MONTREAL — Patrick Boivin has just upped the ante for all those proud parents showing off pictures of their children.
He’s produced a slam-bang video of his one-year-old daughter Marguerite as Iron Baby, decking her out in Iron Man’s armour to battle evil, submachine-gun wielding bunnies.
The slick one-minute video spoofs the movie trailer for the hit Iron Man films and has recorded more than 3.3 million hits on YouTube alone.
It has also migrated to dozens of other sites and received media attention from as far away as the United States, Australia and Britain.
“We knew it would be popular because Iron Man is popular and babies are as well,” Boivin said in a telephone interview Thursday.
Boivin said his Los Angeles-based agent told him he heard that Jon Favreau, who directed the Iron Man movies, and star Robert Downey Jr. apparently also gave the video the thumbs-up.
“I just know that he quite enjoyed it,” Boivin said when asked about Downey’s reaction. Boivin noted that he and friend Jocelyn (Strob) Simard, a 3D artist, aren’t disrespectful to the “Iron Man” franchise in their efforts.
“It’s a parody but we don’t make fun of the movie,” he said. “We just took the good stuff out of it and changed it a little.”
Favreau tweeted about the video on his Twitter page when it was uploaded last week and encouraged people to go see it, providing a link to YouTube.
“You need to see this if you like Iron Man or babies,” Favreau wrote on Twitter.
Iron Man, who appears in Marvel Comics, is the high-tech alter ego of crime-fighting billionaire industrialist Tony Stark.
Boivin said he and Simard decided to do an Iron Man spoof a few weeks ago when they realized “Iron Man 2” would be hitting theatres.
Simard created the 3D version of the Iron Man armour, in which Boivin’s baby was digitally clad.
The mini-movie didn’t cost the duo anything but time. The toddler was filmed as she played and then Boivin and Simard worked their movie magic.
“We took our time because shooting with a baby can be hard and I didn’t want her to be suffering from it,” said Boivin, who has been making short movies for several years.
“I wanted her to have fun.”
Boivin started doing viral clips on YouTube two years ago to get some attention for his film work.
His stop-motion animation clips proved to be hits and several companies such as Lego and Google contracted him to do some work for them.
Boivin said he’ll continue making short movies for YouTube and hopes to work in feature films. He is looking south of the border because he said money is tight in Canada.
Boivin, who started out as a horror comic book artist, says his daughter will likely get a kick out of the Iron Baby video when she’s older.
“In a way, it’s a great souvenir for her,” he said.
“The clip is probably going to be on the Web 25 years from now so she’s going to be able to see it and she’ll know it was a little success. I’m sure she’ll find this nice.”