A ridiculously cute and furry feline is the star in a commercial for Lucky Pet cat
food, produced by Cape Town-based production company, Golden Planes.
The advert was originally set to feature a real live cat, which embarks on an epic
journey to the sea in search of an oceanic feast but a call was made to execute
the concept as an animation and the results are paw-sitively adorable.
Director Porteus Xandau and producer Herman Le Roux from Golden Planes
were given the brief by Cape Town advertising agency, The Jupiter Drawing
Room, whose client was looking to increase the awareness of their product
Lucky Pet cat food.
“The thing that we found really sets Lucky Pet apart from competitor brands is
that they only specialise in real fish flavours,’ says Xandau, who worked closely
with the creative team to develop a concept which would highlight this product
draw card. “The campaign message is simple… “It’s fish they’re after!’ Hence,
the cat’s epic journey from the city to the sea,’ adds Xandau.
“Believe it or not, this cat’s journey was originally envisioned as a live action
commercial. Of course, rather quickly it became clear that live action was going
to become a logistical nightmare, especially considering the scenes with the cat
jumping on and off the bus as well as when the cat is running through the city in
the rain. It’s great that the creatives from Jupiter were very open to alternative
approaches, hence we ended up opting for animation,’ continues Xandau.
The delight is in the details in this spot with little purrs and meows adding to a
light and playful soundtrack, the reflection of the moon appearing in a rippling
paw print puddle and a few uniquely South African nods and references.
Xandau outlined some of the inspiration behind the visuals: “As a starting point
we were influenced by the illustrations of Chris Ware as well as animations by
Charlotte Cambon. From there we tried to create a new style and look that
would become synonymous with Lucky Pet as a South African favourite. People
really seem to respond well to the South African nuances in the commercial,
which I think is great.’
Black Ginger post-production in Cape Town handled the animation process of
the project with Darrin Hofmeyr as the animation supervisor.
“The majority of the commercial – especially the cat – was executed in classic 2D
animation, but a few details like the train, cars, birds and humans were
executed in 3D, but then also rendered out to look like 2D,’ says Xandau.
A 90-second version of the commercial can be viewed on the internet, while a
60-second and a 30-second version will appear on South African satellite
television.
