dream scene stories

visual storytelling

Using different palettes, animator Bonnie Rose brings out the subtle difference between the two parts of the song. Rhett's verse is more of a dream and is rendered in cool tones. Link's is actually a nightmare, and is animated in warm colors.

Like so many parts of this production, Bonnie had her own share of "happy accidents" in the making of her scene:

I had a really startling one; when I was doing the "Frere Jacques" scenes, I just kind of guessed how long each scene should be, but then when Link starts singing, I had to have that start at a certain exact frame to synch up. Well when I put all the non-singing bits together, it ended EXACTLY at the right frame where I needed to start the singing part. Not even one frame before or after, the exact 1/30th of one second. That was weird! As Neil [Innes] sang so brilliantly, "There are no coincidences, but sometimes the pattern is more obvious."

so many layers

It's actually just another happy accident that the Genie's face is itself a straight line between two points. But it brings out the chorus perfectly.
The Genie's predictions were changed from the ones in the script to fit what happens later in the Musical. "You will wake up slobbering" and "You should grow a beard" are referenced in the following Awake scene. "Honey mustard is the bomb" appears again in the Subway scene.
Singer Joanna's likeness is seen in the 8 Ball window, right before the Genie proclaims, "You sing like a girl."
The log on Rhett's pajamas is from a Ren and Stimpy bit.
Yes, Link has Power Rangers footie pajamas. Available in the early 90's, when the guys would have been 14 in real life.
Since Link runs through the cornfield, each stalk had to be modeled individually, rather than just appear motionless in the background. The cornstalks alone took a full day to animate.
In the scene, the cornstalks change to Easter Island statues. If you watch closely, you'll see the statues' heads turn and follow Link as he runs past.
The statues then change to lamps from A Christmas Story.
James Busvlogger has a cameo on the back of the 8 Ball in the cornfield. It has a Monty Python twist to it. Were you old enough (or geeky enough) to catch that?
"Good Mystical Morning" is a shout out to Good Mythical Morning, and a nod to the mysticism of having a Dream Genie visit.
Early on, James recorded a possible GMM intro to be animated later as the Dream Genie. But the Genie's look was so completely original that to keep from giving away spoilers on the show, the genie was animated as still inside the lamp. And since Bonnie was still working on the dream scene, Eli Doyle was brought in to animate the lamp. The spot aired the week before the premiere.