MEET Billy Weezer. He’s a distracted geezer.
Billy is the tiny yellow star of WA Police’s latest road safety campaign, aimed at warning drivers of the danger of using their mobile phone while driving.
The 2.30 minute stop-motion animation Lego film involved someone in the WA Police social media team spending several weeks painstakingly moving little yellow men around an artificial landscape to create the required eight images per second.
It shows the helmeted Mr Weezer getting into a series of bingles after foolishly allowing himself to be distracted by his mobile phone, set to the soothing tones of elevator music.
It may not have had the box office success of its blockbuster counterpart The LEGO Movie, but Billy’s driving misadventures have already proved a success on WA Police Facebook page.
In 20 hours it accumulated 553 likes and 459 shares.
Several commenters compared it to the award-winning advertising campaign Dumb Ways to Die, developed by Victorian public transport authority Metro Trains.
“That’s the coolest thing I’ve seen. Thanks WA police for a very clever video,” Michael Raymond said.
But not all viewers were impressed.
“Our taxes provide a job for an adult to make a short film made with Lego pieces like seriously if you want to get the message to all ages use some graphic footage, if that won’t deter drivers then nothing will,” Hayden Bond said.
But while the LEGO Movie cost $60 million to make, a spokesman from WA Police said short stop-motion film was put together by the police social media team “whenever we had some spare time.”
“We don’t have a lot, so it took quite a few weeks to create,” they said.
Click link to check out the video:
WA Police draw on Lego Movie to make road safety video | News.com.au
