Some History
If you can claim to have worked with Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Babe Ruth, Rocky Balboa, Bruce Lee and The Karate Kid, you've got more than an eclectic resume. London's Loose Moose Animation has not only worked with these celebrities, they can make a literal claim to having created them anew.

Founded in 1994 by producer Glenn Holberton and director/animator Ken Lidster, Loose Moose is perhaps best known for its work on an award-winning commercial campaign for Lipton BRISK Ice Tea, created for New York advertising agency J. Walter Thompson (JWT).

The black-and-white commercials use stop-frame model animation and computer-generated imagery to reveal celebrities hampered by flagging energy and spirit ("I'm bluer than my blue suede shoes," says an incarcerated King of Rock 'n Roll), each of whom is revived and reinvigorated by the BRISK beverage.

A Brisk Campaign
"We have been working on the BRISK campaign for some four years now," says Holberton, with a deferential smile. "It's a great campaign, and it has been very good to us. It is certainly the biggest project we've had at Loose Moose yet." And that history includes a whole lot more than those BRISK ads.

Loose Moose has helped create engaging, imaginative and decidedly irreverent spots for everything from snack foods and green beans to oral hygeine products, and parliamentary elections. In Europe, the company is perhaps best known for its work with Ammirati Puris Lintas, London, on a series of in-your-face ads for Peperami, a snack that is always ready to bite you back.

Cutting Teeth at Clearwater
Starting his film career in 1978, Holberton cut his producing teeth at Clearwater Films, the world-renowned team behind the immensely popular children's series Thomas the Tank Engine. After co-founding Turner Holberton Films in 1986, where he helped create the first commercial ever to be broadcast in the former Soviet Union. In 1989, Holberton began a five-year association with the scathing satire of Spitting Image, a live-action puppet production company, which specialized in caustic caricatures of virtually every celebrity one could mention. That same year, Holberton shared a Cannes' Golden Lion Award, before co-founding Bare Boards with model-animation director Barry Purves.

On to Bare Boards
It was at Bare Boards that Holberton met and began working with Lidster, a Canadian ex-patriate and graduate of England's National Film School. Born in Outlook, Saskatchewan, Lidster studied animation at the Emily Carr College in Vancouver, then worked in Toronto for a time. Winning the 1991 Best Animated Short BAFTA Award for "Balloon," his final project at the National Film School, Lidster animated commercials for director Gerry Anderson and Aardman Animations, before hooking up with Bare Boards. When Purves went to work on director Tim Burton's ambitious Mars Attacks!, in 1994, Holberton and Lidster decided it was a good time to create their own company. With an established working relationship, a devoted client list and a plethora of industry contacts, all the two really needed for their new company was a name.

From whence the Loose Moose
"We challenged each other to come up with a name," says Holberton. "We went off by ourselves and came up with literally pages and pages of possibilities, then tried to agree on something we'd both like. Between us, we came up with everything from Outlook Films, after Ken's birthplace, to The Oxymorons and Beam-Me-Up-Scotty Productions. In the end, we agreed on Loose Moose because it was fun and just a little bit zany. We then retired to celebrate at the nearby Loose Moose Bar."

Although the bar has since closed its doors, Loose Moose Animation has continued to grow and thrive. Holberton and Lidster were joined in 1995 by director and animator Ange Palethorpe, a former fine arts student and subsequent graduate of the National Film and TV School. Like Lidster before her, Palethorpe's final project was worthy of much acclaim. Her 10-minute short film Altered Ego garnered a Gold Hugo, in Chicago, and Best First Film at the Ottawa International Film Festival.

In 1996 JWT and BRISK came calling
"We did a commercial for Mott's Apple Sauce," remembers Holberton. "JWT had been unable to find anyone to satisfy their creative desires. As it turned out, we were able to step in and provide them with a solution. It was with that spot, I think, that Loose Moose acquired a reputation for solving big problems. I just pulled Ken in and we provided a solution that fared really well and, in fact, still looks good today. When JWT came up with the idea for a BRISK spot featuring Frank Sinatra, they immediately asked us to come up with some creative solutions."

The rest, as they say, is history. Subsequent BRISK spots have featured the voice talents of Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and reviled New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, together with some complex, extremely funny animation from Loose Moose.

Rock 'N BRISK
Having just completed the most recent BRISK spot, this time featuring Elvis Presley, godfather of soul James Brown, country legend Willie Nelson and rapper Coolio, the Loose Moose team is already on new challenges.

Holberton is particularly enthusiastic when speaking about Thunder Pig, directed by Palethorpe, and a Loose Moose / Vanguard Films production for Nickelodeon. "Thunder Pig will be very special and wonderful," says Holberton mysteriously. "I am very excited about it."

Short Films in Production
Between commercials, Lidster is developing two short films, one with the BBC, the other a Loose Moose Production entitled Interrogating Ernie, in which a hardened New York cop browbeats Ernie, a smart-mouthed dinosaur who knows more about the extinction of his species than he is letting on. As he gradually breaks down under questioning, Ernie introduces and articulates a variety of age-old theories on the subject. Wackiness ensues. With a little luck, Interrogating Ernie will be playing soon at animation festivals the world over. Whether watching Loose Moose's commercial work or their short films, however, one thing becomes clear, the Moose is most definitely Loose, and there is certainly more ­ much more ­ to come.