Rocket Fish Animates “Panda” Bowl Spot

Friday, February 01, 2008
By: Ryan Ball

Rocket Fish, a new company formed by Animation Magazine founder Terry Thoren, was tapped by producers Geoff Callan and Daniel Grace of boutique advertising and branding agency Creative:Mint to co-produce a series of animated commercials for client Salesgenie.com. One of the spots, titled “Panda,” is scheduled to air Sunday on FOX during the third quarter of the Super Bowl.

Promoting sales generation website www.salesgenie.com, the retro-styled spot has a chubby panda named Ling Ling in fear of going out of business because he has no sales. His shrew of a wife refuses to go back to the zoo, so she places an emergency call to the Panda Psychic, who reveals that there is only one answer—Salesgenie.com. Armed with 100 free sales leads, Ling Ling's business prospers and he even gets to buy a brand new bamboo car.

“Salesgenie gave us witty scripts and allowed us the freedom to create,” says director/designer Mike Milo, who worked closely with art director Michael Bruza. “[They] wanted the spots to be retro and edgy, so I tried to give them the style of early UPA and Hanna-Barbera. It seemed to fit nicely.”

“The commercial was animated entirely in Flash at the Rocket Fish studios using a combination of symbol-based animation and hand-drawn art animated on Cintiq Backgrounds,” adds Thoren, who served as exec producer on the spot. “The images were textured to give them a painterly feel and rendered digitally. Character Designs, model sheets and props were done on a Tablet PC, making the entire spot 'green.' No trees were hurt making this film!”

Thoren was the only CEO of Klasky Csupo, where he built advertising unit Ka-Chew and oversaw the production of 400 hours of animation including the popular series Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys. His latest venture, Rocket Fish Studios is dedicated to bringing cost effective, creator-driven animated entertainment to the advertising industry from state-of-the art animation studios in Burbank and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. More information on the company can be found at www.rocketfishstudios.com.

Reader Comments

• joe de mango : animator : freelance animator

  Friday, June 13, 2008

  I cant beleive that terry toren is putting an animation company in the philippines without any bussiness permit even the software that they used was pirated,treated artist like robots, even the studio is toosmall the artist are working without a contract.. gee wheres the reputation of terry???

• kan : web designer : none

  Saturday, June 14, 2008

  hey joe de mango,
  
  good to read your feedback about terry thoren.
  i was considering to join his company here in kuala lumpur but after reading your feedback, i think i might have to watch out.
  kindly let me know some more details of his studios.
  thanks.
  kan

• Militia : Flash Animator : Tooncity Animation Phil.

  Saturday, June 28, 2008

  I believed that Terry doesn\'t really know whats goin on here in the Phil. But that was before!
  NOT ANYMORE! I saw with my own eyes how he treated us animators, I think He\'s a good man. He even helps carrying those heavy computer chairs and tables for us. Make sure everything works properly. I think Joe didn\'t really know what he\'s saying.
  To Terry Good luck men, Rocket fish is the next big thing.

• jdr : freelancer : freelancer

  Thursday, July 03, 2008

  Terry thoren is a good man...i agree with militia, when i was there i even saw him pulled out a brand new chair for an animator to sit.
  
  It is just understandable for a new studio to be in a small office for awhile. there is no point of renting a big place if you only have a few in house artists and staff.
  
  Rocketfish studio here in the philippines is just starting, barely a month of operation. Terry thoren on the other hand have big plans of expanding it. His vision to put up a studio here and make it big here in the Philippines has something to do with his belief of the good talent we have.
  
  Instead of putting down this new studio, why don\\\'t we support him and help him expand the company that gives us opportunity to showcase our talents.

• robo cop : animation director :

  Thursday, July 03, 2008

  Mr. Joe de Mango....If you are in the Animation Industry as long as most of us..you would realize Mr, Terry Thoren\\\'s very name alone commands respect..and I pity you for even insinuating such accusations...Mr. Thoren\\\'s body of work and contribution to the very industry you are working on deserves that respect...