John K. Animated A Bizarre Milkshake-Making Machine

After a relatively quiet stretch, John Kricfalusi (Ren & Stimpy) is popping up everywhere nowadays: at the front of Simpsons episodes, behind Miley Cyrus, and now, in your milkshake machine. John K. was commissioned last year by the ad agency MuhTayZik Hoffer to animate the touchscreen displays for some newfangled milkshake-generating machine called F’real.

F’real’s vp of marketing, Stephanie Brendel, explained to Ad Age why they hired John: “To break through is really hard, and using humor to do that is key. MuhTayZik brought John Kricfalusi in. We would’ve never thought, on our own, to reach out to him…The challenge that I mentioned about being relevant to younger people but also not offending the old, the work that he does allows that to happen quite naturally. I think he’s the perfect person to build that bridge.”

Below are a couple videos of the machine in action, followed by a better quality version of some of the animation, which was made with Toon Boom Animate. Kricfalusi’s work is many times more eye-catching than the animation the machines had before.

(Thanks to Nate Pacheco for providing the videos of the touchscreen displays.)