55 Nash Commercial (Mickey & Pluto)

[ramblergarage]

the put the headlights in the grille in the style of the Nash-Healey sports car not to be different from the Hudson.

[ramblergarage]

those were beautiful cars and way ahead of thier time. unitized bodies with crumple zones, air conditioning, mcphersen type suspension, fantastic heaters, reclining seats that made into a bed.

[popbabyface22]

i forgot mickey used to look like dat

[elenarobert]

why are the beatles at he end of this vidio???

[takoma5]

Yes Pluto..The 55 Nash sure is a beauty..LoL

[zukomatico]

very ugli car in this times one house was cheaper than car , now the car is suck

[Mesterius1]

Yikes, Mickey and Pluto UPA-style! My first thought was that Pluto didn't look too good... but the stylized, square appearance of Mickey is just pretty terrible in my eyes! Such re-designing of classic characters can of course work well, but it has to be done with an understanding of what makes the character in the first place. In this case, all the appeal from the classic, round design of Mickey is lost... a truly ill-conceived modernization.

[pokemanmaster03]

@Mesterius1 But Mickey's original design was so basic that the only appeal that came from it was how round it was. Not to mention it was very symmetrical, which made it look mechanical. This UPA-esque Mickey makes him look much more slick, cute and distinct, although i think Mickey looked his best in the short "The Little Whirlwind" when Fred Moore altered his design to make him look more organic looking. I wish it had stuck...

[jennytablina]

Interesting! Though Pluto looks really well animated save for a few moments where he looks kind of angular too. Methinks a new kid at the time got this assignment. The UPA style would not never gone down well with Walt otherwise

[hebneh]

Too bad it was so god-awful ugly. But they couldn't afford to restyle very dramatically by that time - and it shows.

[1947Desoto]

The '55 Nash isn't ugly at all. You want an ugly car, try the '89 Pylmouth Voyager.

[yakacm]

The reason mickey is animated like that, UPA style, is one reason it's cheap. Probably shooting two of the same frame, instead of doing ones 50% less drawing twice as cheap, and there isn't much background, not much of anything realy. Advertising annimation is an art form in itself, today it is all done on computer but back then it needing to be knocked out realy quickly and cheaply, the main artist would do the keys and then get the tea boy to fill in the tweens, which is what software does now

[Marbles471]

yakacm: Just want to clear up some misconceptions: Most full animation, even old Disney stuff, is shot on twos (12 drawings per second, each shot twice), instead of ones (24 drawings per second). Ones are usually saved for certain scenes (when they can afford it) or fast action (where twos can look bad).

An example of something done completely on ones, however, is "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". In that case, twos would have been impossible--for obvious reasons.

[1947Desoto]

Good to know, as I'm going to animation school soon. Are you a cartoon historian?

[Marbles471]

Naw. I know a HELLUVA lot, but not nearly enough to go around calling myself a historian.

What school are you about to go to?

[1947Desoto]

School of Visual Arts. Traditional animation of course! When it comes to cartoons I like Popeye and Woody Woodpecker from the 1940's. Don't get me wrong, I love Disney features, but Popeye's zainey nautical wartime antics can be very funny.

[Buick61]

"Thrill Test" That's an awesome way to refer to a test drive!

[Marbles471]

Whoa! I never knew Mickey was ever animated in a modern UPA-influenced style. (Personally, I don't think this design works for him, but that's beside the point.)

Given how aesthetically conservative Walt Disney was, it's surprising he allowed this. He was not a fan of the angular styles that were popular in the 50s. I guess he allowed it in commercials because they were at the forefront of modern design. But he definitely wouldn't have let Mickey look like that in a regular cartoon.

[1947Desoto]

I agree. However I noticed some of the non-Micky shorts in the 50's had a UPA style. "Pigs is Pigs" and "Anyburg USA" are 2good examples. Especially "Pigs is Pigs" which contains more "cartoon" styled movement rather than realistic style that Disney was known for.

[Marbles471]

Yeah, shoulda mentioned those. Disney was never a fan of those cartoons, as I understand it. He let them be made, but he didn't encourage more like them. In any case, the shorts were ending around then anyway, so any conflicts that might have developed further between Disney and modern-minded staffers (like Ward Kimball) would have been moot.

[SMC1706]

beautiful car

[sortashaman]

What a classic! I esp. liked how Mickey strutted out of the yard!

[MLOENTAL]

KINDA UGLY TO ME

[bongomanfromdalou]

Considering that Nash didn't open its front fenders until its last model year, 1957, it's a miracle any Nash built after 1949 handled well at all...and they jumped the shark when they moved the headlights into the grille...but they had to so they could be distinguished from the '55 Hudsons!

[emofarms]

the 1955 Nash Ambassador V8 used a 320 cubic inch Packard V8 and Packards Twin Ultramatic automatic transmission.

The Nashes rode soft and did not corner well.

[Eltee650]

I thought Dad's new 55 Ambassador was ugly, but now I see it as a work of art. It had 6 cylinders w/standard shift, was driven nearly 200 thousand miles and no major repairs! I think it wore out at least three water pumps in 8 years. Thanks for posting that...brought back some good memories.

[CptTuttle]

My grandfather had a 1955 Nash once upon time... Quite interesting ad.

[enigmawing]

Wow, I never knew Mickey was animated like this o.O

[fromthesidelines]

American Motors [Nash division] was one of the first sponsors of "DISNEYLAND" in 1954-'55. And this commercial was created to appear exclusively during the show. The animation was probably done by a Disney unit- in the "UPA" style that Walt didn't particularly care for.

[kiptw]

Pluto Nash! Haw, haw.

[MaggieLeber]

My father owned a '55 Ambassador...scary to think that this ad might have sold it to him.

[martiniisgood]

I LOVE the animation. That is wonderful.

[CaptainPunjab]

That Mickey looks almost unrecognizable. It's funny how they've never changed Pluto, despite most of the other characters' changes.

[MrBongers]

Bizarro. They drew Pluto as normal ,

but did this lame, faux UPA "Micky"...

Makes no sense design-wise... if Micky

gets revisioned as imitation UPA

Moderne then why not Pluto . Yucko.