Interview - Director Nigel Tierney & Producer Alex Hawkins: Addicted To It. Their humorous animated short brings a playful song alive to address an issue addressing us all, phone addiction.

Director Nigel Tierney and producer Andrew Hawkins discuss Addicted to It, a five-minute animated musical short that turns screen overuse into a funny, all-ages story. They explain how the project grew from a song by Andrew and his husband, Avenue Q co-creator Jeff Marx, into a richly detailed film, and share how animation, comedy, and a simple invitation to step away from devices can make its message resonate.

Key Topics

• Andrew Hawkins and Jeff Marx began developing the song and characters amid growing concern about phone addiction, then connected with Nigel Tierney and co-director Federico Heller during the pandemic.
• The short grew from a song intended for a larger musical; Andrew says they are still developing that wider universe, while the film works as a standalone piece.
• Tierney aimed for a lived-in, feature-film-scale setting, creating more than 40 characters to represent device habits across ages and forms, including social media, gaming, gambling, dating, and algorithm-driven labor.
• The visual approach pairs vibrant, digitally native design with Fleischer-style rubber-hose animation, expressive rig-breaking, rapid transitions, and visual gags.
• More than 200 artists contributed to the fast-moving animation, which is designed to amplify Jeff Marx's lyrics rather than overwhelm them.
• The creators wanted layered humor and a non-preachy message that could reach children, teens, and adults; the story frames device overuse as something people experience together.
• The voice cast includes Mel Brooks and Dionne Warwick, alongside younger performers including Dixie D'Amelio, King Bach, and Morgan Jay.
• Tierney describes taking short walks without his phone as a practical way to reclaim attention and reconnect with the world around him.

Chapters

00:00 Intro to Nigel Tierney & Alex Hawkins

07:24 The Animation Style

10:21 The Broad Target Age Demographic

14:09 The Legendary Cast

19:01 Inspirations

22:21 Under-Seen Movie Recommendations

24:05 Wrap Up

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