Vacation hits theaters this week, and the upcoming sequel to the National Lampoon’s Vacation comedy franchise is revving up promotion with a fake car commercial for the 2015 Tartan Prancer, the Griswold family’s fancy new ride.
Fans of the original, 1983 film will certainly remember the Wagon Queen Family Truckster that carted Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and his family across the country to Walley World on a fiasco-filled family vacation. The new film casts Ed Helms as the adult Rusty Griswold, who attempts to recreate his family’s epic, cross-country road trip with his own family — complete with oversized, questionably reliable family chariot.
The commercial for the Tartan Prancer features a stylized overview of the Albanian import car, which apparently comes with a weird array of accessories, including external drink holders, a console water fountain, and a push-button, detachable steering wheel. Scenes of the car and its bizarre array of stock accessories are interspersed with scenes of a cigarette-smoking man doing various martial arts moves as a model ogles the boxy car’s decidedly not-sleek profile.
Some scenes from Vacation appear at the end of the commercial, with the fictional carmaker encouraging viewers to check out the feature debut of “Albanian’s best-loved boy actor, Steele Stebbins.” (Stebbins plays Kevin, one of Rusty’s sons in the film.)
Along with Helms and Stebbins, Vacation stars Christina Applegate as Rusty’s wife, Debbie, as well as Skyler Gisondo (Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb) as the pair’s other son, James. Chris Hemsworth plays Rusty’s brother-in-law, Stone Crandall, and Charlie Day plays a rafting guide the family meets during their cross-country adventure.
Along with introducing a new featured cast, Vacation will also bring franchise stars Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo back as Clark and Ellen Griswold, Rusty’s parents.
The directorial debut of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, Vacation is based on a script penned by the pair, who previously scripted Horrible Bosses and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, among other projects.
Vacation hits theaters July 29.
