Baby Cow Animations Christmas Crackers

19 December 2012 // Featured

Steve Henderson

Editor

Baby Cow animation is the animation wing of the comedy enterprise set up by Steve Coogan and Henry Normal in 1999. Headed by Tim Searle who set up Triffic films straight from college helmed such work as ‘I Am Not An Animal’ and ‘2DTV’ the now Babycow producer oversees the animation work on BAFTA winning series ‘Horrible Histories’ animated short pieces such as Mark Nutes ‘Marvin’ This Christmas we see Tim directing ‘The Cow That Almost Missed Christmas’ written by Andy Cutbill and using the illustrated style of Russell Ayto, creators of the very popular children’s book “The Cow That Laid An Egg”.

Marjorie (Isy Suttie) and Brian (Johnny Vegas) hitch a ride into town looking for a party.

Showcasing a host of British comedy talent including Isy Suttie (Peep Show), Miriam Margolyes (Blackadder), Johnny Vegas (Ideal) Nitin Ganatra (Eastenders) and Simon Greenall (I’m Alan Partridge) the cast are complimented by the books beautiful illustrated style that has been recreated by the team at Babycow, Tim Searle notes “I was a fan of the books that I had come across for my own kids, they are really quirky and fun, I could see the crossover between the way Russell Ayto uses collage and the way we use collage”. Whilst the team recreated that style the books original author Andy Cutbill went to work on a script that placed the cow in Bethlehem at the time of the nativity making it the perfect fit for the Christmas schedules.

Marjorie (voiced by Isy Suttie) sits with her family (she’s adopted)

That is not the only festive treat that the studio has produced this year, ‘Uncle Wormsleys Christmas’ tells the tale of a grumpy old miser who only loves a giant crab called Crabsley who lives in a dungeon under his house. His life is thrown into turmoil when a little rich kids parents employ the mysterious crab catchers to fulfill their spoilt sons desires of owning a ginormous crustacean.

“With Babycow animation we are working with authors. Comedy is a broad church and we produce a wide range of stuff” he is certainly correct as Uncle Wormsley is definitely grimmer than the bovine centric, family work produced for CBeebies. Written by Joel Veitch and Tim Gallagher and directed by David Shute those familiar with rathergood.com will be glad to know that the eccentricities that make their work unique are very present albeit with the support of Babycow “Hopefully there is a quirky integrity that runs through the work like a stick of rock”

Possibly the most unique thing you will see all Christmas

You can see The Cow That Almost Missed Christmas on Wednesday 19th December 4:30pm on CBeebies. Frisay 21st 3.30pm on BBC1 and Christmas Day 6:30am BBC2

Uncle Wormsleys Christmas is on Monday 24th December 10pm Sky Atlantic, Christmas Day 7pm and 11:30pm and Boxing Day 3pm

Listen to a full interview with Tim Searle on the Skwigly Podcast here