Microsoft’s marketing tagline for the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S is “Power Your Dreams,” and the newest Xbox ad, a short film by Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, takes the tagline to a whole new level.
The ad takes place in a “dream incubation lab,” where a woman plays an Xbox Series X before being guided into a dream state. She then explains her dreams, featuring things like a neon-outlined bunny hopping through a forest and a flying whale in space, all of which appear on-screen.
That’s pretty standard dream stuff, if you ask me. But eventually, the woman dreams that a giant Master Chief in space DJs using an entire Halo ring. That would be enough to solidify this as a pretty odd commercial, but the woman then reveals that Master Chief is, in fact, a cat, and then cat-Chief takes off his helmet and starts dancing. I can’t say I’ve ever dreamed anything quite like that.
If you ask me, though, the ad fits right in with some of the others Microsoft has used to help promote its new consoles. One, released in October, featured actor Daniel Kaluuya flying through ever-changing virtual worlds. The company’s holiday commercial features dogs dreaming that they are dropping grenades at Master Chief’s feet and playing Minecraft together. Maybe Master Chief actually being a DJ cat isn’t so weird after all.