Smartphone-maker Oppo launches new flagship in China with 10 animated films

After being appointed to the agency roster of Chinese smartphone brand Oppo, Mother Shanghai has created a campaign to launch the company’s new flagship phone Reno2. The campaign will initially run in China, but is slated to roll out across other key markets for the brand. 

The agency has created 10 distinct animated films of 15-second duration as part of the campaign. The voiceover on all the films says ‘Reno is coming’.

Speaking about the campaign, Mother Shanghai joint executive creative directors Winson and Wanshi said: “We had a simple message to convey – the Reno2 is coming. So we decided to work with a variety of artists, illustrators and directors to creatively bring that to life in a collection of entertaining shorts.” 

‘Birds nest’ director Laurie Rowan said: “The design considerations centred around expressing a lot in a short amount of time. I wanted to set the scenario and have the characters go through a range of emotions before the final reveal.

“For this reason, I pared the characters down to what would be bare minimum to make them recognisable as birds and put all the emphasis on their eyes as an expressive tool. The see sawing nest felt like a good comedic tool, that was fast and volatile enough to establish itself as a concept in the time we had available.”

‘Wrestler’ director Sam Southward said: ““Our story is all about high energy, weight and impact, anticipating the arrival and excitement of the Reno2. I felt that digital stop motion with an organic and tactile feel would be great to create a colourful, fast paced and memorable animation.”

‘Ice cream’ director Felix Massie said: “I wanted to make the day look as wonderful and hot as possible, so we have bright colours and lots of glow. It’s a beautiful day – and so that means, should something terrible happen to the ice creams in this spot, it’s all the funnier.

“Fortunately, we had a heatwave at the beginning of the project so we could go out and film a genuinely melt-inducing day and then get some ice creams to inspire the look for the commercial to make sure it’s perfectly accurate. I may have had more than one just to make sure.”

‘Creatures’ director Jarrod Prince said: “My spot for Reno2 is influenced by Hayao Miyazaki films and 90s nostalgia. I wanted the aesthetic to feel like Spirited Away meets Twin Peaks.”

‘Karate’ director Michael Shiao Chen said: “It is a whimsical and comedic take on the ubiquitous concrete breaking demonstrations by martial artists. It’s a ‘what if the concrete didn’t break?’ scenario that flips expectations on its head (excuse the pun).

“The art style is cemented (I can go at this all day) in strong graphical shapes as well as drawing on tropes from Japanese anime. The eastern influences extend through to the score, with its Kabuki undertones adding to the exaggerated theatrics of the piece.”

‘K9’ director Robertino Zambrano sai: “Sausages are a metaphor for our deepest regrets – no matter how deep you bury them, there’s always that gumshoe that will dig it up.

“I wanted to create an aesthetic which felt like a genre mashup where hardboiled noir gets crossed with a retro sci-fi cybernetic organism, depicted in a graphic novel sensibility. I played with a dynamic stippling technique to use as minimal amount of tonal values as possible, and focused on having fun playing with light and shadow shapes to raise the tension in the scene.”

‘Security’ directors Haein Kim and Paul Rhodes said: “Our style is simple, fun and funny. Hopefully it’s evident in this little piece.”

‘Hair’ director Greg Sharp said: “This style is digital stop-motion cut out. Stop-motion is the oldest style of animation – well over 100 years old – but it still feels fresh. If you do it well, it gives a surreal, magical sensation.”

‘Cat’ and ‘Scientist’ director Jack Cunningham said: “The ident stokes up a nostalgic Muppets vibe, art directed to feel reminiscent of the taxidermy exhibits seen at the Natural History Museum. The house cat is viewed in its favourite natural habitat, the living room sofa.

“The Scientist is a 3D, 1970s sci fi trip down into the depths of a secret lab, doing very secret things. The ident is made up of completely CG imagery, however each texture and surface has been painstakingly referenced from real air-fix models and 3D printed sculptures. This all helps ground the spot with a tactile, stop motion aesthetic.”