Taika Waititi sure loves directing Christmas adverts. In 2020, he did the (pre-AI) one for Coca Cola. In 2023, it was Prime Video. And this year, he’s turning his attention to Disney. Why not? I imagine it pays very well.
When it comes to generating festive joy, Disney does have the edge on its rivals. After all, this is the studio responsible for basically creating kids’ imaginations for about a hundred years. Their toybox is huge, and Waititi has fun with it here.
The premise is simple. A kid sends a letter to Santa, complete with a cute little doodle in the bottom left hand corner. The next day, it turns out that the doodle has come to life. Kapow: she has a built-in new friend.
They do everything together: Hallowe’en, summer days at the pool. And this is all soundtracked, by the way, to the sound of You’ve Got A Friend in me. Adults of a certain age, start crying now. Toy Story, you will always be famous.
It’s a very neat shortcut to our heartstrings, especially as this then segues into the sadder part of the ad. As the carol singers come and go, Mr Doodle is upset because he doesn’t have a mouth and can’t join in on the singing. As he clutches his premium Stitch plushie (see what they did there), he looks wistfully into the mirror.
Fortunately, the fix is easy: his pal takes inspiration from Toy Story and wishes for a Mr Potato Head for Christmas the next year. Wham, out comes his mouth, and into the doodle it goes.
Suddenly, he has a (disconcertingly adult) voice. Now, all he can do is talk – to be honest, I kind of preferred him without a mouth. He’s going to get on everybody’s nerves within the next five to ten business days, that’s for sure, but at least the ad closes on a high, with everybody happy. Or at least, the kid is happy.
It’s all very cheerful, inoffensive stuff, and a breezy tribute to the power of children’s imagination. Fuelled by Disney, of course. Now how many kids are going to be asking for a Mr Doodle this Christmas?
