A little Monkey magic

The XXIX Olympiad has now officially started, with the opening ceremony at the amazing Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing earlier today. But what's got me excited about the 2008 Olympics is the BBC's coverage of the event, or rather the animated trailer for it.



Just in case you don't know, the short animated film featuring a monkey, a pig and a green-skinned swimmer - a.k.a. Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy - has been created by the guys behind Gorillaz (in other words Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett) and was inspired by the 16th century Chinese novel Monkey: Journey to the West (after they were inspired by the same myth to create the opera of the same name). it was this tale that the classic 70s series Monkey was also based on.

The BBC trailer actually features eleven Olympic events (watch closely), as well as the all important Bird's Nest Stadium. But if, like me, you're more interested in finding out more about the inspiration behind the trail, you could do worse than click here.