Disney grounds Christmas magic in Americana

Dougal Wilson has directed a classic American Christmas tale, once again proving Disney’s mastery of imagination, especially at Christmas.

Disney films have always been a Christmas mainstay, but in recent years, its Christmas ads have earned a near-equal place on the festive calendar.

While the last two were chock-full of film references, this one, ‘The Invisible Horse’, is largely an ode to Toy Story’s Woody, with a little bit of Frozen thrown in.

Although cinematic and sentimental, it's a fairly understated effort from Disney, and succeeds all the more for it.

The film launches Disney’s broader ‘Make the Holidays Magic’ platform, encompassing ‘entertainment, experiences and gifting’, as well as the brand’s continued support for Make-A-Wish.

In the latest, adam&eve\TBWA and director Dougal Wilson introduce Jack, a boy seemingly reaching the age where Christmas has lost some of its magic.

While his family decorates the tree, he heads outside and spots a trail of hoofprints appearing mysteriously in the snow. There is no animal attached to them, at this point, so the boy assumes, fairly logically, that the invisible animal is a horse.

Jack goes on to befriend the invisible creature, and, after watching Frozen 2 with his family and seeing Elsa ride the water spirit Nokk, he decides to ride his own horse.

The antics make him the subject of mockery for his non-believing classmates, who are presented with the classic High School bully tropes.

Anyway, by the end of the ad, it’s slowly revealed that Jack’s equine companion is actually a reindeer, and that there’s a whole herd of the invisible beasts, who majestically fly off at the end.

The ad is soundtracked, neatly, by Roger Miller’s Oo-De-Lally from Disney’s 1973 Robin Hood.

Director credits

Wilson definitely gets the assignment here. Before directing Paddington in Peru, he made memorable Christmas advertising, including John Lewis’s ‘Monty the Penguin’, ‘Buster the Boxer’ and ‘Excitable Edgar '.

There is even a strangely appropriate predecessor in his spot for mobile brand Three, featuring a dancing Shetland pony.

For Disney, meanwhile, it marks a change behind the camera. Its recent festive films were directed by (the now even more famous) Taika Waititi, with last year’s focusing on giving.

This year's story shifts the emphasis towards belief, imagination and family connection, and it feels the most traditional of the set.

Lee Jury, senior vice-president, marketing EMEA at Disney, describes the film as: “emotionally rich, visually inventive and full of warmth”, adding that it “sparks imagination and reminds us that a little magic can make a big difference”.

Our take

Conceptually, Disney isn't exactly wandering into uncharted territory here. What saves this is how effectively they nail the seasonal sentiment. It’s simple, yet it feels original and warm.

And, frankly, the simplicity makes a nice change from the ‘count-the-references’ approach to filmmaking in Taika Waititi’s films. As fun as that was, another year of the same might've come across as too self-congratulatory.

The 'invisible animal' plot device isn’t going to win any originality awards either, but it fits in with the roster of ‘childhood imagination’ nods we’ve already seen this season via Tesco Ireland in particular.

We’ve been universally glowing about all the recent year’s Disney ads, and this one is no exception. It seems we can trust the Mouse crew to remind us that Christmas magic still exists, if you believe it does.

Credits

Brand: Disney
Agency: adam&eve\TBWA
Director: Dougal Wilson
Production: Blink Productions/Blinkink
Music: Oo-De-Lally, Roger Miller