Coca-Cola

"I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in this project. Being able to make something truly unique, whose foundation lies in Chinese tradition but that's manifested in a modern way. Harmonizing the old with the new and surprising people with something at once familiar and completely unexpected. It was a fun journey."

-Yves Geleyn

NARRATIVE & STORY

In Chinese culture, the Lunar New Year is the biggest, most important festival. During LNY, the entire family comes together to reconnect, bond, and celebrate the beginning of the new year. However, amid modern society and changing social norms, the lack of a common ground often causes a generational divide between Chinese youths and their elders. Within this context and within this world, our story unfolds. Along the way, a rift between family members is mended by a simple reminder of what’s important, and a series of powerful undercurrent layers propels the story forward. There’s the broad layer of Chinese culture and tradition. There's the importance of family gatherings to share stories and connect. There are the ongoing and familiar themes of the old mixing with the new.

NARRATIVE & STORY (CONT.)

And of course, there’s a humble yet heroic bottle of Coca-Cola as the central catalyst of the real and magical family reconnection. Coca-Cola has, after all, long been a must-have fixture at any LNY dinner table. It’s the symbol of real magic and family bonding. So after a lot of research and study, the team was inspired to find a unique way to tell the story of how a family is reconnected during LNY over a bottle of Coca-Cola.

LOOK & FEEL

The world is, in some ways, like an elegant nature documentary brought to animated life. The landscape is lush, painterly, graphic, and distinctly Chinese—inspired by the majestic Tianzi Mountain and karst topography of Guilin. Through color, lighting, and attention to small details like plant shape and foliage, there is no mistaking where this story takes place.

The characters meanwhile are brought to life in textural & sculptural CG. The family of tigers—in honor of the Year of the Tiger—are gloriously vibrant and bold. According to Yves, "I was ignited in my research by the wondrous and rich history of Chinese folk, art, sculpture, and culture and all of the different, yet recognizable ways they represent tigers. Their shapes pushed into a more graphic world and their faces and stripes were made into complex patterns. Wooden marionettes and sculptures complemented the paint workings or differing wood grains."

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"One of the best aspects of this project is that almost everything was done in-house in Hornet's studio. It's always such a pleasure to have such a close-knit & talented team of artists working together. And I'm very proud of the result—a nice mix of almost stop-motion style CG (led by Natalia Perez) and graphic & painterly texture."

-Yves Geleyn

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ANTHROPOMORPHIC CHARACTERIZATION

How the tigers move, look, and interact with each other plays a big role in the evolution of the story. Far more than a simple aesthetic choice, the design decisions around their movements and makeup are—as is always the case with Yves—narratively driven. These tigers seamlessly move between animal-like (running, jumping, and leaping from all fours) to anthropomorphized (hanging decorations, setting a table, drinking Coca-Cola). The ebb and flow between these two styles is what helps further establish and symbolize the reconciliation and reconnection that happens between the father and son.

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CINEMATIC SCORE

Accompanying the cinematographic feeling of the film is a delightfully traditional-meets-modern musical score. Renowned composer (and longtime friend of Hornet) Ambrose Yu composed the music. It's inspired by traditional Chinese music with its plucky pentatonics and organic instrumentation, yet modern in its cinematically suspenseful builds and falls. The overall tone is thus familiar yet unexpected—a fitting song & dance with the general vibe of the film. Or, as Yves says, "Ambrose nailed it."

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360 CAMPAIGN

In addition to the 60-second spot, we also adapted the toolkit of the tiger to be suited for various other promotional elements for Ogilvy China and Coca-Cola to use in a 360 cross-platform Lunar New Year celebration. Within the toolkit, we provided assets for a mobile video game (to be played individually or with the entire family) and a 3D billboard animation that launched in major cities across China.

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