The making of an animated Super Bowl ad

If you haven’t seen Dragon, this amazing commercial for United Airlines, here’s your chance. The piece is stop-motion animation using cut-out paper characters. The provided link also has a short making-of doc that details the process of creating the animation and all of the people involved. The making of special stars the ad’s director, Jamie Caliri, who also brought us the brilliant closing credit sequence from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

(Thanks, Devin!)

  • I'm glad I was able to see the ad even though I missed out when it aired during the Super Bowl. Seeing the amount of work and dedication put into it makes me appreciate it even more.
  • That was beautiful.
  • joy
    have you seen Nanny McFee? I think they did the credits for that too. CUTE!
  • andy
    i'm not impressed. though some effects are beautifully made, the overall all result is quite boring. the story is flat and has no wit really...
  • VERY inspiring making-of short.
  • It was the only highlight for me after again watching another lame superbowl. I thought the piece turned out beautifully, and its great to see United using animation and illustration.
  • Excellent commercial, and the making of featurette was even better.
    And just to clear things up, they are not responsible for the end credits of Nanny McPhee, the company Voodoodog is. I think the Nanny McPhee ones pale in comparision to the Lemony Snicket end sequence.
  • wow. that was amazing. both the actual film and the making of. it's cool that united not only used animation, but put together the making of film.

    i'm left completely inspired.

    -jarrett
  • Oli
    How dose the fact that this project was created and funned by a corporation to sell a product affect its artistic merit?
  • Very good this advertising.

    http://www.nikera.com
  • Lovely

    **If you love this...Please check out Yuri Norstein's animation-a master of paper stop-motion..hands down.
  • Wow. That was really wonderful. Loved the commercial and the behind-the-scenes very much. SOO inspiring.

    ~Ray
  • This is a great chance to see a very specialized artform in the making. Even in the midst of compters and CGI, it's refreshing to see good ol' fashioned cut paper and tactile materials come to life via persistence of vision.
  • Alnighter
    It is much to my amazement that anyone could make a wonderful piece as Dragon!! I find it more inspiring than any Pixar movie put together. I was so happy and thankful that such artist with the passion to create a memorable short, exist in my time that I just gotta email him and did!! I can't wait to hear his reply.

    It is hard for me to think and know that anyone could find the piece so trite.
    It's so magical and breath-taking!! And because it is short, it leaves us hanging - wanting for more and yet knowing that we can't. And it's okay.

    As for the making of Dragon clip, I was brought to tears watching those guys slave away to quench our dried eyes - sore of too much 3d. After I watched the clip, Jamie Caliri, Alex,Todd, Soein (I don't know how to spell it), Morgan, and Blanchett (?) all have become my idols!!! CHEERS TO THESES ARTISTS - May they continue stop-motion animation forever after!!!
  • guy
    i do this sort of thing for a living. i've spent the last couple of weeks trying to guess whether this was computer or real paper. these guys found a wonderful middle ground of aesthetics. it has the richness of something real, but the smoothness and control that is typical of computers. it's incredible really. and the fact that the mahor corporation actually posted a making of is so unusual as well. thanks to this website for helping me find that.
  • James
    Rediculous, how absolutely beautiful this ad really is.
  • I directed the behind the scenes film of the recent United commercial featuring Jamie Caliri and his wonderful team and I want to say a big thank you for haviing the sensitivty to appreciate our work. So much advertsing is crass and lacking in any craft that this job highlighted for me just how brilliant Jamie's work was. But I also want to point out that some credit should go you the Ad Agency (Fallon in Minneapolis) who in this instance had the orignal idea, selected Jamie to execute it, gave hm the time and resources necessary and the good taste to leave him and the team alone. They also did everything right. No question this is Jamie's triumph but well it takes a village!
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