Brandon Oldenburg, the Oscar- and Emmy-winning director of animated shorts The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, Taking Flight and The Scarecrow, will make his feature film directorial debut on Mouschi: The Cat Who Lived with Anne Frank, based on the recent children’s picture book The Cat Who Lived with Anne Frank by David Lee Miller and Steven Jay Rubin.
According to Deadline, the animated film will put a fantastical spin on the historical fiction, described as “The Lion King meets Inglourious Basterds.” The story recasts Mouschi as a feline swashbuckler about Amsterdam, who becomes a heroic freedom fighter as part of the Dutch Animal Resistance.
The screenplay is written by Miller (My Suicide) and Rubin (Silent Night), who is also serving as co-director, with Patrick Cunningham (Spell) producing and Rubin and Christa Lang Fuller executive producing. The film team is consulting with Jewish human rights org the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which will also receive support from a portion of the the movie’s profits.
The Cat Who Lived with Anne Frank (Penguin’s Philomel Books, 2019) is written by Miller and Rubin, with illustrations by Elizabeth Baddeley. The authors felt compelled to educate younger readers about the Holocaust, and set out to reach this audience by introducing them to the sweet and adventurous cat who shared the Frank family’s shelter. While Anne must remain in hiding, Mouschi is free to wander the streets and witness unnoticed the onset of World War II.
Mouschi is mentioned often in Anne’s famous diary, and belonged to a teenage boy named Peter Van Pels who was hiding with her family. Anne had left behind her own cat, Moortje, when fleeing the Nazi invasion.
Animation filmmaker, illustrator and immersive storyteller Oldenburg shared the Best Animated Short Oscar in 2012 for Morris Lessmore with writer-director William Joyce. He is also a co-founder of Reel FX, Moonbot Studios (with Joyce), Flight School Studio and most recently the immersive experience Department of Wonder.
[Source: Deadline]
