Phil Hawkins Unleashes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into the Magic: The Gathering Universe

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have entered the Magic: The Gathering universe - and they've made themselves very much at home. Phil Hawkins' spot for Wizards of the Coast sees the gang burst into the Magic offices, help design their own cards, flex in front of the illustrator drawing them and - naturally - retrofit a van with a pizza catapult. High fives, chaos and a lot of pizza ensue. Cowabunga.

Produced by Eyebolls, with animation direction from Tony Cervone, it's a technically demanding blend of live action and hand-drawn 2D animation - the vivid colours of the Turtles' world pulling seamlessly into the real one. But Phil never loses sight of what makes the Turtles the Turtles - the whole thing has an irresistible looseness to it, and you can feel everyone involved having an absolute blast.

Here’s what Phil had to say about the project, "We always imagined that the 'what if' of Turtles existing and collaborating with the Wizards on these cards was totally real - and we didn't want or need to explain why they're animated. It's just the way the world of the film works.

"We wanted to bring the heightened style and comedic tone of the Turtles to match the genuine enthusiasm of the Wizards without cynicism. The film is a celebration of a collaboration that's been a long time coming, so we really made it for the fans.

"From a performance perspective, I really did just treat the Turtles like living and breathing actors throughout the whole process."