Foghorn Leghorn for Geico

By
on

When we last left the Geico advertising campaign watch, we saw spots featuring Elmer Fudd, The Flintstones and The Princess and The Frog. Now it’s Foghorn Leghorn’s turn:

(Thanks, Misce-Looney-ous)

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  • Autumn

    I laughed.

  • http://www.oddballcomics.com Scott Shaw!

    That’s mot only a rare instance in which highlights and shadows are actually appropriate. it’s also a great end-gag for anyone who knows their classic Warner Bros. cartoons! Who did it?

    • andy jolliff

      Hey Scott, It’s Andy! Long time, no see. Did the compositing on this one, glad you liked it! Renegade Animation, lookin’ sharp!

  • http://www.stringstornasunder.blogspot.com Chris Powell

    Win.

    Chicken Hawk = Double win.

  • Keegan

    Hehe, was alright!

  • b

    why are these commercials better than the new looney tunes show?

    • http://www.stringstornasunder.blogspot.com Chris Powell

      part of the reason i know is because if the quality of the animation. This is just flat out appealing to look at. I am still excited to see the New show though. The clips were funny to me.

  • http://tetecarree.blogspot.com David Gale

    Very nicely animated, but man do I HATE all that soft airbrushy shading!

    • John F A

      I agree- All that shading ruins even the best looking animation. It doesn’t enhance the drawing in any way, and most of the time it just looks like a big grey cloud over the drawing. In 2-D unless the shadow is part of the design,shading should be kept to a minimum.

      If the drawing is any good, an outline should define the object, and the movement of that object should define the volume.

    • http://www.jjsedelmaier.com J.J. Sedelmaier

      I’m with you !

    • Funkybat

      The only time that “shading” really worked at all was in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” Unfortunately, after that, everyone in the Hollywood office suites decided that they wanted any kind of live action/cartoon crossover to have that same “look” and future attempts at it, such as Space Jam & innumerable lesser films and commercials either overdid it or did it wrong. It’s kind of like the cartoon universe’s equivalent of “too much lens flare.” Something that *can* work if done just right here and there, but has now been run into the ground.

  • Kellie

    It’s kinda strange how this turned out to be much funnier than the clips for The Looney Tunes Show were. Great stuff!

    • 2011 Adult

      The Looney Tunes Show looks to need more looney violence! But in MY ordinary sitcom?! NEVAH!

  • http://elblogderg.blogspot.com Roberto

    Pretty well animated and great appearance of Henery Hawk. Nice!

  • http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog michael sporn

    Too bad Mel Blanc isn’t still alive. He gave it less of a “talk” feel and more of a “shout”. Blanc made him aggrevatedly more annoying.

  • http://www.theAMIGOunit.com Nelson

    That was awful! Great job!

  • 2011 Adult

    That gave me a hearty Sunday morning laugh.

    It’s times like these I wonder why they hired horrible writers for Back In Action.

  • http://aalong64.blogspot.com Aaron Long

    This is great! Funny idea and nicely animated.

  • Mike Russo

    LOL that was actually really funny.

  • http://dtoons.com/conroy Failing Art Student

    Now that was funny.

  • Brandon Pierce

    Who is that voicing Foghorn? Bill Farmer or Jeff Bennet?

    • Dr. Ivo Robotnik

      Sounds a lot like Jeff Bennet. Heard a bit of Dexter’s dad in there.

  • Lindsay

    I liked it! It was respectful of the original characters without being too obscure or reverent. It’s one of those rare cases in mainstream media that the audience is assumed to possess a modicum of intellect. Otherwise, I can just hear a meddling suit saying “Ah, folks won’t know who that little brown bird is at the end. Take him out!”

  • http://www.frankpanucci.com Frank Panucci

    Best.

  • Justin Delbert

    I hope it shows up on something my dad likes to watch because Foghorn Leghorn is his absolute favorite Looney Tunes character

    • http://www.oddballcomics.com Scott Shaw!

      Mine, too!

  • mronoc

    The Elmer Fudd Geico ad really bugged me with the quality of animation, but this is significantly better, still not McKimson great, but not bad.

  • Vixie

    I really liked this, I agree, much funnier and better animated than that new Looney Tunes show. I knew when I saw the club sitting next to Henery it would be used, and the decision to not show him using it, but instead having the action offscreen and letting your imagination take over, and the accurate sound effect, to me made this even funnier. If they want to make a new LT show, how about hiring whoever made this commercial to do it?

  • MacDougall

    Everything else in this spot is so close it magnifies the fact that the voice isn’t exactly Foghorn. Foghorn’s voice is arguably the most difficult to replicate in Mel Blanc’s canon. Sound engineers and other voice artists say it’s because Foghorn’s voice (minus the accent) is nearly a voiceprint of Mel’s own. Whatever the reason, nobody yet has quite nailed the rooster, though some very talented people have tried.

    • Funkybat

      Not surprised to hear this. At least there is widespread recognition that Foghorn is tough to replicate, and it’s not just me being picky.

  • Toonio

    I can see the gecko getting the pink slip after this.

  • uncle wayne

    oh, wow….now that IZ a Sunday Morning Treat!! Now I’m dying to see the OTHERS! Where to, boss??

  • Warhead

    Great stuff! I wonder who did the animation…

  • http://deaniac.deviantart.com Deaniac

    First Geico does an Elmer Fudd commercial, now they’re doing Foghorn Leghorn.

    Someone at Geico must really like the Looney Tunes.

    • http://weirdurl.com Zekey

      I think they just really like comedy. In all the years of ads this company has made I can’t think of a “serious” dramatic ad. It’s always light silly often situational humor. It’s always so weird to see one of the very formal Allstate ads come on after one of these.

  • http://www.oddballcomics.com Scott Shaw!

    Who among us knew that Henery Hawk was now a producer of teevee commercials?

  • http://www.drunkduck.com/anecdote Marbles

    This animation is GALAXIES better than the Elmer Fudd one. Awesome.
    Henery Hawk—double awesome.

  • Maxwell Rose

    Give me a break with that “funnier than The Looney Tunes Show crap”. You guys only saw 2 clips (the third (and better animated) clip called Bugs and Daffy Besties was sadly never shown here). The original directors are dead, so why try to copy the same styles of comedy?

    As for the clip, nicely done!

    • John F A

      Why try to copy the same styles of comedy? Oh I don’t know, because maybe the original directors new how to make the characters FUNNY. (Silly me, thinking comedy should be funny.)

      • Maxwell Rose

        *knew

        Methinks if you watch an episode, then you can rant all you want.

      • John A

        A typo. My inability to type doesn’t make what I’ve already seen any funnier.

  • James E. Parten

    HA HA HA HAA!!

    HA HA HA HAA!!

    Some of Geico’s spots are laugh-out-loud funny, while others (usually involving the Gecko) are just as tedious as any commercials seen on network TV. This one falls into the former category.

  • david

    it kind of reminded me of looney toons cover art animated. the airbrush and the almost but not quite off model of the character.

    oh well :(

  • Erin Siegel

    Aw Chicken Hawk! I love that little guy. Him and Dog need more screentime, they had such great bits (especially playing against Foghorn)

  • Jeffrey Gray

    I’m guessing either Renegade or Duck did this?

    • Keith

      Renegade, but I’m not sure of all the credits involved

  • http://hand-drawn-animation.blogspot.com David Nethery

    That was refreshing to see the characters handled pretty much on-model, in-character, and most important , with real hand-drawn full animation. (no symbols or “tweening” in sight) . Nicely done. The Roger Rabbit style tone-mattes and highlights were as usual overdone and added little , but that’s been around for years and this was no worse than dozens of other overly rendered commercials.

    If people want to nitpick about the voice, well, sure it’s not Mel Blanc , but at least they tried to get close.

    I’ve seen (and heard) much worse (including Mel Blanc in his later years, there I said it) so I don’t know why anyone is complaining about this .

    • Funkybat

      Funny you should mention Mel’s later years. I never noticed it until a friend of mine pointed out how different he sounded in the bridging segments of the 70s-80s Looney Tunes movies. When he was a kid, he assumed someone else was doing the voices in those segments, even though it was just “80s Mel” cut between “40s-50s Mel.”

      I think some of his characters deteriorated more than others. I believe one of his final performances were for some KFC commercials with Foghorn in 1988, and he sounded pretty good as Foghorn even then, IMHO.

  • A.C.

    Great. I wish it was these folks who’d get to direct some new shorts to be put out.

  • Glowworm

    I thought this was brilliant–especially the bit with Henery at the end.

  • mike schlesinger

    “Foghorn’s voice is arguably the most difficult to replicate in Mel Blanc’s canon.”

    Oh, I dunno, Kenny Delmar didn’t do too bad a job. ;-)

  • Funkybat

    Amusing, though Foghorn’s voice distracted me. Some of Mel Blanc’s character voices are more easily replicated than others, and I haven’t really heard too many good Foghorn’s since his passing.

    The part where Henery Hawk gets disgusted and goes into the booth to whack him was the best!

  • The Gee

    It was mentioned that dads–in genera– like Foghorn Leghorn…..they seem to like him and Sylvester a lot, from what I’ve seen over the years. In fact, I breath a sign of relief upon hearing that they like those characters over certain others which I won’t name.

    The way the two characters were depicted as carrying themselves and their personalities were classic. And, let’s face it, it seemed like Foghorn was bored and just wanted to cause trouble.

    There’s also a good chance–and i might be wrong– that people know people who are like those characters. So, that gives them a lot of oomph in the popularity contest for dads, young and old.