Red Nose Day returned on March 13th 2009, and this year Waddell Media's animation company, Flickerpix was part of it.

Flickerpix produced ‘Malaria’, a short animated appeal film, from a script by Richard Curtis (writer/director of Blackadder, Four Weddings.., Love Actually, Notting Hill,) to highlight a disease that kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds.

It was a powerful and moving film screened at 9pm on Friday 13th March on BBC 1 on what was one of the top viewing nights of the year as the opening sequence to an hour-long special appeal to fight malaria.

The three-minute film featured hand drawn animation and illustration, rotoscoping, motion graphic in After Effects and 3D Modelling.

Joel Simon directed the Flickerpix animation crew: Robin, Nathan, Sree and Tory with special thanks to Kris Kelly, our Head of Animation.

Richard Curtis contacted the Flickerpix crew after seeing an episode of DAYS LIKE THIS, a 15 part series broadcast on BBCNI last year around Christmas. This series brings to life the memories of ordinary people with extraordinary stories.

Joel Simon said: "It has been a huge project on an insanely tight deadline but we’re incredibly proud of this film, and to be part of Comic Relief 2009. It’s our highest profile commission so far and an example of what we can achieve as a studio".

Link to film on Flickerpix site