This year's John Lewis Christmas advert isn't the emotional rollercoaster we're all used to and after all that #BounceBounce build-up, a lot of people were left, well, disappointed...
So if you're still looking to cry into a tin of Quality Street – Sainsbury's 2016 Christmas advert actually SLEIGHS.
Directed by the award-winning Sam Fell, the stop frame animation ad tells the charming story of Dave – a hard-working and devoted dad who comes up with a genius plan to make sure he's home in time for Christmas.
The musical advert sees Dave's story told via an original song, 'The Greatest Gift for Christmas is Me', composed by Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie and sung by none other than The Late Late Show host James Corden.
It opens with Dave a bit overwhelmed in the animated town of Bisby before he discovers a gingerbread man decorated just like him one night and – instead of eating it like we would – he has a brainwave.
At the toy factory where he works, Dave creates a series of replica versions of himself in various forms – tapping monkey and toy planes, among others – and sends them to all the places he should be, leaving him free to spend Christmas with the family.
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Awww.
Launching first on Sainsbury's social media channels, the full 3"20 advert will air for the first time tonight (November 14) during I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! at 9.15pm as part of ITV's Proud to Present series.
The campaign will raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, with all money raised going towards providing accommodation for families of children at the hospital.
Taking 16 weeks to build the sets and puppets, the advert features 26 characters in total with more than 1,000 separate puppet faces created. It took 420 hours to film the stop frame portion in the studio, with a further eight weeks in post-production for editing.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
