While the look of the big yellow box hasn’t changed in eons and the toasted o’s inside are still pretty much the same, Cheerios’ latest on-screen presence will certainly capture movie-goers’ attention.

There are no catchy little jingles for the kids and no harping on nutritional value for the adults. Instead, Cheerios is being presented as ‘the world’s biggest bowl of cereal,’ says Harrod & Mirlin/fcb creative director Neil McOstrich, who created the high-tech cinema and tv spots with vp associate creative director Kearney Freeman and producer George Archer.

‘Superbowl,’ directed by Radke Films’s Robert Black and lensed by dop Peter MacKay over three days on a farm north of Toronto, starts off with a group of 14 wide-eyed, curious kids traipsing through the forest at night, flashlights and plenty of boxes of Cheerios in hand.

Upon reaching their destination, they find a satellite dish – specially rigged by Laird McMurray Film Services – in the middle of a clearing set against a vast star-studded sky, complete with constellations created by Dan Krech Productions.

The kids unload boxes and boxes of the tiny o’s into the dish (about 300 boxes, in fact), and when one of them asks ‘What about the milk?’ enough moo-juice to fill a satellite-sized bowl of cereal pours out of the sky.

The cereal, the milk – which loomed overhead in a 40-gallon dump tank hung from a crane connected to a standby milk truck – and the reactions of the children were all genuine; the brilliantly illuminated night sky, however, had to be made from scratch.

According to dkp creative director Chad Nixon, the task at hand was to create magical effects in a twinkling sky similar to those of aurora borealis. To do that they called on astrological specialist and art director Jon Lomberg – effects designer for the feature film Contact with whom the shop has an exclusive u.s. and Canadian commercial arrangement – to create digital map paintings of starscapes.

Using Side Effects’ Houdini, senior animator Caesar Niculescu created particle and smoke effects, constraining them to make it appear as though a magical gas is flowing from the Milky Way to form the Big Dipper, from which the milk is poured.

According to Dan Krech, one of the shop’s greatest achievements on the spot was the way it used the particle system to create 3D objects out of particles, something he says is seldom done.

‘The end result worked out well,’ says Krech, ‘taking us through the states of matter that had to happen – going from gaseous form to liquid was seamless.’

Compositing effects were executed by Jaleo artist Terry Dale, who married all the elements together to create the final effect. Mattes were created for the children and the dish and then layered, starting with the sky in the background.

But even with all the galactic goings-on the main focus of the spot is the expressions and excitement of the children, which meant keeping the effects magical but not overpowering or unbelievable so they don’t detract from the story itself.

‘It was a very delicate thing,’ says McOstrich. ‘We wanted the special effects to give it scope but didn’t want it so big that it took away from the humanity of the kids. It was a tricky balance, but it’s about the kids.’

As for the end result, a proud Krech says the spot called on the best efforts of everyone involved. ‘I have been doing commercials for a long time and this is one of the best ideas I have seen in years,’ he says

The 90-second cinema version began unspooling in Famous Players Theatres throughout Toronto July 31, with the shorter version breaking onto tv screens soon after.

dkp producer was Steven Lynette, Shawn Hillier assisted on the Jaleo and Ayumi Lizuka-Wong was the Matador artist. Richard Unruh edited at Third Floor, and Doug Wilde composed the original score, engineered by Mark Stafford at Jungle Music.