In case you missed it, a ripple of excitement rolled across the InterWebs last week following the release of a short “teaser” video featuring actor Matthew Broderick in what appeared to be a reprise of his signature role, Ferris Bueller. Many people hoped that whatever this was about would turn out to be a full-fledged sequel to the classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Well, the big secret was revealed today, and alas, it’s just a Honda commercial made for this year’s Super Bowl advertising extravaganza. (Personally I figured all along this was going to be the case. There’s no way a movie studio could keep a sequel to a generational touchstone secret throughout its production. Nor is there any reason for them to do so — as excited as people were over a mere ad, just think of how loud the buzz would be following the announcement of an actual feature.)

In any event, Honda is no doubt hoping this little exercise in Gen-X nostalgia will inspire all we 40-somethings who desperately need our own Bueller-esque screw-off day to rush out and buy a CRV, thinking it will somehow give us the freedom that Matthew/Ferris is enjoying. Nonsense, of course, and we should all be offended that the marketers think we’re so easily manipulated. But if you can manage to overlook the cynical purpose behind it, this is actually an entertaining little homage to one of my favorite movies:

I love the bit with the stuffed panda in the car. The scene in the museum with the walrus, though… I know it’s a reference to Ferris’ line about the Beatles song “I Am the Walrus” in the original movie (“I could be the walrus, it still wouldn’t change the fact I don’t own a car.”), but I can’t help but think Broderick is pondering his own increasing doughiness, and then I hate myself for being unkind, because I’m not exactly looking the way I did back in 1986 myself…