Creating the Budweiser Frogs: Behind the Scenes at Stan Winston Studio

Creating the Bud-Weis-Er Frogs at Stan Winston Studio

Perceived as one of the most high-end, upscale FX studios in Hollywood, Stan Winston Studio was not always the first place that commercial agencies thought of for their makeup and creature effects needs. But in 1995, the studio sought to change that perception and actively began to pursue commercial assignments. “Since that time,” said Stan Winston, “we have been responsible for creating some of the most memorable characters in advertising history.”¹

Among the first memorable characters the studio created for a major ad campaign were three oversized animatronic frogs for a commercial that would rock the advertising world with its originality and whimsical sense of humor. The utterly realistic amphibians croak out the words ‘Bud’, ‘Weis’, and ‘Er’ outside an establishment with a big neon ‘Budweiser’ sign.¹

(The three oversized animatronic frogs: Bud, Weis, and Er at Stan Winston Studio.)

Jump To Section

• The Frog Characters: "Bud", "Weis", and "Er"
• Building Frogs for Commercials
• Shooting the First Budweiser Frog Ad
• Budweiser Frogs Debut at Super Bowl XXIX in 1995

The Frog Characters: "Bud", "Weis", and "Er"

In the first of two thirty-second commercials created for Anheuser-Busch, three frogs are seen sitting in a swamp at night. One begins croaking the word ‘Bud,’ the second pitches in with ‘Weis,’ and the third completes the chorus with a long, drawn-out ‘Er.’ As the frogs ribbit their chant, the camera pulls back to reveal a shack with its neon Budweiser sign reflecting in the water.²

Watch the first Budweiser's Frogs commercial that debuted at Super Bowl XXIX in 1995:

Conceived by ad agency DMB&B of St. Louis and directed by Gore Verbinski of Palomar Pictures, the award-winning spot was realized with the aid of animatronic frogs built by Stan Winston Studio. “It was a great concept – simple and funny,” said Stan Winston Studio supervisor, John Rosengrant. “But for the comedy to work well, Gore needed the frogs to come off as real. That was our main parameter.”²

(Chris Swift sculpts Bud, the oversized animatronic frog for the first Budweiser Frog commercial.)

Another parameter was to differentiate the frogs by size. “We were originally going to build them close to the size of real bullfrogs until we started doing research and found that even the largest of them don’t get that big, so we had to scale them up somewhat. Weis – the smallest of the three – ended up being about the size of a big American bullfrog.” To further distinguish the frogs, Rosengrant and his crew assigned individual personality traits to each. “Bud was a big, beer-drinking couch potato, Weis was a wiry wise guy, and Er was the flashy one.”²

(A close-up image of the scaled-up Bud's painted silicone skin without its limbs.)

Building Frogs for Commercials

All three frog puppets featured silicone skins over animatronic armatures. “We chose silicone rather than foam latex for its translucency,” noted Rosengrant. “Also, the frogs would be sitting in water, and we were afraid that putting foam latex in water would be a problem.”²

(Mark Jurinko airbrushes Bud. Bud was mostly light green with brown mottling, while Weis had a colorful pattern that included bright yellows intermixed with green, and Er had blotchy mottling and stripes that ran counter to his body.)

After painting the frogs, mineral oil was used to coat the completed skins, providing a realistic slimy finish.²

(The painted 'Er' frog at Stan Winston Studio awaits for its animatronics.)

Frog mechanical armatures were built for each character, complete with properly jointed legs. Rods inserted in the torsos provided body articulation from below. Animatronics allowed the frogs to breathe, bloat their throats, speak, move their eyes, and blink.²

(Mechanic Jeff Edwards works on one of the frogs' animatronics.)

(A close-up image of a work-in-progress frog animatronic at Stan Winston Studio.)

(Jeff Edwards tests one of the finished animatronic frogs at Stan Winston Studio.)

Eyes were hand-painted to match real frog eyes, with radio-controlled, tiny watch-like mechanisms to create eye movement and eyelid blinks. Puppeteers controlled jaw motion through the use of telemetry devices worn over their own jaws.²

(Based on reference images, Mark Jurinko hand-paints the frogs' eyes.)

(On-set image of John Rosengrant wearing one of the telemetry devices to control the jaw motion of the frog 'Weis'.)

Throat ballooning was accomplished by pumping air into custom-made bladders inside each puppet.²

Shooting the First Budweiser Frog Ad

Following nine weeks of preproduction, the frogs were pressed into action during a three-day shoot at Universal Studios, where the production company constructed an elaborate set, complete with cypress trees and a shack, then flooded a portion of the stage in two feet of water. Puppeteers – one for each frog – were positioned under the set to control body movements and bladder inflation, while others above operated the telemetry devices and radio-controlled eye movements.²

(Christian Colquhoun adds some extra mineral oil to the frogs on the set of the first Budweiser Frog commercial.)

(Shane Mahan, Chris Swift, and Stan Winston School Co-Founder Matt Winston positioned under the set to puppeteer the gross body movement of the three frogs.)

Budweiser Frogs Debut at Super Bowl XXIX in 1995

The Budweiser Frog aired on Super Bowl Sunday in 1995. It was an instant hit, and went on to earn a Clio award, prompting Anheuser-Busch to commission a second spot. The incredible success of the Budweiser frogs spot helped Gore Verbinski's transition to a feature film directing career — and to subsequent Budweiser commercials featuring Stan Winston Studio frogs, lizards, and ferrets. “It turned into a major five-year ad campaign,” noted Paul Mejias. “It was another example of Stan’s amazing knack for finding projects that are small and seemingly have no future — but then turn out to be these hugely successful, big deals.”²

(On-set image of the frogs being prepared for the shot of the first Budweiser Frog commercial, which debuted at Super Bowl XXIX in 1995.)

- Blog assembled by Adrienn Lingurár with selections from:

1. The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio by Jody Duncan

2. CINEFEX #63: Commercial Spot This Frog’s for You by Estelle Shay

Courses with the Creators of Budweiser Frogs

• Special Effects Sequence Design with Shane Mahan
• Hybrid Characters: Blending Practical & Digital FX with John Rosengrant
• Hybrid Character Design: Practical To Digital with Christopher Swift

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