The animator who made California Raisins come alive

Will Vinton was a struggling animator when the California Raisin Advisory Board came calling in 1985. Vinton specialized in stop-motion clay animation— which he called Claymation— and the board wanted him to make a series of commercials with animated raisins dancing to the soul classic “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” Together with artists in his studio, Vinton spent months animating the first ad by moving his wire-framed raisins tiny amounts between each frame. In 1986, the raisins strutted onto TV and into Americans’ hearts. Raisin growers saw sales increase by 20 percent, and big-name brands began ordering their own Claymation ads. “A good character,” Vinton said, “is something great to behold.” Born in McMinnville, Ore., Vinton began experimenting with clay while studying architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, said The Washington Post. After college, he worked in advertising, then moved to Portland, Ore., to launch his Claymation studio. Vinton made several animated shorts and a feature film, 1985’s The Adventures of Mark Twain, but “found little success.” The California Raisins changed everything, said HollywoodReporter.com. Will Vinton Studios “became the largest stop-motion studio in the U.S.,” making Claymation sequences for music videos and ads for M&M’s. Michael Jackson “asked to be made into a California Raisin” for a segment of his 1988 film, Moonwalker. Computer graphics would eventually replace Claymation, but clay figures would always hold a special power for Vinton. “There is a point in Claymation,” he said, “where you can almost fool yourself into thinking that these things are manipulating themselves— that they’re alive.”