ANZ ATMs are Secretly Gardeners

The ANZ ATM Drone

The ANZ ATM Drone

You know those anthropomorphised little ATM characters they have on the latest ANZ ads? For those of you not in Australia (yes, I know, most of the world. You can’t all be awesome as us) here is a sample. I’ve found the ad company’s inspiration for this little guy.

It’s from a bad 1972 film called Silent Running, and it has these little dudes called ‘drones’. They’re silent repair robots that look after most of the ship, while the 4 human crew have dune buggy races in the corridors and play poker. Not even Texas Hold ‘Em, but boring old draw poker!

I watched this film last night, and as soon as I saw the drones, I knew that was where they got the idea for the ATM guy. They even walk the same!

Well, I say I watched the film, but because it’s so slow and full of poignant musical interludes where the lead character looks wistfully at fir trees in between bouts of bad acting, I watched most of it on fast-forward. Ms. A commented that it was just like 2001: A Space Odyssey, i.e.: slow and boring.

Here’s the best photo I could find of them, from a place called The Robot Hut:

The 3 Silent Running Drones

The 3 Silent Running Drones

You can see the drones at the bottom of the picture, underneath the robot from The Day The Earth Stood Still, I believe.

Interestingly, the blue drone is the one that gets left behind to look after all the plants in the biodome that gets jettisoned into space out around Saturn somewhere. So it seems that after a lengthy period looking after the forest, Dewey (as he is nicknamed in the movie, the others were Huwey and Louie) has come to Earth to try his animatronic gripper at dispensing cash to humans.

And I, for one, welcome our cash-dispensing hippie botanist overlords.

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2 Comments

  1. Nice find :) Can’t believe I foudn this blog post trying to find the location of ANZ ATMs.

    Sean Bannister

  2. Heheh. There are some out there in the B-movie universe!

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