Boost Mobile Commercial

[Convincing John]

By now, I bet most of you have seen this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlrP5b4FvJM

What I'd like to know is...who made/performed the puppets? Were they people who worked on Avenue Q, Crank Yankers...maybe current/former Henson employees? Some of the puppeteering styles look familiar but I can't quite place who's performing due to the brief shots and everyone's singing together. One example is the guy with the hat and shades behind the bus bench (7 second mark) and the "Nice phone, man!" homeless guy. There's some quality performances going on here, but who did 'em?

 

[Drtooth]

The child Puppet that says "Don't forget your phone, Dad" and the African American woman puppet next to him on the bus both have very sloppy puppeteering (especially since most of the others look well done) so I'm wondering if they actually went with experienced Puppeteers on that one.

 

[Convincing John]

Yeah, I noticed that, too. A few of them weren't performed very well. I just noticed the blue guy puppet with the shades (who I mentioned earlier) has more of that...what would you call it..."animated neck pivot" that moves in time with the lip synch while he's singing. The bum laughs, but bobs his head a little as he does it. The Muppets do these little actions, too. It sticks out when you look for them.

Even the puppets waiting at the job interview looked like they were actually waiting. There were little actions performed that a person would do: glancing at what was going on, using an armrest, etc.

 

[Phillip]

I saw this yesterday and was quite surprised to say the least.

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

Does it seem to anyone else like more things are going puppet these days? Or am I just more aware of it when it happens for some reason? There's this commercial and there was a fruit-roll up commercial I saw today with a puppet. And I feel like I've seen some other things but I can't remember exactly.

 

[Drtooth]

I think people are sick of seeing CGI characters in commercials. One thing I've said almost too many times to count, when local furniture commercials and get rich quick schemes start using them, they lose their appeal. I mean, I've seen too many local commercials with ugly homunculus mascots that look like they came out of the student film of an F student that didn't show up to any class awkwardly bumble across the screen... The General, Max from Fast tax, the Work out World guy. Just... just ugly, ugly CGI's that look like they're from the early 80's.

Puppets are THERE. They exist. There's something to interact with. Plus, they look a lot more realistic than something floating across the screen talking about nail fungus or something.

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

Amen to that. At the risk of getting off topic but going off of what you said, I had a friend one time that said another nice thing about puppets is that they have weight to them that not everyone sees with CGI stuff. But you're rgith, I'm getting tired too of the poorly done CGI stuff. My sister and I cringe everytime the Law Tigers commercial comes on.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, I have no major problem with any kind of animated medium if it's done WELL. The keyword is WELL. I swear there was a Geico commercial that was poorly animated ON PURPOSE to mock those "The General" commercials.

I mean, I can't say I'm a huge fan of the commercials with Mr. Mucus or that Bumblebee for Nazonex or whatever that stuff is... but at least that animation is BETTER than those Brazilian Ratatoing movies.

Claymation, puppetry, classic 2-D animation, computer 2-D and 3-D animation are ALL artistic mediums. In the right hands, any of them are beautiful... in the wrong hands, they're all a train wreck.

 

[mr3urious]

I like how the Snuggle bear is back to being a puppet again. He just looked a lot more "cuddly" that way.

I mean, I can't say I'm a huge fan of the commercials with Mr. Mucus or that Bumblebee for Nazonex or whatever that stuff is... but at least that animation is BETTER than those Brazilian Ratatoing movies.

It would be pretty interesting to see these two characters as puppets. I'm sure they'd be a lot more endearing.

 

[Melonpool]

How did I miss this thread? I designed these puppets.