Back in the late 90s, the Department for Transport (DfT) commissioned a series of charming, hand-painted animations featuring cute hedgehogs to teach kids a few road safety lessons. The first one they did in 1997, titled "No, Not Now", featured the streetwise hedgehogs that would soon win the hearts of many British schoolchildren for almost 2 decades later. I remember being at primary school and having the road safety "experts" come in, and they'd give us these really cool reflector snap bracelets and these fluorescent plastic hedgehogs with their faces etched onto them. Regrettably, I don't think I kept them for very long and any remaining trace of them online seems to be completely scarce. Later PIFs most notably featured cover versions of 'King of the Road' and 'Staying Alive' – with lyrics comprising of road safety messages and being wary of the many dangers of crossing the road. This 'Night' version was a shorter follow-up of a longer "day" version that included the latter of the two songs (which I'll upscale and upload some other time), using the Bee Gees classic to teach kids the 'Green Cross Code' and, in this version, teaching them to wear something bright and reflective when crossing the road at night. Though, if you think about it, it is somewhat morbid that the overall message was to "Stay Alive" – as failing to not follow the hedgehog's advice, unfortunately, led to many children to suffer serious injuries or, you know, death. Then they won't be "Staying Alive" at all, being all dead and that. You seriously didn't think that I wouldn't take the opportunity of putting a morbid twist on an ad as charming and innocent as this, did you?
Directed by Chris Shepherd at Slinky Pictures for the DfT via D'arcy.
The music was created by Joe and Co, with permission granted by the Bee Gees themselves.
The early Hedgehog PIFs were all cel painted and shot on 35mm, according to Shepherd's blog entry about the making of the Hedgehogs campaign: [ Ссылка ]
Upscaled into 4K using AI software.
Original for comparison: [ Ссылка ]
Find the 'Day' version here: [ Ссылка ]
