This Epic Olympics Promo: Weird, Fantastic, Or Weirdly Fantastic?

by Dan Fogarty | 4:43 pm, July 3rd, 2012

The BBC is currently running a two-and-a-half minute promo for their Olympics coverage (the clip above runs a minute, and Deadspin’s Tim Burke has the full spot). As you can see, the ad doesn’t have real people in it.

Instead of actual athletes running, jumping, and lifting their way through a stylized version of London, BBC has opted to use CGI Olympians. On paper, this seems like a bad idea — CGI people that exist outside of video games and Pixar movies creep me out (see: those misguided Final Fantasy movies) — but it’s executed surprisingly well: the animations are fluid, and there is genuine emotion in a spot that’s devoid of genuine humans. So I’m going to go ahead and vote “Weirdly Fantastic” on this one. What say you? Let us know in the comments.