''The Gruffalo'' is a 2009 short

computer animated Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refer ...

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

based on the 1999

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

written by

Julia Donaldson Julia Donaldson (born Julia Catherine Shields; born ) is an English writer and playwright, and the 2011–2013 Children's Laureate. She is best known for her popular rhyming stories for children, especially those illustrated by Axel Scheffler, ...

and illustrated by

Axel Scheffler Axel Scheffler (born ) is a German illustrator and animator based in London. He is best known for his cartoon-like pictures for children's books, in particular ''The Gruffalo'' and ''The Gruffalo's Child'', written by Julia Donaldson. He has al ...

. Directed by Jakob Schuh and Max Lang, the film was produced by Michael Rose and Martin Pope of Magic Light Pictures, London, and Orange Eyes Limited, in association with the award-winning Studio Soi in Ludwigsburg, Germany, who developed and created the film. The cast includes Helena Bonham Carter,

Rob Brydon Robert Brydon Jones (; born 3 May 1965) is a Welsh actor, comedian, impressionist, presenter, singer and writer. He played Dr Paul Hamilton in the Australian/British comedy series ''Supernova'', Bryn West in the BBC sitcom '' Gavin & Stacey'' ...

Robbie Coltrane Anthony Robert McMillan (30 March 195014 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor and comedian. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. H ...

James Corden James Kimberley Corden (born 22 August 1978) is an English television host, actor, comedian, and singer. In the United Kingdom, he is best known for co-writing and starring in the critically acclaimed BBC sitcom '' Gavin & Stacey''. In the ...

John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...

and Tom Wilkinson. 9.8 million people watched the UK premiere on BBC One, Friday 25 December 2009 and the film went on to receive nominations for both an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

and a BAFTA. It was screened in US theatres, distributed by Kidtoon Films. In December 2012, the film and its sequel ''

The Gruffalo's Child ''The Gruffalo's Child'' is a British children's picture book by writer and playwright Julia Donaldson, and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. It is the bestselling sequel to '' The Gruffalo''. Plot The story is about the Gruffalo's daughter who ...

'' premiered on television in the United States on

Disney Junior Disney Junior is an American pay television network owned by the Walt Disney Television (part of Disney General Entertainment Content) unit of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Branded Television. Aimed mainly at children two to seven ...

, and in December 2017 – 2018, the film and its sequel premiered on television in the United States on the Disney Junior channel.

Plot

In an autumn wood, a

Red squirrel The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris'') is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent. In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbe ...

mother finds a nut. Her children are playing until they see an owl. The mother squirrel drops the nut as she escapes from the owl, but her shocked children want her to tell them a story. So she tells the story of a

mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

strolling through a deep dark wood. Mouse tries to find a nut to eat but he can not reach it, so he makes a journey to a beautiful nut tree. Encountering three carnivorous animals along the way, who all wish to eat him, -- first a fox, (who wants to cook the mouse) then an owl, (which wants eat her for tea) and finally a

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more ...

(who wants to choke and eat the mouse) —the plucky mouse uses his wits to survive. He lies to each animal that he is meeting a

monster A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...

(calling his imaginary beast a ‘Gruffalo’), describes his terrible features, says that he is meeting him "here", and that the Gruffalo's favourite food is whichever animal is threatening him which are ''roasted fox, owl ice cream, and scrambled snake''. Each predator then panics and flees, but later they all gather and talk about what the mouse said, then realize they have been tricked. Mouse feels so confident that he finally reaches the nut tree and suddenly comes face to face with a real Gruffalo, exactly as he had described it. When the Gruffalo catches and threatens to eat him, Mouse uses his wits again and says that everyone in the wood is afraid of him, asking the Gruffalo to follow him and see. As the two of them meet the animals again, the presence of the Gruffalo frightens them away: The Gruffalo believes they are afraid of the mouse. As the Gruffalo prepares to eat the mouse, Mouse's tummy rumbles and he says his favourite food is Gruffalo crumble, causing the Gruffalo to retreat in fear. Finally safe, he finds the nut from earlier, which the Gruffalo had knocked down, and can eat it in peace. When the mother squirrel ends her story, the children feel better and they all go to retrieve their nut as snow begins to fall. In the end credits, the house of the snake is seen.

Voice cast

* Helena Bonham Carter as Mother Squirrel/

Narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

Mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

The Gruffalo ''The Gruffalo'' is a British children's picture book by author Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Its tells the story of a mouse taking a walk in the woods and deceiving different predators, including the Gruffalo. ''The Gruf ...

* Tom Wilkinson as Fox *

as Owl *

Snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more ...

* Sam Lewis as First Little Squirrel * Phoebe Givron-Taylor as Second Little Squirrel

Background and production

''The Gruffalo'', written by

and illustrated by

, was published in 1999 and has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. In a

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

poll in 2009, the book was voted as the UK's favourite bedtime story. The book has been adapted into a 27-minute animated film, which was broadcast on BBC One in the UK on 25 December 2009. This new version features Robbie Coltrane in the title role and James Corden as the mouse as well as Helena Bonham Carter as the mother squirrel narrator and Rob Brydon as the Snake. The production was animated at the award-winning Studio Soi in Germany and produced through Magic Light Pictures. The film also has the voices of John Hurt as the Owl and Tom Wilkinson as the Fox. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film (Animated) on 25 January 2011. The film was also nominated for a BAFTA in 2010.

Reception

The film premiered on BBC One, Christmas Day 2009, watched by 9.8 million people. Review website Den of Geek described it as an "utterly charming piece of magic". The film has been broadcast across the world, including on ZDF in Germany. It premiered on United States television on 9 December 2010 on

ABC Family The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...

during its '' 25 Days of Christmas'' programming block. It also aired on YTV in Canada on 18 December 2011. ''The Gruffalo'' has been shown on

Nick Jr Nick Jr. (known on-air as the Nick Jr. Channel) is an American pay television channel spun off from Nickelodeon's long-running programming block of the same name. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family ...

in the UK and is distributed on DVD by Entertainment One. NCircle distribute the DVD in the US, Phase 4 in Canada and Concorde in Germany. A

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

version has been produced, with the voice of the Gruffalo provided by Bill Paterson. ''An Gruffalo'' was first shown on

BBC Alba BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic-language free-to-air public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the BBC and MG Alba. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day with BBC Radio nan Gàidheal ...

on Christmas Eve 2010. The film has also proved a hit with festival audiences around the world. On top of its Academy Award and BAFTA nominations, it has also been awarded prizes at festivals including the Annecy International Animation Festival (France), Anima Mundi (Brazil), The Broadcast Awards 2011 (UK), Cartoons on the Bay (Italy), Chicago International Children's Festival (USA), CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival (Canada), Ottawa International Animation Festival (Canada), Prix Jeunesse (Germany??), Sapporo Short Fest (Japan), Shanghai Television Festival (China) and Internationales Trick Film Festival (Germany). ''The Gruffalo'' was also nominated for the prestigious

Cartoon d'or The Cartoon d'Or was a European award for animated short films. History It was rewarded every year to the best European short film from Cartoon's partner festivals until it was suppressed in favor of the Emile Awards. Amongst this short list, a ...

2011.

Awards and nominations

Sequel

The sequel to the Gruffalo, based on the follow-up to the picture book, was shown on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

on Christmas Day 2011.

References

External links

*
''The Gruffalo''
on

BBC Online BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, the childr ...

''The Gruffalo''
on Magic Light Pictures {{DEFAULTSORT:Gruffalo, The 2009 films 2009 short films 2009 television films 2009 computer-animated films 2000s children's films 2000s animated short films British children's films British computer-animated films British animated short films British television films German children's films German computer-animated films German animated short films German television films English-language German films Donaldson and Scheffler Animated films based on children's books Films about mice and rats Animated films about foxes Films about owls Films about snakes Animated films about squirrels Films set in forests BBC Film films Films directed by Max Lang Fiction about monsters 2000s British films 2000s German films ZDF original programming