''Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life'' is a 2010 Canadian live-action/animated short film directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, collectively known as Clyde Henry Productions, and features the voices of

Meryl Streep Mary Louise Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability. She has received numerous accolades throu ...

Forest Whitaker Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. After making his f ...

and

Spike Jonze Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze began his ca ...

. Jonze also served as producer along with Vincent Landay and

Marcy Page Marcy Page is an animation filmmaker and educator. Page was born and raised in California. She animated her own projects and for several companies, and she taught courses at both San Francisco State University and the California College of Arts ...

. ''Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life'' was produced by the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...

in association with

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

. It is based on the 1967

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

of the same name written and illustrated by

Maurice Sendak Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book '' Where the Wild Things Are'', first published in 1963.Turan, Kenneth (October 16, 20 ...

about the fictional adventures of his pet dog Jennie.

Plot

Sealyham Terrier The Sealyham Terrier ( cy, Daeargi Sealyham) is a rare Welsh breed of small to medium-sized terrier that originated in Wales as a working dog. It is principally a white-bodied, rough-coated breed, developed in the mid-to-late-19th century by ...

named Jennie leaves a comfortable life and embarks on a journey for new experiences and stardom.

Production

An associate of Jonze had been impressed by Lavis and Szczerbowski's previous work, the animated short '' Madame Tutli-Putli'' and suggested to the director that they would be suitable to create a short companion piece for the

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

release of '' Where the Wild Things Are''. Jonze contacted the animators while he was in France promoting ''

Synecdoche, New York ''Synecdoche, New York'' (pronounced ) is a 2008 American postmodern psychological drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman in his directorial debut. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as an ailing theater director who works on an incr ...

'' and the two met after, with Jonze proposing that they create a film based on some other short story by Sendak. Unfamiliar with Sendak's work, the filmmakers researched his work and settled on ''Higglety Pigglety Pop!'' as their choice to adapt. The film is set in 17 different locations, with a total of 25 scenes. With just 10 months to create the entire film, the filmmakers could not use

stop-motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames ...

or any of their traditional animation techniques. They decided instead to primarily make use of

puppetry Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performa ...

, combined with some stop-motion. Meryl Streep, who voiced Jennie, was not yet cast when shooting had begun. Sendak provided Lavis and Szczerbowski with an old recording of Streep reading the book, doing all the voices, and the filmmakers were impressed. They approached her with the part and she agreed.

Release

''Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life'' had its world premiere at the Montreal Children's International Film Festival on February 28, 2010. It was then released along with the

edition of Jonze's '' Where the Wild Things Are'', released on March 2, 2010. The film received two Golden Sheaf Awards, for Best Director (Fiction) and Best Children's and Youth Production, at the 2011

Yorkton Film Festival Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is an annual film festival held in late May in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1947, the Yorkton Film Council (YFC) was founded and in 1950 the first international documentary film festival officially opened in we ...

. The film was a

Jutra Award The Prix Iris is a Canadian film award, presented annually by Québec Cinéma, which recognizes talent and achievement in the mainly francophone feature film industry in Quebec.Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...

at the

13th Jutra Awards The 13th Jutra Awards were held on March 13, 2011 to honour films made with the participation of the Quebec film industry in 2010. Nominations were announced on February 9.Marc Cassivi"Soirée des Jutra: Incendies, favori d'un cru relevé" '' La P ...

in 2011.Charles-Henri Ramond
"Jutra 2011: Incendies rafle tout"
''Films du Québec'', March 14, 2011.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More To Life 2010 films Films about dogs Films based on children's books Puppet films Films with live action and animation National Film Board of Canada animated short films Quebec films 2010 animated films 2010s animated short films Canadian children's animated films Adaptations of works by Maurice Sendak 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films