Animated Commercials Back From When Commercials Were Actually Fun - Part 2

Have you had your break today? Well, if you haven't, I think that now would be a great time to have one. And while you're having your break, you can read this!

That was intended to be a reference to that old McDonald's slogan "Have you had your break today?". Unless you watched a lot of television during the 1990s, chances are you probably wouldn't have gotten that reference. But anyway, let's get on with the post...

Yes, it's time for another post about the wonderful world of animated commercials. Just like last time, I've collected fourteen entirely-animated commercials from the days before commercials weren't just a blur of memes and techno music and random things like that" or long and needlessly creepy ads for medicines and stuff. Why fourteen? Because why not, I say.

Let's go over the rules again: the commercials must be ANIMATED. Or at least the majority of it must be animated. Incredibly-realistic CGI animals in a live action environment doesn't count. And the animation must be ORIGINAL as opposed to recycled from a movie. So don't expect to see, I don't know, a Burger King commercial featuring clips from Shark Tale or something. All right, here we go...

Let's start off with this Intel ad featuring the characters from Madagascar. Of course, the Penguins - Rico in particular - take center stage, but Alex and Marty make cameos and even get a quick line each (that's Wally Wingert and Phil LaMarr doing their voices here).

DISCLAIMER: if you're a zookeeper, do not feed a penguin an Intel cartridge. It's not going to result in a cool light show thing like it does here. Commercials with talking penguins, lions and zebras aren't exactly super-realistic.

Here's another commercial from the folks at Aardman. They seem to be channeling their Creature Comforts shorts with this ad, as is the case with most of their ads (Hubba Bubba, Chevron, etc.). The Countryside Code, for those unaware, is a set of rules for those in the United Kingdom that want to explore the countryside. In order they are be safe, plan ahead and follow any signs, leave gates and property as you find them, protect plants and animals, take your litter home, keep dogs under close control, and consider other people.

So here we have a dog, a horse, a spider, a fly, and... I believe those are albatrosses telling us to follow these rules. I've admittedly never been to Great Britain, but if I ever do go there I'll keep the rules in mind.

All right, this is technically a PSA, but those still count as commercials, right?

Anyhow, Wile E. Coyote and Shamu is a strange combination, but eh, I think it works. And it gets the point across pretty well - if you see a sign reading "DANGER! THIN ICE", don't go any further. Thurl Ravenscroft is providing the voice of Shamu here. This isn't his only connection to Looney Tunes, as he also narrated a 1996 Daffy Duck short called Superior Duck.

CANNIBALISM! THAT'S going to make people want to eat at Dairy Queen, right? The talking lips were creepy enough, and now we have THIS. Oh, and you gotta love the implication that they're eating their own kids. That's a laugh riot right there. I'm not going to say that this is an awful ad, but boy howdy is it disturbing.

Interesting fact - the male shrimp is voiced by Jim Conroy, who you might recall as the voice of Ruff Ruffman from Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman. Anybody else heard of that show?

Here's a rarity nowadays - a RECENT animated commercial! How long has it been since we've had a fully-animated commercial? And for Mountain Dew at that! Just look at how fast the camera moves, how much is packed into this ad, how great the animation is... my one complaint is that the ad is far too short. Though, to be fair, it's a Mountain Dew commercial. How much can you really say about Mountain Dew aside from "It's a soda!"?

Also, "Dewnited States" is an awful pun.

Is it just me, or are a lot of animated commercials for food? Anyhow, here's an advertisement from the folks at PIXAR (back before they started making movies). There's not a whole lot to say about this ad. It's like what an acid trip viewed by Cookie Monster would look like.

I admittedly have no idea what the "Bell System" is... I'm guessing that it's some sort of phone company... or at least it has SOMETHING to do with phones. Anyhow, here's a wonderful old commercial from the 1970s for the "Bell System". Fittingly, it's narrated by the soothing voice of Michael Bell (you can hear a bit of Chaz Finster in his voice).

I think I've considered doing a separate edition of this series for Super Bowl commercials that are animated, but I'm not sure how many animated Super Bowl commercials there are. In fact, I'm still not one hundred percent sure if this ad is completely animated - the scene with the tortoise at the car factory could be a combination of CGI and live-action for all I know.

But anyway, here's an interesting Super Bowl commercial based on that iconic fable The Tortoise and the Hare. Robert Bouge provides the voice of the Hare, and Bill Lobley of Sealab 2021 fame can be heard as the fox, the snail, and the possum. I don't know who did the voice of the Tortoise.

We'll just have to ignore, of course, that the tortoise pretty much cheats (then again, maybe there's nothing in the rules of the race that says you CAN'T drive a car). And that this goes against the whole "Slow and Steady Wins the Race" moral of the story, though I think that's the whole point anyhow. Besides, as I've said before, the moral of the story is really less "slow and steady wins the race" and more "don't be a cocky idiot and take a nap during a footrace".

I had to put this one in. It made its debut in 1970, but it hasn't stopped airing since. Nowadays, they usually just cut straight to the kid asking Mr. Owl, though I recall seeing versions with Mr. Turtle still intact years ago. Eventually it manages to enter your head and never leave: there's a very good chance that after the one, two-hoo, or thuh-thrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrree times that you've seen it it, you'll be able to quote it from memory.

I love the simplistic but still very fluid animation of the commercial and the wonderful voice-over work from Buddy Foster (as the kid), Frank Nelson (as Mr. Cow), Paul Frees (as Mr. Fox), Ralph James (as Mr. Turtle), and of course, Paul Winchell as Mr. Owl. I also love that this ad has spawned so many parodies on YouTube. You're probably the most familiar with that one where Mr. Owl replies to the kid's question with "It's over NINE-THOUSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!"

The question remains, of course, just how many licks DOES it take to get to the Toostie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? I have absolutely no idea. Go ask some animal that isn't an owl.

And no, I don't know why that kid doesn't have any clothes on either.

Remember Hunny Bs cereal? I totally ate these when I was younger. This charming little commercial, judging from the animation style, seems to have been made around the same time as The Tigger Movie. Jim Cummings and John Fiedler provide the voices of Pooh, Tigger and Piglet, and I believe Laurie Main and Peter Cullen are doing the narrator and Eeyore (Eeyore might actually be Gregg Berger, his line is too brief for me to deduce who it is). Don't worry, Pooh - even if the "B" won't give you any honey, you can always borrow some from Rabbit.

The Jetsons are no strangers to shilling for products - over the years, they've starred in advertisements for Radio Shack, Electrasol, and more recently LG. In 2008, four members of the family appeared in a commercial for Tums. Specifically, this one. This ad features Jeff Bergman as George and Astro, Tress MacNeille as Rosey, and Lauri Fraiser as Jane. I really don't have much to say about it...

This Swiffer commercial is a tie-in for Monsters University, yet another animated movie that everyone seems to hate but me. It's refreshing to see a Swiffer ad that doesn't make me feel sorry for a broom or a mop or something else that you use to clean with. Seriously, that's what a large percentage of Swiffer ads were in the 2000s - some woman is using a Swiffer, and we see their old broom or mop or whatever being all depressed. That's supposed to make people want to buy a Swiffer?

Anyhow, Carlos Alazraqui fills in for Billy Crystal as the voice of Mike here. He can also be heard as Mike in several video games and the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor attraction at Walt Disney World.

And to close things out, here's a commercial for General Mills cereal from 2015. Ya know how I mentioned before that most commercials today are just a blur of memes and techno music and random things like that? Here's a perfect example. It just reeks of General Mills trying to copy what's popular in kids' cartoons at the moment: the art style, the use of modern slang... there's also the tiny little fact that I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON. The kid tells the mascots that it's Wednesday, Chip goes berserk because Wednesday stole his car (how the heck does a day of the week steal somebody's car?!), and then the Trix Rabbit gives the kid cereal and... seriously, what the heck is going on?

Even the talents of Kevin Michael Richardson, Eric Bauza, and Tom Kenny (I think Jeremy Shada's doing the voice of the kid, but I'm not sure who's voicing Sonny) can't save this ad from being lousy. Though if Kevin becomes the full-time voice of Chip, I'm totally cool with that.

Have a comment about one of these ads? Did you work on any of these ads and want to share a little information about them? Feel free to leave a comment!

And yes, I've decided that the next one I do of these will indeed be a Christmas one.