Samsung thinks it's Pixar now, gives Up the one thing it was missing: SoC product placement

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Samsung makes phones, tablets, watches, and more, but did you know it also makes movies? Well, kind of — in a new video promoting Exynos processors, the company plays at being Pixar by recreating Up in some of the strangest ways imaginable. And while there’s no adorable wilderness explorer present, there are a lot of musically gifted mutant mascot characters.

The video begins with the classic Up tropes you know and love: the shaving cream, the tie cinching, the travel down a staircase. But it quickly takes a turn for trouble. The protagonist of Samsung’s Up knockoff isn’t good ol’ grump Carl Frederickson. Instead, he’s named John Williams, and he’s a recent retiree who loves using his Samsung phone and strumming his acoustic guitar.

After searching for post-retirement hobbies on his phone (and perhaps ingesting a number of hallucinogenic drugs), John is amazed to see an Exynos chip magically pop out from his phone — complete with a cute mini Mewtwo-ish mascot character and all. The magical mutant takes John on a journey of discovery, experimenting with everything from deep-sea fishing to climbing a frozen mountain before he finally realizes what he really wants to do is play generic acoustic rock with his new pets.

Exynos just wants to help you enjoy your retirement.

He proceeds to do just that — and is surprised to find that his phone was live-streaming his performance for the world to watch. (Probably not on Periscope, though.) The video concludes with a slow fade away from John, who’s probably thinking about becoming the next Ed Sheeran or something. I’m still a little baffled about the final tagline (“in the journey back inside the phone you love”) which feels a little half-baked after the surprisingly well-animated footage that precedes it.

This is certainly one of the wildest promotional videos I’ve seen this year. Is it secretly preparing us for a future in which our smartphone processors will manifest themselves as adorably frightening cartoon creatures? It is 2020, so who knows.

If you’re in the mood to watch more questionable choices from big tech, check out our list of the 11 cringiest smartphone ads of all time.