He’s been The Voice for more than forty years, so perhaps not surprisingly Tom Jones wants to tone down the sex god image a bit. EMMA (that’s Ian Bonhote) and Del came up with the solution for Give A Little Love – a cartoon skilfully recreated in the style of early silent-era animation.

Brazilian outfit Birdo Studio designed the TJ character for the vid. But the rest of the animation and all the other character design happened at RJDM in London, who impressively turned Tom into the stuff of early toons in just four weeks. He even manages to have a fling with Betty Boop’s sister.

So much for ol’ Tom hanging up his boots…

Tom Jones
Give A Little Love
Prod co: Pulse Films
Director: EMMA and Del
Producer: Fiona Stuart-Bamford
Animation: RJDM
Original character design: Birdo Studio
Representation: OBmanagement
Label: Seconds Out / S-Curve
Watch: Quicktime movie

Ian Bonhote (EMMA) on making the video for Tom Jones’ Give A Little Love

“For this project, I collaborated with Del. We were working on a short, so when the track came in it was: ‘Weird, Tom Jones – why not?’ The idea came from the feelgood factor of the track – plus the beat had this bouncy feel to it. But mainly, we were faced with finding something original for a man who has had a successful career for forty years – and has so much presence. So we thought: ‘what about creating a fun cartoon character?’

“I think they went for it because Tom’s moving away from the sexy ladies man image he has had for so long. We worked closely with Mark Woodward – Tom Jones’ manager – who trusted us completely. He pushed the idea forward, because he was convinced by it.

“It was really tight in terms of timing: four weeks. But we worked with a great animation company RJDM who managed to pull it off. We comped their animations for a viral, allowing us to find a look and feel for the video. Though, still now, I cannot believe we made a black and white cartoon for Tom Jones!”

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