that is quite successful.

Shrek Three

Shrek 3 as the title suggests, is the latest instalment of this Disney Series. I had seen both of the previous movies so was determined to see the latest when it was at the cinema. My overriding view of this film is that whilst it appears to have all of the ingredients to make the film successful, the same characters and, the witty lines and improved animation from it’s predecessors, there still seams to be something missing. At first I couldn’t put my finger on what this was, however having thought about it a bit more, I can only come up with one criticism; the plot doesn’t really progress that much from the second movie. This storyline is incredibly similar, and whilst it does have new cast additions and different aspects to it, there’s no doubt that it feels slightly déjà vu at times.

Despite this, I have to say I did really enjoy this film, we went to the cinema as a group of four and all of us came out with slightly different opinions. One said it was the best Shrek film so far, another that one was still her favourite, one that couldn’t choose and me who whilst I enjoyed it, I still prefer the second.

With regards to the design or technical part of the movie, the animation in this film is fantastic. Everything within it is has been made to look as realistic as possible, without actually breaking into photographic filming with special effects. Animated films have come a long way since the first Disney films and even since those techniques used in Wallace and Gromit. With this in mind, I can’t wait to see the results that this industry can generate in the next few years.

Irn Bru 2006 christmas Advert

Sadly this one passed me by at the time but I have just come across it on the internet.

Like other successful adverts it takes uses imagery that millions of people know (in this case it also uses a the song), the fact that it is familiar normally makes you more likely to pay attention and therefore makes you more likely to remember it. Aside from that, I just like the innocent yet amusing lyrics. Although it is only the end of August and therefore a bit premature to be thinking of christmas, it does strike exactly the right tone of voice for both the target audience and the time of year it was released.

Wallace and Gromit, Curse of the Ware Rabbit

When I was younger I used to be a fan of the short films like the ‘Wrong Trousers’ and ‘A close Shave’. I didn’t actually make it to see When ‘The Curse of The Ware Rabbit’ at the cinema, but at the time I remember being surprised when I found out it had received a mixed reception. After going to The ‘Animated Adventures’ exhibition I decided I would see if I could borrow this and finally get round to watching it (it says something that it took me ages to find someone with a copy of the film).


Overall I was actually quite disappointed after watching the Wallace and Gromit’s first feature length film. You would never expect the most realistic or even plausible plot line with this type of film; however, with this in mind I expected to get lost in their world of gadgets and ridiculous scenarios for over an hour. Unfortunately although all the parts were there for this to be a success, the original animator and creator Nick Parks, the same two main characters and a large amount of ‘British-ness’ it somehow didn’t have the same captivating power I expected.

At first I thought it was just because I had grown up since I first watched these shows, but my mum who had also watched the first ones said about 20mins in, they should have stopped at the last one, this isn’t nearly as good. I can’t quite put my finger on what it was that didn’t really work in my opinion, but all I can say is the plot didn’t seam to grab me and although their inventive flair was present, it wasn’t nearly so prominent as in it’s predecessors.

Having said the film did open with one of the best invention sequences I have seen so far, for anyone who hasn’t seen Wallace and Gromit before, they remind me slightly of the Honda advert from a few years ago called the cog, where one small action set off the well planned sequence of movement before it reached the end point. The alarm Clock sequence is similar in this way, it is very much how I remember the old short films to be, there are a few extracts in the following trailer of how it works if your interested.



Overall I wasn’t that impressed with this film, however this was more due to the plot than the animation itself. It was quite refreshing to see the fingerprints in the plastercine, and you could really feel how much attention had gone into creating each individual set and expression. I still like the style of animation, but once again (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) the thing that I love more than anything is the detail that went into creating it.

Animated Adventures Exhibition

Most people will have seen something of Wallace and Gromit over the years. Before I went to this exhibition about all I knew of the way that they were animated was that they were based around plaster sine models that had interchangeable mouths to get the right shape according to the sound that the character was making. The exhibition showed the process from the initial concept drawings through to the animation of these two famous and a few of the studios other characters. The first thing I noticed was how amazing the initial illustrations were, most people will roughly sketch out stick figures of where they want things, but all of these could clearly be linked to scenes in the film.


I loved seeing the different stages of a figure being constructed; the photo I have shown above was one of the Ware Rabbit taking shape. The wire frame is used to build around and in a way restrict the proportions of the character and the way it can move, to prevent this altering too much throughout the film. The time and detail that had gone into each stage was fantastic, I have read somewhere that it can take a whole day to create just two seconds of finished film, it’s amazing to think of the dedication it would take to finish the final 85 minutes.

The exhibition itself had so many different aspects; there were the things you would expect such as the written boards documenting the process from start to finish along with videos of the models being made. But there were also set models, and interactive parts where you could add your own sound effects to a pre done animation or create your own motion sequence with a still set camera and a range of plastic figures and scenes. Another thing I really liked was the fact that they had used the 3D glasses technique but with scenes from the film, these were put inside an interior lit building from the set with the red and blue lenses inlaid. In a way this film showed something of the film, either intentionally or not in that the level of detail is everywhere.


You could really appreciate the time and effort that had gone into both the film and exhibition; I have not actually seen the film myself but think after going to this I will try and look it out. The main thing that this has shown me is how important the little details are, even the newspapers have writing on and the store windows are all constructed. Although I don’t for one minute think that I could produce anything like these results, I think it would be really interesting to explore this and other types of animation in the future.