This adorable Aardman Animation short film titled “Stay clear, stay safe” is a cautionary tale about water safety in Canada. Via Adweek:
“Initially, we had this idea to tell a classic underdog tale about a little boy,” Meghan Kraemer, associate creative director at the Hive, which developed the campaign, tells Adweek. “At the end of the spot, in old age, he’d finally get his moment, only to be surprised by the perilous waters of the dam. It stemmed from learning that our target—in some cases, people who have lived around OPG dams for their entire lives—may have a false sense of confidence, thinking they can predict when the dam will open or have some sense of the danger before it’s too late.”
The creative team planned a live-action spot, and at one point envisioned a singing beaver as the star.
Ultimately, they chose to “tell a more insightful, meatier story” using stop-motion animation with a narrative music track, rather than going for quirky laughs or dark humor like Melbourne Metro’s classic “Dumb Ways to Die.”
“We thought about (fire safety icon) Smokey Bear as a reference for delivering an important message in a very approachable way,” Kraemer says.
Along with Smokey, the Hive drew inspiration from “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Portlandia’s “Rats” and Jim Henson’s “Emmett Otter’s Jugband.”
Felice Haymos, who designed characters for “Mr. Fox” and Wes Anderson’s recent film “Isle of Dogs,” helped bring Dammy and his furry friends to life.
Aardman Animation has been the source of many beloved stop motion classics, in particular the massively popular Wallace and Gromit series.