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Anybody remember when CGI animals were all the rage in commercials? Honestly, I feel like CGI critters should stick to just being in ads, instead of movies. After watching the hideous CGI Sonic in the trailer for his new movie, I thought I'd go back and watch some old commercials with non-horrifying CGI animals. That's when I rediscovered the "Ray & Carl" commercials made for Blockbusters.

The commercials revolved around a guinea pig named Ray (played by Jim Belushi) and Carl (played by James Woods) and they're misadventures in a cage outside of Blockbuster video. For some reason, they know a lot about movies, despite spending their entire lives in a cage. To be fair, I really shouldn't be questioning the logic behind these two anthropomorphic CGI animals.

The commercials were somewhat entertaining. They were filled with a lot of mom jokes, including some "twerking" back before there was an official name for it and we just called it "booty-shaking". Despite the shininess of the fur and the overtly realistic look of the animals, I still dug these commercials. For some reason, the idea of two sentient animals living next door to a video rental store just seemed entertaining to me. Would've been hilarious if they had commercials where the animals broke out and started running around the rental store, like those scenes in Toy Story 2 where they are in the toy store.

Sadly, everything took place in the cage and they never really left it to go have adventures. :C The ads themselves played for a few years, but then disappeared... Until it resurfaced with a new ad in 2007. I always wondered why they brought these characters back after 5 years, only for them to appear in a singular ad. That's when I realized that 2007 was the year Netflix started its streaming service. So, Blockbuster probably saw the signs and brought back their mascots in an attempt to save their brand.

It didn't really work, and not only was 99.99% of all Blockbuster outlets shut down over the years, but the characters were never used again. It's a shame too, because I think if you reworked the characters and brought them back you could have them appeal to new audiences. Maybe make them fully anthro and go full furry, try appealing to the Zootopia crowd perhaps? Honestly, the idea of rodents played by Hades from Hercules and Discount Bill Murray is too hard to pass up!

P.S. I will one day do a TF featuring these guys, because I'm predictable.

Description
Anybody remember when CGI animals were all the rage in commercials? Honestly, I feel like CGI critters should stick to just being in ads, instead of movies. After watching the hideous CGI Sonic in the trailer for his new movie, I thought I'd go back and watch some old commercials with non-horrifying CGI animals. That's when I rediscovered the "Ray & Carl" commercials made for Blockbusters.

The commercials revolved around a guinea pig named Ray (played by Jim Belushi) and Carl (played by James Woods) and they're misadventures in a cage outside of Blockbuster video. For some reason, they know a lot about movies, despite spending their entire lives in a cage. To be fair, I really shouldn't be questioning the logic behind these two anthropomorphic CGI animals.

The commercials were somewhat entertaining. They were filled with a lot of mom jokes, including some "twerking" back before there was an official name for it and we just called it "booty-shaking". Despite the shininess of the fur and the overtly realistic look of the animals, I still dug these commercials. For some reason, the idea of two sentient animals living next door to a video rental store just seemed entertaining to me. Would've been hilarious if they had commercials where the animals broke out and started running around the rental store, like those scenes in Toy Story 2 where they are in the toy store.

Sadly, everything took place in the cage and they never really left it to go have adventures. :C The ads themselves played for a few years, but then disappeared... Until it resurfaced with a new ad in 2007. I always wondered why they brought these characters back after 5 years, only for them to appear in a singular ad. That's when I realized that 2007 was the year Netflix started its streaming service. So, Blockbuster probably saw the signs and brought back their mascots in an attempt to save their brand.

It didn't really work, and not only was 99.99% of all Blockbuster outlets shut down over the years, but the characters were never used again. It's a shame too, because I think if you reworked the characters and brought them back you could have them appeal to new audiences. Maybe make them fully anthro and go full furry, try appealing to the Zootopia crowd perhaps? Honestly, the idea of rodents played by Hades from Hercules and Discount Bill Murray is too hard to pass up!

P.S. I will one day do a TF featuring these guys, because I'm predictable.