When the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade makes its way down Manhattan’s West Side on Thursday, several of the new giant character balloons dotting the sky will be recognizable TV favorites.
Making its parade debut are Finn and Jake from the Cartoon Network series “Adventure Time” and Toothless from the DreamWorks film “How To Train Your Dragon” (also a character in the Cartoon Network show “Dragons”).
Though “SpongeBob Square Pants” will be making his ninth parade appearance, the optimistic sea sponge has been redesigned donning a Santa hat in an attempt to steal some thunder from the big man himself.
Snoopy and Woodstock, star of many classic holiday TV specials, will also get an update, the seventh in Snoopy’s record 37 parade appearances.
Gaining a spot the storied parade for TV characters is competitive — only 16 giant balloons can fly each year — and must pass a litmus test of immediate recognizability.
“If I showed you a picture of the character without any verbiage or title underneath it, you’d have to be able to tell me that you know exactly who they are,” says Amy Kule, executive producer of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “We have folks that approach us yearly who believe they belong up in the sky with our other famous balloons, and more times than not, we have to say no.”
Cartoon Network had been talking to parade organizers about “Adventure Time” for a couple of years, but it was an overwhelming request in letters written by schoolchildren — as well as a scouting trip to Comic-Con — that finally earned it a spot in the sky.
“We looked at Jake and Finn for last year’s parade but none of us were really sure that they were ready to be up there,” Kule says. “Then we went to Comic-Con, saw the fervor that was developing around this brand and we said ‘Yeah, this has got to be in the parade.’ ”
Since planning the Macy’s parade is a year-round job, decisions about new characters have to be made a minimum of 10 months in advance to allow time to design, engineer and build the balloon — which is a partnership between the networks and parade organizers to make sure they’re character-correct and aerodynamic.
It’s no small feat.
“The . . . technical aspect of that was much greater than we thought,” says Cartoon Network VP of consumer marketing Scott Thomas, noting the network originally wanted to have Finn with his trademark sword in hand. “That was something that we ended up having to move away from for the parade. It just aerodynamically wasn’t possible.”
And while “Adventure Time” is already a hit with kids — averaging 3.3 million viewers and No. 1 in its timeslot with young boys — the parade gives the network a chance to expose the franchise to more parents.
“Adventure Time” unveiled its balloon model at Comic-Con last summer.
“The level of excitement was beyond what I expected,” Thomas says. “It underscores what a true American family event the parade is.”