Kevin the Carrot, the star of Aldi's Christmas campaign last year, returns after the brand's previous successful campaign, which resulted in sales growth for the discount retailer.

This year's push, created by McCann U.K. and animated by Psyop, sees the lovable vegetable falling in love with a female carrot, Katie, in spots that cheekily reference several movies, including new release "Murder on the Orient Express." The debut ad, which breaks today, sees Kevin board a "midnight express train" where a gingerbread man has been "murdered." He comes to Katie's rescue while she's reading a book titled "9 and a Half Leeks." The spot also references "Titanic" and "The Bodyguard," and 14 future 20- and 30-second executions, which continue the Kevin and Katie story, will include nods to movies including "Love Actually."

Once again Jim Broadbent is the narrator and the music is the soundtrack to "Edward Scissorhands."

Ahead of the launch of the campaign, Aldi teased it by putting Kevin the Carrot on dating app Happn with a message that he was "looking for love."

Aldi saw Christmas sales rise by 15.1% last year and cites the Kevin the Carrot campaign as a contributor to its success. The campaign recently won the Grand Prix at the Euro Effie awards. Aldi marketing director Adam Zavalis says that the retailer considered several ideas for this year before deciding to go with a sequel--and added that it wanted the campaign to be "more 'The Empire Strikes Back' than 'Grease 2.'"