Corona: History of La Cerveza Mas Fina by Observatory

Corona is a huge Mexican brand around the world, and the brew is celebrating its history in an epic stop-motion animation film narrated by Golden Globe winner Gael Garcia Bernal. The action behind the scenes is just as riveting as the 60-second ad itself.

'The History of La Cerveza Mas Fina,’ created in conjunction with creative agency Observatory in Los Angeles, is a Spanish-language campaign for the Mexican market. The production narrates, in four chapters, the deep-rooted relationship Corona has with Mexicans since its beginnings in 1925, shortly after the Mexican Revolution.

The flowing production starts with Garcia Bernal sitting in a stark white room on a golden hand-shaped chair with a bottle of Corona. After he says “Only history can tell us what we are made of, the camera pivots and goes through a series of dioramas. The first shows how the brand was founded by a group of bakers who decided to use Corona’s iconic clear-glass bottle so that everyone could see it was made with the finest ingredients.

It moves through the golden age of Mexican cinema, the country's economic crisis, and how Mexicans in the present have learned to turn obstacles into opportunities, tearing down physical and mental barriers.

The film was directed by Nicolas Ménard, produced and animated by London/LA-based Nexus Studios. It took 24 images per second to give the scenes life and movement, all of which had to be filled with meticulously handcrafted sets and figures. A behind-the-scenes video shows that the character models were designed at Nexus, then 3D printed and painted by Andy Gent’s team at Arch Model Studios, whose credits include Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs and Fantastic Mr. Fox, as well as Henry Selick’s ‘Coraline’ and Tim Burton’s ‘Corpse Bride’. The music is an original score by Bridget Samuels, interpreted by an orchestra of over 50 musicians in London.