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The holiday season wouldn’t be quite the same without a beautifully crafted, 2D animated special from our friends across the Pond. This year, the talented team at Lupus Films, which are best known for quality projects such as The Snowman and the Snowdog, Ethel & Ernest and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, have prepared another charming present for Channel 4 audiences. The new special, Mog’s Christmas, is based on a series of popular books by Judith Kerr (which started with Mog the Forgetful Cat in 1970 and ended with Mog’s Birthday in 2020).
‘I was inspired by the success of hand-drawn family animated specials like The Snowman and wanted to produce films like that.’
— Producer Ruth Fielding
In the new special, which is directed by Robin Shaw, written by Joanna Harrison and produced by Lupus co-founders Ruth Fielding and Camilla Deakin, the beloved family cat feels a bit ignored and scrambles onto the roof when house guests and giant Christmas tree arrive. The stellar voice cast includes Adjoa Andoh, Benedict Cumberbatch, Miriam Margolyes and Claire Foy.
Fielding, whose many animation credits include The Snowman and the Snowdog, Ethel & Ernest and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, says she and her team were looking for another Judith Karr tale to adapt for animation after they delivered The Tiger Who Came to Tea in 2019. “The Mog books seemed to be the obvious choice for a family audience,” she says. “Channel 4 felt the same way and commissioned us to adapt the book Mog’s Christmas into an animated film. The special was animated and produced in our studio in London with some people working remotely but the majority in the studio. It took us 18 months from script sign off to delivery.”
Lovingly Crafted in 2D
According to director Robin Shaw, who also worked on The Tiger Who Came to Tea and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, the project employed 63 animators and artists. “They all used TVPaint, which is by far the most versatile software for this kind of traditional, hand-drawn 2D animation, he notes. “It enables you to draw everything from the boards to backgrounds in full color and see the finished frame as it will end up on screen. As a result we can concentrate on the animation and the drawing, rather than the compositing, something which I think is key for keeping that stylistic link with Judith Kerr’s books.”
Shaw says he loves the way the main character Mog’s inner voice and thoughts are foremost in the book and the whole series. “All the stories are told very much from her point of view,” he says. “I really ran with that idea and tried to visualize the weirdness of humans and their Christmassy goings-on as seen through her eyes. It allowed me to do everything — from having a marching Christmas Tree to making some of the characters more extreme and funny than they might have been were we watching the story play out through human eyes.”
The special’s animation style closely follows the book’s original illustration style. “There’s an awful lot of skilled frame-by-frame brushwork that goes into the animation,” notes Shaw. “If you try to leave a detail out here or there, the artwork very quickly stops looking and feeling like Judith Kerr’s drawings. That’s why a lot of time was spent working out how we could replicate her characteristic brush-and-ink work.”
He adds, “For the interiors — just as I did with The Tiger Who Came to Tea — I’ve used the white of the page in the same way that Judith Kerr did; for simple, clear and fun storytelling in a domestic setting. Most of the film is set outside, however, and I’ve really tried to conjure up the spirit of London getting ready for Christmas and the beauty of snow falling on city streets at night.”
One of the main challenges for Shaw and his team was maintaining a balance between the story being all about Mog whilst allowing room for all of the humans around her to have their own characteristics and moment in the spotlight. “We need feel like we know them all and belong with them as much as she does,” Shaw points out. “On a practical level, I’d say the most difficult thing was — as it always is — staying true to such a specific style of illustration. With this kind of work every little detail counts, from Judith Kerr’s use of perspective and composition to the way she mixed media in a single drawing; it all needs respecting and following at every stage in the production.”
‘One of the themes in the film is a sense of belonging, and I’d love it if people watched the film and felt as though, in that moment, they all belonged with each other.’
— Director Robin Shaw
Not surprisingly, both Fielding and Shaw mention Channel 4’s beloved 1982 adaptation of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman when asked about some of their favorite animated works of all time.
“Growing up, Camberwick Green and Trumpton were two British favorite series of mine, but I also loved the comedy of Hong Kong Phooey and Scooby-Doo,” says Fielding. “It was only when I was working at Channel 4 in my late twenties that I discovered the artistic mastery of Raymond Briggs’ classics like The Bear and The Snowman. I was inspired by the success of these hand-drawn family animated specials and wanted to produce films like that.”
In the Footsteps of The Snowman
Shaw says he grew up on a diet of beautifully crafted, handmade animated series like Ivor The Engine, the original ’70s version of Paddington Bear and The Snowman. “The way I could see and enjoy how they were made inspired me to go off and draw and make my own things,” says the director. “That has never left me. As an adult I discovered the work of people like Yuri Norstein, which captured me in exactly the same way.”
The director and producer of Mog’s Christmas both hope their show will add to the viewers’ holiday cheer this month. “I hope audiences will come away feeling like they’ve all really enjoyed something together,” says Shaw. “One of the themes in the film is a sense of belonging, and I’d love it if people watched the film and felt as though, in that moment, they all belonged with each other.”
Adds Fielding, “We hope that audiences will feel like they’ve had a big warm Christmassy hug after they’ve watched the film.”
Mog’s Christmas is slated to premiere on Channel 4 in the U.K. on Christmas Eve (December 24)at 7:45 p.m. No U.S. airdate has been announced yet.
