Room on the Broom Preview
Like most people, we at Skwigly all agree that Christmas just isn’t Christmas without animation on the telly. Whether it be a recent blockbuster, a classic short such as “The Wrong Trousers” and “The Snowman” or classic features such as “The Nightmare Before Christmas” we all love an excuse to force the rest of the family to sit around the box and enjoy the delights on the screen.
The BBC are one of the channels that still make an effort to create new films for the clan to enjoy and this year is no exception with “Room on the Broom” premiering on Christmas Day. Created by Julia Donaldson and Axel Sheffler the writer and illustrator of the original books the film has been crafted by Magic Light pictures in the same style of “The Gruffalo” and “The Gruffalos Child” both recent successes from the same creatives.
Magic Light pictures was set up in 2003 to create work just like “Room on the Broom” and Michael Rose, the man behind many of Aardmans earlier successes who began the company with Martin Pope also produced “Chico & Rita” adding to the portfolio of work. In 2009 The Gruffallo became the first of the Donaldson/Sheffler books to be translated from bedtime books to teatime viewing Michael Rose remembers, “There was something about the book, it is a modern classic” as well as heavily praising the work of the illustrator “The Illustrations of Axel Sheffler are beautiful”
There are not many things you can make work commercially or creativly as a half hour film but we thought the Gruffalo had enough story, character and potential to be something.
After the success of “The Gruffalo” and “The Gruffalos Child” it is no surprise that the formula has not changed in adapting “Room on the Broom” a list of celebrity vocals (Simon Pegg, Gillian Anderson, Rob Brydon, David Walliams, Martin Clunes, Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins) have been called upon to offer their audible talents, but not for the star quality of their names more for the cadence of their voice. The animation technique that was developed for the previous works is once again deployed in this film, with model backgrounds hosting CGI characters that blend together seamlessly. Whilst a 3D model style differs from the artistry of Axel Sheffler the character designs are just as faithful to the original design and look as the script is to the words of Julia Donaldson. “It is important to me that when the film is finished that the authors will be proud of the work”, with such attention to detail it is no wonder that these films continue to deliver Christmas cheer to families across the world.
The Room on the Broom is on BBC 1 at 4.35pm Christmas Day and then available on the iPlayer
You can listen to the full interview with Michael Rose on the Skwigly Podcast here