Comments on: ....wow...

....wow...

Pretty_Generic — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:19:53 -0800

Remember the Honda advert? It was real. [Previous]

By: aacheson

aacheson — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:37:26 -0800

WOW! WOW! WOW! I was transfixed by the commerical. What genius! What an amazing thing to put all that time & money into it when they could have gone the easy and cheap route and put some shots of a car going around a hilly course to some new techno music. Or made the whole thing falsely. Hooray to Honday!

By: DragonBoy

DragonBoy — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:49:29 -0800

All the commercial needed was a cat being swung around by a fan. Brilliant!

By: baltimore

baltimore — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:51:04 -0800

That is an amazing piece of work, even if they do almost lose the framing on the shot around the time that the seat back pops up. I think I would've gone insane on the shoot, but as a viewer, I'm grateful for their efforts!

By: baltimore

baltimore — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:53:02 -0800

BTW, this link is more reliable, and quicktime to boot.

By: luriete

luriete — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:00:13 -0800

Amazing that the article doesn't give credit to Peter Fischli's 1987 film The Way Things Go, of which the commercial is, at many points, an almost shot-by-shot recreation of, just with different props (although many of them, like the tires and bearings, are the same and are used the same way). I wonder if that was an oversight by the reporter, or a deliberate attempt by the director of the commercial to pass this off as an even slightly original idea?

By: 2sheets

2sheets — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:06:29 -0800

The article also doesn't mention Rube Goldberg, which is just ignorant.

By: kindall

kindall — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:08:39 -0800

I'm also fairly amazed that the article did not mention Rube Goldberg, although Fischli is probably a more direct influence.

By: aacheson

aacheson — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:13:09 -0800

Ah Dragonboy, but cats and fans aren't part of the Honda car!

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:37:21 -0800

The article also doesn't mention Rube Goldberg, which is just ignorant. Uhh, no. It's an article from a British newspaper. They would mention Heath Robinson instead.

By: KnitWit

KnitWit — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:38:16 -0800

Ah Dragonboy, but cats and fans aren't part of the Honda car! ... Maybe not YOUR Honda...

By: luriete

luriete — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:46:01 -0800

Fischli was much more ripped off than just a direct influence. How can anyone who has seen both not be struck by that? There are no little similarities; the entire thing is Fischli, minus the chemistry!

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:47:39 -0800

So ... if it's all real (and I was at the launch, where Honda promised it was) what stops the car at the end? It definitely brakes, you can see the weight shift. Perhaps it's son of Herbie.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 11:53:34 -0800

Fischli was much more ripped off than just a direct influence. I assumed this was done by the same people as "The Way Things Go" when I saw it, felt a little miffed when I found out it was an "homage". At least they put the work in.

By: vito90

vito90 — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 12:53:54 -0800

2sheets - not to derail, but don't ya know it will soon be illegal to mention Rube Goldberg without express consent? Maybe that's why that name wasn't mentioned...

By: kaibutsu

kaibutsu — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 13:44:38 -0800

The advertising industry has been stealing directly from avant garde filmmakers for years... Not much new here. I'll see if I can track down a few specific instances; I remember being given a list, but it's been two years or so since I last saw it.

By: salmacis

salmacis — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 16:50:28 -0800

The saddest part is that the whole thing is real, but we don't see it as real. We're so used to special effects, and CGI, that when we see something as stunning as this, we just accept it. When I first saw the ad, it never even crossed my mind that it was real.

By: Aaorn

Aaorn — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 18:09:04 -0800

Anyone know what the song is that starts to play at the end? I know it's not original to the ad because it (the exact same) was background to a flash game a while back.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 18:57:08 -0800

As impressive, the original vehicle was hand-assembled.

By: LinusMines

LinusMines — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 19:10:07 -0800

Anyone know what the song is that starts to play at the end? I know it's not original to the ad because it (the exact same) was background to a flash game a while back. Rapper's Delight -- Sugar Hill Gang

By: jamespake

jamespake — Sat, 19 Apr 2003 03:59:36 -0800

Rapper's Delight -- Sugar Hill Gang Or is it the original Chic Bass line? Can't remember the track because I keep hearing Grandmaster Flash (who also used it).

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sat, 19 Apr 2003 06:10:15 -0800

salmacis - my assumption that it was CG caused me to be even more astonished when I found out that it was reality, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

By: arielmeadow

arielmeadow — Sun, 20 Apr 2003 10:01:35 -0800

According to this article, the advertisement was actually shot it two one minute halves, and then melded together when the exhaust pipe rolls across the floor. Now I'm confused. Is it two shots or one?

By: asok

asok — Tue, 22 Apr 2003 17:44:58 -0800

I agree luriete and PST, had they really not seen The Way Things Go? 'The idea for the advert derived partly from the old children's game Mouse Trap, and from the wacky engineering of Caractacus Potts's breakfast-making machine in the Sixties film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.'