Blue immortalised in cartoon

Reunited boyband Blue have received the ultimate pop star accolade – they’ve been turned into cartoon characters.

Joining an elite group of acts like The Jackson 5 and The Beatles, the Eurovision hopefuls have been transformed into cartoons for global children’s TV station KidsCo.

The band, who include Moss Side’s Simon Webbe, got to oversee the creative process as they became colourful
animated versions of themselves for the show.

The cartoon will feature bandmates Lee Ryan, Duncan James and Antony Costa alongside our own Simon, performing their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, the single, I Can, which was released yesterday.

The band are seen at a charity concert in London’s O2 Arena in aid of an orangutan rehabilitation centre, and will form the final episode of the series Boo & Me, which follows the adventures of a mischievous orangutan called Boo and his friends which has a global audience of 20m.

And the guys were so touched by the environmentally-aware themes of the cartoon, they’ve now agreed to sponsor a real-life orangutan.

Simon says: “We decided to take part and do our little bit by sponsoring an orangutan, and we’ve called it Blue.

“It’s very important to do your bit you know. If we all go out there and do our little bit then it means, when you add it all together, you’re doing a lot.”

Antony, who looks rather dapper as a cartoon figure, said the band were all impressed with the way they’ve turned out.

He said: “The animation of us is amazing. The people behind the scenes worked on this non-stop and it’s amazing. It’s really nice to see yourself as a cartoon character – we loved it.”

Duncan added: “It’s something we’ve always talked about doing since we got together so to see the finished result is a real thrill.”

The animated guys are also joined on stage by Boo who even managed to teach the Blue boys a thing or two. Simon laughed: “What I don’t like is that he’s a better dancer than us!”

Meanwhile, the shoot also got Simon reflecting on his school days in Moss Side.

He says: “School was the best time for me… if I could re-live any moment, apart from Blue, it would definitely be going back to school.”

The show will air across the world on KidsCo, and will be available in the UK via the website kidscotv.tv