It purports to be a worn-out VHS copy of a vintage (c. 1983) TV commercial for Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear, aka Lotso, the most important new character in Toy Story 3. The idea is to (sneakily) convince viewers that Lotso was an actual toy from decades ago, like Chatter Telephone and Animal Lovin' Ken who appear in the movie.
The video is so well made and realistic that it convinced me of being authentic for a few brief moments. "I didn't know Lotso was an actual toy before Toy Story 3?" I tweeted. But upon further thought, a number of things make clear that the commercial is, in fact, a brilliant viral video for 'TS3'.
First of all, nobody's ever mentioned before that Lotso was based on a real, classic toy. Secondly, no reference to The Huggin' Company alluded to in the commercial can be found anywhere on the web.
But the crucial piece of evidence comes in the form of a tweet. The Lotso video was posted by a new YouTube user named MrCrazycommercials. Another one of this user's videos was linked to by director Lee Unkrich on Twitter on April 16, a full three days before the Lotso commercial was uploaded. That's way too big a coincidence. Is MrCrazycommercials actually Mr. Lee Unkrich?
If you're wondering, Disney Consumer Products is rolling out in June a real-life strawberry-scented Lotso plush bear as part of the deluxe Toy Story Collection. There's also a basic Lotso that's already started arriving at Disney Store retail outlets and is shipping from the Disney Store website.
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Update: Another "vintage" Lotso commercial, this time in Japanese, hit YouTube this afternoon. Watch it below. The video's release appears to coincide with an international press event being held in Japan this week to promote Toy Story 3.
(Updated Apr. 26)
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7 comments:
Wow, I never realized that the same post for the Baby Laughs A Lot was the same person who posted the Lotso commercial!
@Gobbers:
Yeah, Lee Unkrich gave a link to the Baby Laughs-a-Lot video on his Twitter account, which was one of MrCrazyCommercial's first videos. That whole YouTube channel was just a setup for this Lotso video. Post a bunch of genuine retro toy commericals and then throw this one in.
Pixar probably got some of their employees' kids, gave them Lotso dolls, and filmed the whole thing with an average camera. Then they had someone like Randy Newman, Alex Mandel, or Joshua Hollander write music for it, record the music, put it all on a VHS tape, and then record the VCR's video output with all the tracking lines.
GENIUS!
OH MY GOSH. That Japanese video...
Even more VHS static nonsense. This is GOLD.
... I know Pixar has few Japanese people on staff, like the actress who voiced Chuki in Cars. And the song/jingle has the same melody.
The Lotso on the Disney store site is the crummier bear, not the beauty coming out that's part of the Toy Story Collection. Kyle was the one who directed me to the TSC version. Thanks again Kyle!
Kal.
It amazes me how they can blur the line between reality and fiction with such a realistic "vintage" commercial. After reading an article on Mashable.com, I realized it worked in drawing me in as an 80s child, or maybe I just knew it had to do with Toy Story - gotta love it. Creative!
Anonymous: I've rephrased the paragraph to reflect that.
That whole YouTube channel was just a setup for this Lot so video. Post a bunch of genuine retro toy commercials and then throw this one in.
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