What do a child's imagination and Pikachu have in common? They're both quite powerful. In this spot for UK McDonald's, Hornet Director Peter Sluszka breaks away from the traditional "Happy" campaign to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Pokémon and to promote the happy meal through the lens of one little girl's obsession with Pikachu. With glorious CG character design and a simple yet fun story arc, the spot—and Pikachu!—both come to life in full force.
One of the fun challenges in this spot was the opportunity to break away from the traditional "Happy" personality to create a script with new characters. Eventually—after many iterations of character explorations—the team landed upon an endearing little girl and her loving father. Their realistic design paired with subtle and sincere expressions pulls through the emotional experience of the little girl's journey.
In order to not depart completely from the Happy world, we carried over some of its odd, curvy proportions into some of the objects in this spot. The cars, for example, are a little more oval & egg-shaped, bringing with them that same wacky design sensibility that contrasts playfully with the realistic characters and environments.
"For us internally, this was a labor of love and an opportunity to showcase our CG talents and do something a little more involved."
-Marty Geren, Producer
In sum, this project was pure and simple fun. Over the course of 5 months, our team had a blast developing the characters, integrating the beloved Pikachu personality into the Happy Meal universe, and shaping the story into a bite-sized emotional journey.
