The Gruffalo (2009)

This short was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short. There will be spoilers ahead: This is an excellent adaptation of a children's story about a mouse who is walking through the woods to get to a tree with acorns. It's told within a framing story of a mother squirrel telling the tale to her two children. Along the way, he outsmarts a fox, an owl and a snake who all thought the mouse looked good and invite him home for a meal.The mouse being rather clever, he weaves a tale of a meeting with his friend, the Gruffalo, when everyone knows "there's no such thing as a Gruffalo". Everyone, that is, except for the fox, the owl, the snake-and the Gruffalo.The mouse and the Gruffalo meet and the Gruffalo also thinks the mouse looks good, even though the mouse would scarcely make half a belch for the Gruffalo. The mouse, thinking fast on his feet, manages to snooker the Gruffalo and trick the other three all over again, as the three carnivores have met and compared notes on the mouse and his tale. Things end well for the mouse.The voice cast is exceptional, particularly Helena Bonham Carter as the mother squirrel, James Corden as the mouse and Robbie Coltrane as the Gruffalo. This short is available on DVD and is well worth seeking out. Most highly recommended.

A tale about how cunning compensates the lack of power, shown in a magically colorful, greatly made 3D animation. The action is intense, the fun is smart (The daydreams' shots for big instance), the characters are all distinguished and so cute; I have such an admiration for the owl's design. However, while everything seems all right, all bright, there were some things here and there that bugged me.The narration, rather the whole squirrel storyline ? It was a factor of thrill, yes. But in general I felt that it elongated the movie more than benefited it. Its start is strange, since obviously these kids need to eat, not to listen to a story. And when in its end they all have the food, without cunning or anything, then it's kind of bland and unnecessary.The matter of the lead wanting to go to the nuts' big tree was left with no end. I felt that he, after the whole scheme, already reached it; as if it's an equal to his success. Or he could have eventually used the Gruffalo to do such a thing (while his running afraid lastly). By the way, I hated how the Gruffalo, despite all what he has seen of clues, wanted to eat the lead near the end ?? I see that it was just a lousy attempt to make a thrilling moment, which came out as forced and unbelievable.While the characters are a memorable experience, the snake's design isn't. It was the weakest of them all, looking more like a character in a tacky puppet show! The pace is mostly fine, atmospheric and meditative, however I thought that the movie could have been shorter, especially the intro / opening credits which in fact fits a feature film. And finally, violet or not, I couldn't stand the matter of the wart on the Gruffalo's nose.. GROSS !This is luscious and meaningful. But on the scale of 10 it stopped at 7. Hmmm, let's make it 8 due to its image then.

I absolutely loved The Gruffalo. It is a little too short, but all the same it is still superb. The animation is beautiful, very true to the illustrations of the book, plus the characters are well modelled and move convincingly and the backgrounds and colours are ravishing. The story is cute and charming, simple it is, but simple as in a good way. The dialogue is always amusing, it is done in rhyme and bounces along with no problem at all. The pace is brisk and the characters like the story are simple but still engaging. The voice cast are all solid across the board as well. So overall, just superb, if it had been a tad longer it would have been perfection. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Having narrowly avoided a predator herself, a mother squirrel calms the nerves of her two young children by telling them a story of a plucky young mouse who travels deep into the woods in search of food only to find predators at every turn ready to trick him into becoming their next meal.While the satellite channels have pretty much taken away the "big movie premiere" as an event on BBC at Christmas time, the BBC still have their usual weapons by their sides to ensure that people looking for easy festive distraction know they can come to them. As a result we do get several episodes of Eastenders but it does also mean special films of existing shows (such as Dr Who etc) which sometimes can be quite good, but also animated programmes. The usual big winner that everyone thinks of is of course Wallace & Gromit, but this year there was none of them but there was this charming little film sitting comfortably just before the end of David Tenant on Doctor Who.Based on the very successful children's book (which I've not read), the rhyming dialogue of the mouse's speech appears to have made it as has the look and feel of the film since the animation is very close to what I have seen of the book. In terms of substance it is very simple but effective – you know where it is going but it has an easy delight to it that one cannot help enjoying. I'm not sure if it is from the book or not but I felt that the narrative device of having us be told the mouse's story via another story teller (and being able to see her audience while also be the audience ourselves) really did work to make it a bit more engaging. The cast is fairly packed with famous voices as well (and not just for UK viewers, which is normally how it works). Although I personally am yet to see what everyone likes about him, Corden does a good job as the mouse – despite the feeling that the BBC were putting him in everything (this was his first of three appearances at Christmas). He is quite restrained in his delivery, which suits the mouse and the clever little rhyming style of his speech. Carter's narrator is balanced and responsible, with Brydon, Hurt and Wilkinson doing good work in small bits as the predators. Coltrane is the only one that really makes an impression though, since his voice is quite distinctive and he plays up the gruff aspect of it. In terms of the stars, they are all good without being so good that it explains their involvement, but I suppose it helps the film and also represented an easy time commitment from them.What really made it for me though was the animation. The film looks great but it does it in a way that never feels showy or like it is being done for the sake of it. In terms of bringing it to the screen it somehow manages to be impressive and detailed but yet also keep the rounded colourful nature that one would expect with a children's animated book. To me, the animation did more than the star names in terms of creating the characters and while the casting is a coup that catches the eye, the animators deserve a lot of credit as well.Overall, a charming little delight – nothing to blow you away or having you rolling like Wallace & Gromit perhaps, but a simple enjoyable story told in a very effective and enjoyable way.