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A Bird’s Eye View of Christmas Directors Dan Ojari and Mikey Please on the magic of needle felt and the joys of making Aardman’s new special Robin Robin. By Ramin Zahed
F
ans of Aardman Animations’ charming stop-motion gems will get an early holiday gift this month when Netflix premieres the studio’s new special Robin Robin. Created and directed by Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, the half-hour short centers on a robin who sets out to prove herself to her adopted family of burglar mice by stealing a Christmas star from the humans’ home. Produced by Aardman’s executive creative director Sarah Cox, the musical special features the voices of Bronte Carmichael as Robin, Richard E. Grant as Magpie, Gillian Anderson as Cat and Adeel Akhtar as Dad Mouse. Ojari and Please, who formed Parabella Studios after graduating from London’s Royal College of Art and directing the award-winning shorts Slow Derek and The Eagleman Stag, respectively, pitched the idea to Cox at the 2018 edition of the Annecy Festival in France. “We pitched the idea to Sarah in a cramped corner of the Annecy Festival canteen and sang her the Magpie song. So, it took us about two and a half years to make it — that’s remarkably
quick in animation,” says Ojari. He adds, “I was thinking about what would be the dream project for Mikey and me, and I thought a Christmas special would be ideal since I love that sense of tradition where families gather once a year around and watch an animated show. We’ve also always wanted to make a musical and it’s been really fun to use the lyrics to tell the story and add this element of oddness to the film. The music is as nuanced as the animation, which can go from loud and playful to being subtle and dramatic.”
Formidable Felt One of the several aspects that sets this special apart from previous Aardman projects is that it uses needle felt instead of the usual plasticine puppets or CG animation, which the studio is best known for. As Ojari explains, “The idea of using needle felt for characters in a Christmas story always excited us, and Robin Robin was the perfect opportunity to try that out. We made our own tree with felt decorations of a mouse and a robin and took them into the first
‘Needle felt is really tactile … It’s luminous and has a way of absorbing and reflecting light and works beautifully for stop-motion animation. It was a challenge for the Aardman puppet makers, but they were really excited by the level of expression we could get from the puppets.’ — Director Mikey Please
meetings. There is a real Christmas-y feel to them and you feel like you can squeeze and cuddle these puppets” “Needle felt is really tactile,” says Please. “It’s luminous and has a way of absorbing and reflecting light and works beautifully for stop-motion animation. You can get the lights on characters which really shows off their imperfections. It was a challenge for the Aardman puppet makers, but they were really excited by it and the amazing level of expression we could get from the puppets.” Ojari says one of the big inspirations for him and the team was the 1982 Channel 4 adaptation of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman (directed by Dianne Jackson and produced by John Coates). “There is such
a great tradition of watching animated specials about the holiday with the whole family. The team and I kept watching The Snowman over and over again for inspiration. We grew up with these specials as well as the Wallace & Gromit shorts. In more recent years, we’ve been treated to animated shows like The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom. They are these beautifully crafted films that are like little presents to the world. We think it would be amazing for Robin Robin to be watched next year as well as this year in the same way.” When asked about the most challenging aspects of the special, both directors admit that every scene had its share of difficult moments. “Every shot was hard,” says
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december 21
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