New Zealand director Taiki Waititi gets sentimental with the Christmas 2020 ad for soda brand Coca-Cola, featuring a dad delivering a letter to Santa. Waititi burst on to the scene in the late 2000s with a series of quirky comedy-dramas made in his native New Zealand. Movies like Boy, Eagle vs Shark and What We Do In The Shadows cemented his reputation as one of the best independent directors on the planet. Then he released Hunt for the Wilderpeople, one of 2016's best movies, and Marvel came calling. Waititi directed Thor: Ragnarok and mainstream audiences got a taste of his quirky humor, which changed the Thor franchise from one of the most boring in the MCU to arguably the funniest.
Waititi's current slate of projects includes Ragnarok sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder, which will see Natalie Portman pick up the hammer, an as-yet-untitled Star Wars movie and a pirate-themed TV series at HBO Max called Our Flag Means Death. As if that wasn't enough, Waititi has helmed an episode of The Mandalorian, still contributes to the FX TV adaptation of What We Do In The Shadows and is starring as in Ryan Reynolds' Free Guy as well as James Gunn's DC debut, The Suicide Squad. And that's not all.
In between all of his commitments, Waititi, has also somehow found time to direct Coca-Cola's 2020 Christmas commercial, which was unleashed on the world on Tuesday. Starring Cohen Holloway, who has appeared in a number of Waititi's films, including Hunt For The Wilderpeople, Thor: Ragnarok and What We Do In The Shadows, the ad is a typical Christmas tearjerker, designed to pull on your heart strings ahead of the holiday season. It follow's a father's attempts to delivery a Christmas wish list to Santa for his daughter. Waititi's classic humor is absent here, but it's more than made up for with beautiful cinematography and a heartwarming story, all told in under 3 minutes. You can watch it below:
The commercial proves, as Waititi's Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit did, that the director has a deft touch when it comes to telling family-driven stories, and can make an impact even when he isn't being overtly funny. The beautiful visuals are also a potential sign that Waititi will be able to infuse some incredible beauty into his upcoming blockbusters. Many overlook the visuals in Thor: Ragnarok due to the humor, but it's one of Marvel's most visually impressive movies, and hopefully Love and Thunder will double down on the psychedelic visuals.
As for his upcoming Star Wars movie, there is little here to give away what that could be about, but, the family focus of this ad, paired with similar themes in Jojo Rabbit, could hint that it will continue the family focus in the Star Wars universe. Besides that, this ad is a surprise early Christmas gift for fans of Taika Waititi, given that he won't be releasing anything major any time soon, especially since he's likely to spend the majority of 2021 shooting and editing Thor: Love and Thunder.
Source: Coca-Cola