A Holiday Reunion — Xfinity 2019 (Review & Commentary)

Transcribed directly from an audio recording

Have you had a chance to check out the four-minute-long commercial featuring the return of E.T.? If you haven’t, check it out. This is a commercial for Xfinity while essentially being a spiritual sequel to the original beloved film. Even the actor who portrays Elliot is back (Henry Thomas). I’m usually not a fan of certain franchises or characters selling out to flog a product, but I must say that I really enjoyed this commercial. It was four minutes long and something quite special. Essentially, E.T. returns to earth and is reunited with Elliot, albeit Elliot has grown up and has a wife and two children of his own. Their reunion is beyond touching and the two children cast to play Elliot’s son and daughter really resemble Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore from the original film. The effects are in top form here and E.T. looks wonderful. This very much feels like a sequel to the original film, which I love. I think Steven Spielberg would be proud to watch this. It wasn’t overly preachy or trying to sell the product in an obvious way. It was a warm heartfelt Christmas spirited commercial featuring our beloved character. If you haven’t had a chance to check this out, you can find it on YouTube. Funny enough, this also reminded me of the series of commercials lately featuring The Muppets and Portal from Facebook. Again, a fun commercial to watch, albeit the Portal commercials are overly obvious with its promotion of the product.