BubbleUK: BBC announces pilot for Tom Hardy voiced cartoon series

Recently, BBC3 announced that they’ll be introducing the pilot for a new animated series called “Sticky”, from the makers of Fonejacker. The show centres on a group of college students, who face the world without internet, and must go in search of the route of Wi-Fi’s demise.

As someone who was very dependent on the internet during my own studies, I’m quite intrigued by this concept, and feel that many other students or graduates will be just as interested. It’s the worst when you’re half way through an essay, the deadline is looming you, and BAM! The Wi-Fi decides to go limp or altogether die. There’s something refreshingly empowering about the idea of college students banding together to tackle an identifiable problem.

The inclusion of Tom Hardy is bound to attract folks too, and I for one will admit that his name has furthered my interest in the pilot. Hardy is one of those actors who put his heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into his roles! An actor who truly impressed me with his performance in the prison drama “Bronson”. However, the fact that Hardy has never voice acted before, makes me a bit nervous about his involvement too. Some live action actors do struggle to move from in front of the camera to behind the camera, I can’t deny that there’s a chance that this may apply to Hardy.

I’m also on the fence about the animation style, which seems to be this creepy looking cut-out photo technique, a style made famous by the atrociously bad Canadian cartoon “Angela Anaconda”. I get that cut out photo animation is cheap and easy compared to hand-drawn, stop motion or CGI, but this just makes me think that the BBC are unconfident about braving contemporary animation techniques. I mean, the BBC also greenlit another photo cut out animated show this year called “The History of Sex”, and I’m afraid that the suits at Beebs will start only buying adult cartoons with this aesthetic.

So yeah, I’m sold on the overall premise of “Sticky”, but certain elements put me off. I’ll keep an open mind, but the warped uncanny valley characters and Tom Hardy’s inexperience in voice acting, are two major factors keeping me cautious.