Dairylea Dunkers, the advert that Ray Harryhausen worked on???
When I was a kid during the 1990s, a commercial was broadcast for DairyLea Dunkers, in which it portrays a young cave woman been chased by a caricature of a dinosaur, which catches her and dunks her into a pot of Dairylea Dunkers before being comically told by the narrator to remember to use the provided bread sticks inside the tub. I was immediately hooked and was always glued to the screen when ever I caught sight of it.
The advert was officially called "Dinotime", which can be watched in full bellow.
Little did I know that this was actually produced by Ray Harryhausen!
In recent years I discovered that Merlin Crossingham was actually the animator on this project and Martin O'Neill was the puppet sculptor and armature fabricator.
It was interesting to see that the production of this advert was shot in the saw ways to Ray's earlier works, namely One Million Years B.C. I spoke to Merlin asking him about his time animating on this project,
"Working with Ray was a brilliant experience. I was nervous on the first day but his openness and generosity soon made me feel at home in his company. The main difference for me was that how he expected me to animate. I was booked as the animator and he was the animation director. The plan was to shoot it all in the same way he had made One Million Years B.C. All in camera with live action plates and double exposed stop motion effects. So I turn up on the first day of the shoot with my surface gauges ready to work. Ray looked at them and raised an eyebrow. I had assumed he used surface gauges, I was wrong, he didn’t. Only on the rare occasion that he had to leave the animation set did he use a gauge. Otherwise he took the phone off the hook, put the coffee on and animated straight through. So I had to animate blind. No visual reference to the increments of movement whatsoever. It certainly made me concentrate. As we were shooting on film with a double exposure the camera man (John Swinnerton) and I were nervous wrecks at the morning rushes which was the first time we would see the fruits of our work. As a result I always encourage new stop motion animators who are learning the craft to animate blind. Turn off the monitors and get into the shot. It forces you to focus and animate instinctively."
Interestingly however, this isn't first advert Ray worked on, in his early career during the 1940s, Ray made a few commercials, one for a cigarette company where packets of cigarettes would dance on a tabletop (animated by wires on a rig) and several others for Lakewood Housing, creating the "spokesman" for the commercial, Kenny Key.
Studying the animation and technical methods, its clear to see Ray was using the techniques he developed whilst making his Mother Goose and Fairy Tail shorts, such as the dissolve from one expression to another, and "magically appearing" elements. Also I noted certain things like character quirks, Ray once mentioned to me that he gave Kenny the hat, cane, bow tie and cigar props so that he could animate gestures and give the character personality, he commented saying "he would not have been very entertaining to watch if he was just a naked key".
When I look back at this early part of Ray's career I can't help but think that its steps like this that can help shape a students perspective on what the want to work in within the industry, in Ray's case, it was due to demands from other job opportunities that allowed him to move away from commercial work. We all want to work on that big project that will set your name up in lights, but we all must start at the bottom, and as a way to keep your skills sharp and earn a wage whilst adding another title to your CV, commercial work is not to be scoffed at, it is an opportunity to discover within yourself what it is you enjoy about stopmotion.
I would like to take this opportunity to say Thank You to Merlin for taking part in answering questions for my MA studies and providing me with photos and video of this project.
The advert was officially called "Dinotime", which can be watched in full bellow.
Little did I know that this was actually produced by Ray Harryhausen!
In recent years I discovered that Merlin Crossingham was actually the animator on this project and Martin O'Neill was the puppet sculptor and armature fabricator.
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| Bust of the Dinosaur puppet, used for extreme close ups |
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| left to right, Puppet on animation table with Rear projector, Camera rig set up, Ray Harryhausen and Merlin Crossingham. |
"Working with Ray was a brilliant experience. I was nervous on the first day but his openness and generosity soon made me feel at home in his company. The main difference for me was that how he expected me to animate. I was booked as the animator and he was the animation director. The plan was to shoot it all in the same way he had made One Million Years B.C. All in camera with live action plates and double exposed stop motion effects. So I turn up on the first day of the shoot with my surface gauges ready to work. Ray looked at them and raised an eyebrow. I had assumed he used surface gauges, I was wrong, he didn’t. Only on the rare occasion that he had to leave the animation set did he use a gauge. Otherwise he took the phone off the hook, put the coffee on and animated straight through. So I had to animate blind. No visual reference to the increments of movement whatsoever. It certainly made me concentrate. As we were shooting on film with a double exposure the camera man (John Swinnerton) and I were nervous wrecks at the morning rushes which was the first time we would see the fruits of our work. As a result I always encourage new stop motion animators who are learning the craft to animate blind. Turn off the monitors and get into the shot. It forces you to focus and animate instinctively."
Interestingly however, this isn't first advert Ray worked on, in his early career during the 1940s, Ray made a few commercials, one for a cigarette company where packets of cigarettes would dance on a tabletop (animated by wires on a rig) and several others for Lakewood Housing, creating the "spokesman" for the commercial, Kenny Key.
Studying the animation and technical methods, its clear to see Ray was using the techniques he developed whilst making his Mother Goose and Fairy Tail shorts, such as the dissolve from one expression to another, and "magically appearing" elements. Also I noted certain things like character quirks, Ray once mentioned to me that he gave Kenny the hat, cane, bow tie and cigar props so that he could animate gestures and give the character personality, he commented saying "he would not have been very entertaining to watch if he was just a naked key".
When I look back at this early part of Ray's career I can't help but think that its steps like this that can help shape a students perspective on what the want to work in within the industry, in Ray's case, it was due to demands from other job opportunities that allowed him to move away from commercial work. We all want to work on that big project that will set your name up in lights, but we all must start at the bottom, and as a way to keep your skills sharp and earn a wage whilst adding another title to your CV, commercial work is not to be scoffed at, it is an opportunity to discover within yourself what it is you enjoy about stopmotion.
I would like to take this opportunity to say Thank You to Merlin for taking part in answering questions for my MA studies and providing me with photos and video of this project.
As a huge Harryhausen fan, the Dino Time advert is one of my favourites. Hats off to you guys- it must have taken a lot of time and effort. I can imagine animating the tiny cavewoman puppet must have taken a huge amount of attention to detail too. Do you have any other pictures of the shoot?
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