Films like this are like little presents to the nation every Christmas
The latest Aardman animation is a festive treat. Georgia Humphreys finds out more from the pair behind it, Dan Ojari and Mikey Please
Wallace and Gromit, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run – Aardman Animations has a long list of success stories.
And there’s no doubt that its latest family-friendly film – about a robin adopted by a family of mice – will also be a hit.
Aptly named Robin Robin, the 30-minute stopframe musical was written and directed by Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, who pitched the idea to Bristol-based Aardman after first coming up with the story back in 2014.
The duo, who founded Bafta-award-winning Parabella Studio together, was inspired by the annual tradition of watching Christmas specials such as The Snowman and The Gruffalo.
“They’re just such wonderful, beautifully crafted films that are like little presents to the country every year,” says Dan.
This is a tender tale about identity. Robin may be a bird, but she has been raised by mice ever since she rolled into a rubbish dump as an egg.
As she gets older, the determined creature begins to realise how different she is to her loving family – she’s loud, and slightly clumsy, while they’re suitably sneaky. She has one wish: she wants to prove that she can actually be a good mouse.
What ensues is a snowy adventure, with plenty of humorous characters and songs.
And there is a stellar cast providing the voices. Richard E Grant is the eccentric Magpie, who collects shiny objects, and ends up helping
Robin as she embarks on her journey of self-discovery. Sex Education and The Crown star Gillian Anderson is the villain of the piece in the shape of Cat. Rising star Bronte Carmichael voices Robin and Back to Life’s Adeel Akhtar is Dad Mouse, who’s an understandably anxious single parent in charge of five children, including Robin.
During sessions in the recording booth, Dan and Mikey would show the cast clips of the animation to give them context.
They would also play scenes back to them to gauge their reaction as to how their character was coming across.
Dan loves how the animators capture the “nuance of naturalistic performance” in the characters. “We tried to push that quite a lot in our film, just to make them relatable,” he says. Mikey says: “We’re always looking for the little clips in between their lines, the little laughs when they might not be aware that we’re still recording.” “The guys at Aardman, and the animation team
we work with, they’re just such masters of bringing out those performances and translating them into the animated puppet,” adds Dan. “It was a lot of fun.”
The filmmakers also touch on the decision to use needle felt for Robin Robin, rather than Aardman’s usual plasticine figures, with Mikey explaining that you could “cuddle these puppets”.
It felt like a Christmassy choice because you can get needlefelt decorations, suggests Dan.
“Fabric is one thing that I think always comes across as very tactile on screen. So that was part of the logic of using needlefelt. It’s endearing.”
Watching the beautiful piece, it’s easy to imagine the intricacy involved, which Mikey confirms: “Every shot was super hard!”
One scene particularly stands out as challenging in Dan’s mind. “The one that probably took the longest was Robin’s song,” he recalls. “It’s got a lot of characters in and she tramples through the rubbish dump singing a song.
“That took two weeks to film and it took about a week to block – you do a block before you film a song, like a rehearsal run. And then it probably took a couple of weeks to set up. So that’s over a month for one shot!”
Robin Robin launches on Netflix on Wednesday, November 24