BFI Gruffalo/Stick Man screening + Q&A

As part of The Gruffalo’s birthday (The book’s 20 and the film 10!), BFI Southbank is organising a Family Funday on Sunday 30th June. They’ll be screening The Gruffalo and Stick Man in NFT 1 at 12:30, preceded by a fun arts&craft workshop in the foyer. I’ll be joining producers Michael Rose and Martin Pope for a Q&A afterwards, where we’ll happily discuss working with Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, and our desire to combine good story telling with high quality animation. I’m biased of course, but I feel these TV Specials always look good on a cinema screen... so if you have little ones, make it a day out! Booking information here.

Räuber Ratte wins award!

What an unexpected treat. Almost two years after the film was completed, The Highway Rat has won ‘Best Short Film’ at the largest Children Film festival in Germany, the ‘Goldener Spatz’. What is a first is that it’s not the original but the German dubbed version, Räuber Ratte, that got this accolade. So a big thank you to German TV channel ZDF and its editor Nicole Keeb, not only for co-producing the film, but also spending a lot of time and care on a translated version of the highest standard. I’ll have to brush up on my German now before having a look... 'Stehen und liefern!', oder 'Halt und abgeben!'?

The Highway Rat nominated for an Annie Award

That cheeky rat has clawed his way into 2019; we are nominated for a prestigious Annie Award! On the 2nd February, The Highway Rat will be competing for the ‘Best Animated Special Production’, up against some formidable other nominees, including Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns and Google’s Back to the Moon. It’s an incredible honour to be mentioned amongst those productions, and I’m already looking forward to next year now. The Annie Awards are held in Los Angeles, with an aim to recognise excellence in animation. Having one of the prettiest awards in the industry (a golden Zoetrope), one can only dream….. but come what may, this nomination will be an opportunity to visit Disneyland again!

4 nominations at the European Animation Awards

It’s with great joy I can announce The Highway Rat has been nominated for 4 European Animation Awards. We will be competing for Best Writing, Storyboard, Character Animation and Soundtrack in the TV/Broadcast category. The European Animation Awards are fairly new. It was created to recognise and honour the diverse talent in Europe. Therefore, its aim is not just to award a director or production company, but those individuals and teams who have been pivotal throughout an animation production. I think it’s very fitting for an industry that relies on so many skills, and for me personally it’s a true honour to be namechecked alongside those who have worked so hard on the film last year. A good opportunity to celebrate together. The awards will be held on Saturday 8th December in Lille. Looking forward to celebrate. To see all the nominees, click here.

Manchester Animation Festival talk

I'll be heading up North on 15th November, to give a masterclass at the Manchester Animation Festival. I'm looking forward to taking the audience behind the scenes of The Highway Rat and talk about the various production stages that took this story from picture book to half hour TV special. It's a nice opportunity to show 'never-seen-before' concept art, character designs etc... all the drawings and paintings that established the look of the film and informed the CG production. So if you're a fan of Magic Light Pictures, I hope to see you in Manchester next month! For those interested, click here for more info about the event

London Philharmonic Orchestra performs The Highway Rat

What a hoot, seeing The Highway Rat performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at The Royal Festival Hall. The event was part of FUNharmonics, aimed at introducing the joy of music and instruments to young ones. No surprise, the venue was filled with young families, some children dressed as the Highway Rat themselves. The Royal Festival Hall has a capacity of 2500, and to my delight every seat was taken. It's the largest screening of the film I've ever witnessed. And what an experience it was, seeing the music performed live, conducted by Terry Davies who had also orchestrated the original score. It brought back wonderful memories of working on these compositions with Rene Aubry more than a year ago, giving the film it's adventurous tone. The event was masterfully presented by Lucy Griffiths, who explained the various sections of the orchestra and then coaxed us all in a massive singsong before the screening started. A treat from start to end.

The Highway Rat at the Ottawa International Animation Festival

I just returned from the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF), which was a great experience; 4 days filled with varied and interesting films, populated by an audience that was extremely keen to see what has been produced internationally. The festival has been one I've been aching to visit for years, since my student films were nominated many moons ago. OIAF is regarded as one of the biggest animation festivals in North America, so I am delighted to have won a Special Mention at the award ceremony for The Highway Rat. The jury consisted out of children between the age of 8 and 12 years old, and I have never seen more diligent jury duties on display. Jet lag aside, good memories of the festival, Ottawa and Canada as a whole!

The Highway Rat wins Rose d’Or

It was a huge honour to be awarded the Rose d’Or 2018 award for ‘Best TV Children and Youth’ for The Highway Rat. I already felt privileged to be nominated amongst the best of European programming, especially as we were the only animated show. But winning the actual award topped it all. As the Rose d’Or define the gold standard of excellence and achievement in Entertainment programming, I’d really like to thank everyone who has helped pushing the quality of The Highway Rat over the course of 1,5 years; from its small story & concept department in London to the Juggernaut production at Triggerfish Animation and the final care at Goldcrest (and many many others inbetween). The Berlin based event was prestigious and relaxed. It was great to have the opportunity to rub shoulders with the makers of some of my favourite shows, and get a sneaky selfie with Lifetime Achievement winner, Joanna Lumley. And always a nice excuse to wear a suit for the day!

The Highway Rat wins at CURTAS International Film Festival

A lovely summer treat; The Highway Rat was chosen as the winner of CURTHINAS (Best Children Film) at the CURTAS International Film Festival. The event is held in Vila do Conde, close to Porto, and it's a marvelous place. If you like me, enjoy celebrating film making with the odd trip to the beach, this festival is the place to be! I'd love to express my thanks to the wonderful festival team to invite me over and join the closing ceremony and celebrations. I'm particularly happy that the jury in my category was made out of a group of children, 8-12 yr old. It's lovely to hear the film appeals to children outside the UK and that its Christmas themed ending can be enjoyed on the hottest week of the year as well.

The Highway Rat nominated for a Rose d'Or

An unexpected treat, The Highway Rat is nominated for a Rose d'Or! The prestigious Rose d'Or Awards are a bit of a European institution; they define the gold standard of excellence and achievement in Entertainment programming. We are nominated in the 'Children and Youth' category, where we'll compete as the only animated program. Very exciting news. But before it's so far, we still have a few other festivals to attend; The Highway Rat is also nominated at the Curtas Vila do Conde shortfilm festival in Portugal and the Ottawa International Animation Festival in Canada. The Rat is not ready to return to his cave just yet! For more information about the Rose d'Or nominations, click here.

Stick Man part of Luna Kids Cinema

Fans of The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom and Stick Man are in for a treat; this trilogy of films will be screened over the summer, as part of Luna Kids Cinema. This open-air cinema event is launching screenings for children for the first time, so I'm chuffed to hear Stick Man is part of its repertoire. Don't let Santa's appearance fool you; Stick Man travels through the seasons and there will be moments of fun 'beach escapades', perfect for summer and fitting with our current weather. Luna Kids Cinema is being held at several venues across Britain, including London, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Manchester and Cheshire. For more information, click here.

London Philharmonic Orchestra live performance of The Highway Rat

'Then they shared out the food from the saddle bags and feasted all night long - Bright were the flames of the bonfire, loud was the music and song.' Fans of Rene Aubry's music (Stick Man, The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom) are in for a treat; The Highway Rat will be screened at the Royal Festival Hall with a live soundtrack performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Hearing Rene's adventurous and rogue-ish score live is bound to elevate this film and will hopefully be a wonderful first concert experience for many children. The event will be held on the 14th October and tickets are released now on the Southbank Centre's website. For more details, click here.

The art of The Highway Rat.

I've been privileged to work with two concept artists at the top of their game on The Highway Rat; Aurelien Predal and Caroline Vos. Aurelien has been a longtime collaborator on Magic Light productions, since The Gruffalo in 2009. He helped out in the early stages of production with colour mood boards and initial set design, whilst I was still adapting the story. Aurelien's sense of colour is captivating. He has the ability to create an atmosphere with colour, something we tend to hang on to during the latter stages of production, like lighting and compositing. Caroline was the production designer at Triggerfish Animation, her work is sumptuous and detailed... and boy is she fast! She created many varied set designs and in her last few days on the job, managed to paint them all (see photo). Her work has been invaluable to the texture and modeling team, raising the production value of this film significantly. Please check out their work, it will be a treat. Aurelien Predal & Caroline Vos.

NUA conference

I was a guest speaker at Norwich University of the Arts, for their first animation conference. The day was filled with talks from people in the animation industry, ranging from recent graduates to established studios. I talked about the stages in my career and went into depth how The Highway Rat found its way from page to screen. It was very enjoyable to browse through all the concept art and many stages of production again: a good reminder how much love and passion was given to this project, and the amount of work that gets put into a single frame before it reaches an audience. Much kudos to John Dunleavy and Helen Piercy who organised the event...it seemed very popular. The jump from studying animation to turning it into a career is filled with certain obstacles, so trying to bridge that gap at university level is very commendable.

The Highway Rat nominated at Annecy

The festival season has begun and I am delighted to announce The Highway Rat is nominated at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, in the TV Film category. Annecy is one of my favourite festivals, as it brings back many happy memories (I've been going there on and off for the last 20 years). After visiting I always feel proud to be part of the animation industry. It's the third time I've been nominated in the TV Film category, with Bing in 2015 and winning the Crystal for Best TV Production with Stick Man in 2016. After last year's hiatus, being ankle deep in animating The Highway Rat, I look forward to return to Annecy this June, seeing old friends and hopefully making a few new ones. Here is the list of other nominees in the TV Film category.

First award for The Highway Rat

Exciting news from across the Atlantic; The Highway Rat has won the Audience Award (age 3-6) at the New York International Children Film Festival. Our first recognition! It's a huge honour to be chosen out of a mix of strong international film content. This festival is quite an ambitious one; it runs for 4 weeks and welcomes over 25,000 visitors through the doors of various New York venues. The aim is to present them with a mix of the best new animation, live action and documentary from all over the world. It's very rewarding to receive an Audience Award, as it means the film is enjoyed by those who it was aimed for. It's still a mystery to figure out how to hold a child's attention, so it's nice to know that our naughty Rat has managed it! Here are the other winners.

The Highway Rat TV advert from Jeroen Jaspaert on Vimeo.

The Highway Rat DVD sale went off with a bang this month; we entered the UK DVD chart at number 6, the highest ranking animation that week. Here is a TV advert that coincided with the release. Nice to see some clips that didn't feature in the BBC trailers. It saves me from doing a little edit myself.

Kilkenny Animated 2018

I'll be at the Kilkenny Animated Festival, to screen The Highway Rat and talk about the making of the film. The festival runs from 23 to 25 February, and promises to be a fun event with emphasis, not just on animation, but on visual storytelling. I'm looking forward to show a lot of the artwork that has been part of the visual development of The Highway Rat. Pre production is always an exciting phase of the animation process. I love how the many paintings, sketches and sculpts create the tone and the look of a film early on, and aid the storytelling. The craft and the artistry at this stage is always of high quality, but as their task is to inspire the CG production, they don't often see the light of day. So it will be nice to redress that balance. For more info about the festival and my talk, click here.

The Highway Rat on DVD

It's amazing how fast 6 weeks can go by, but The Highway Rat is out on DVD already! So for those and their kids who'd love a bit of repeat viewing, the time is now. Apart from the film there are some nice extras to enjoy. If you're interested in the artistry behind an animation production, there is a 20 minute 'making-of' documentary navigating through the many stages of the creative process, and an artwork gallery with colour keys and mood boards from the film. For the little ones there is a school stage play of The Highway Rat, performed by Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler and Julia's husband Malcolm, the original Scottish Rat! And if you happen to think that DVDs are a thing of the past, no worries, you can access the same film and extras on Amazon Prime...everybody happy! I hope our naughty Rat Thief can steal your heart again, a second time round.

The Highway Rat viewing figures

Happy New year everyone! The ratings are in; The Highway Rat attracted a total of 7.7 million viewers for its TV launch! With today's TV viewing habits in mind, that's more than a respectable figure. On Christmas Day we were the 8th most watched program, with a 31% share of the TV viewing nation at that time. It's enormously gratifying that these TV specials seem to be synonymous with a contemporary family's Christmas experience now. This news has been the perfect antidote to beat January's dreaded Blue Monday...and will keep me chuffed till February, when the DVDs get released.