Millie Bobby Brown Brings the Holiday Spirit for Pandora's Slick Animation
The holidays are about coming together. And this holiday advert, created for Pandora by Hornet director Andy Baker, is a prime example of just how feel-good a brand film can be when everything comes together just right.
'One Lovely Day' is a mixed media film about spreading love and the joy of gifting to neighbors and friends all around the world during the holiday season—even if doing so this year might be difficult. It brings together the 2D talents of Andy Baker Studio along with an inspiring cast of celebrity ambassadors including Millie Bobby Brown, Coco & Breezy, and the Pandora Muses—a global collective of inspiring women that includes: Nathalie Emmanuel, Halima Aden, Georgia May Jagger, Larsen Thompson, Tasya Van Ree, and Margaret Zhang.
For Andy, this was an exciting challenge. He’s a director known for character-focused 2D animation mixed with bold colors and a love of 90’s art, street-skate style, and music culture. But to refine that style a bit—to create something a little more realistic, even a little more feminine and fashion-oriented—was a great way for Andy to expand his portfolio and showcase his range.
The most fascinating design challenge came from molding together the real world with the animated one. Throughout the film, there are multiple live action sequences. These were actually filmed by the actresses themselves, mostly on their iPhones. Andy’s job was to piece together these scenes with the animations. And the animations, of course, conversely needed to play nicely with the real world. How do you, for instance, actually capture the unique personalities of each celebrity ambassador in animated form?
In Andy’s words: “It’s a balance of shape and line and forms and can sometimes be as simple as taking some lines away or isolating the unique features of each person but not making them too over the top. All of the ambassadors are so iconic in their own right and it’s so important with character design to really get the essence of each person in there.”
The results, at least according to the celebrity ambassadors themselves, are top notch. As Lucia Davies, EP at Andy Baker Studio, explained: “It was an exciting project to work on, this was the first time any of these inspiring women had ever seen themselves in animated format.”
Halima Aden, model and Pandora muse, attests. “Pandora is all about cherishing memories, and seeing myself as a cartoon for the first time is definitely a memory I will keep with me. It’s so fun.”
In short, this holiday campaign for Pandora proves that when the spirit of love and togetherness is in full (giftbox sleigh) flight, commercial production magic can happen.
