Fans of the 1982 classic E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial have often wondered whether the lovable alien and his human friend Elliot would ever see each other again after their heart-wrenching parting, following a brief, but eventful time on Earth.
And, 37-years on, it appears all it took was Sky’s quality line-up of Christmas movies to reunite arguably the purest friendship in the history of cinema.
The satellite prover’s Christmas advertisement entitled E.T. Came Home For Christmas (correction: the whole premise of the film was getting him home, so Earth isn’t home) sees the telekinetic alien turn up at adult Elliott’s house.
Elliott now has a wife and kids of his own and proceeds to show E.T. everything he’s missed. Like VR, the internet, and voice control of Christmas favourites via Sky Q.
E.T. even has some advanced tech of his own, projecting holographic images of his own family, seemingly using only his hands. And then, when the flying saucers rock up, they recreate the BMX bike ride across the moon, and, having had his fill of Sky Christmas movies, E.T. toddles back off to his planet again.
When Sky promised it had something “magical” in store for its customers many had speculated HDR support was coming in time for Christmas. However, that’s not the case. Given the cash Sky probably spent on acquiring the rights to the characters and the music, we’re guessing the budget didn’t stretch to a Drew Barrymore cameo (or even a Michael Barrymore cameo for that matter).
Last year, you may recall, Google channelled Home Alone to shift its smart home products. Kevin used a security camera to ID the pizza delivery guy, and used voice commands to activate his smart lock, before running a routine that convinced those dastardly Wet Bandits there was Christmas party ongoing at 671 Lincoln Blvd.
It had humour and self awareness and was generally pretty well received. Sky’s effort is a little cringeworthy and besmirches the memory of the best Christmas Day film there is by ruining something we’ve envisioned happening outside of the realm of lame advertising for almost four decades. Humbug.
Turns out it’s a lot easier to defend your house from bandits when you have the Google Assistant. Take it from @IncredibleCulk. #HeyGoogle pic.twitter.com/9OifLkJHOP
— Google (@Google) December 19, 2018
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
