Remember the California Raisins? Children of the 1980s probably recall them fondly.
Aside from advertising ... well, raisins from California, they became a sensation because of their R&B cover tunes and animator Will Vinton's "claymation" process of stop-motion animating with clay. And then there were the toys, and the collectible figures from Hardee's...
The effort to revive the Raisins is being spearheaded by a man named Rusty Citron, who envisions the characters returning in a movie for the big screen that's part CGI and part live-action, much like what was done with The Smurfs movies.
Cartoon Brew's Amid Amidi reports that Citron told him personally that he's developing a California Raisins movie for a projected late 2016 or early 2017 release. It sounds like Citron's been working on the potential project for quite a while. Amidi reports that Citron pitched his ideas to the California Raisin Marketing Board in February, followed by a presentation to another group involved called the Raisin Bargaining Association.
Citron, president and founder of the Actors Hall of Fame Foundation, promises to release more details about the movie later this year, including production and distribution details.
It's rare that a marketing campaign becomes so popular that it transcends PR, becoming a worthwhile property in its own right. It has happened before, but there have been a lot more misses (remember TV show Cavemen, based on Geico's ads?) than hits.
Here's hoping the Raisins fare better.
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