KOOL - Cigarettes

Content

This film has no actual storyline. It is a succession of atmospheric images that serve to suggest freshness: water, fish, birds in the sky, (ice) crystals.

Trivia

Who watches this film will be surprised by its clear imagery. The use of flowing water and figures made of crystal glass enhance the sense of freshness. The link to ‘America's most refreshing cigarette’ is highly original depiction.
Many artist have been influenced by predecessors or contemporaries. In 1949, Czech filmmaker/animator Karel Zeman made a 10-minute-plus film following this concept, in which many similar images can be found: the flowing water, the drop of douw falling into a stream, the fish underwater... even the mood of the music comes close to Karel Zeman's masterpiece, Inspirace (1949)
Joop Geesink didn't shy away from using tried-and-tested ideas from others.However, there is also the possibility that the client gave the order and had provided the concept. The fact that a design and technique from almost 15 years earlier was reverted to in 1963 shows that this stopmotion film technique still came across convincingly on the big screen. 

Glass

Where Karel Zeman was able to enhance the movement of galloping horses, for example, by working with interchangeable phases (several horses in a different pose), Dollywood opted for the more economical solution. The objects are actually pushed through the sculpture. This saved a lot of work and thus costs. To still experience movement, a piece of animation was used at cleverly timed moments. You can see a bird with its head spinning or a frog bulging its cheeks.

Joop Geesink's predecessor, George Pal, worked with a glass ship in the film The Ethereal Ship (1934). He also used other glass elements in the set. For this purpose, George Pal worked with the artisan glass blowers associated with the Philips factories. Philips was also the client of the film. Who made the glass figures for Kool cigarettes is not known. Given the limited specific animation requirements, this could possibly have been a local glass artist. Of these details known.