Thunderbirds’ Dancing Brains

Brains – from the classic British series Thunderbirds – is featured in a new viral ad for Drench bottled water in the UK.

One of the latest viral sensations on YouTube is an ad for Drench Bottled Water in the UK featuring Brains (one of the characters from Gerry Anderson’s classic Thunderbirds TV series) dancing to SNAP’s `90s hit Rhythm is a Dancer. The old Thunderbirds “Supermarionation” techniques were updated to produce the ad, which was created using a mixture of motion capture, computer animation and good old fashioned string puppetry.

The team of puppeteers who worked on the video was led by Ronnie LeDrew, who’s no stranger to these sorts of viral marketing campaigns; he was the puppeteer responsible for the Levis “Giant Marionette” videos a couple years ago. You can watch the video below:

…as well as take a short look behind the scenes:

Special thanks to Ron for writing in with this!