The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland – Interview with Director Peter Baynton and Producer Ruth Fielding
Marking the feature debut of Peter Baynton, The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland sees the award winning director helm a festive feature with a twist at perhaps the UK’s premier 2D animation studio Lupus Films.
Based on the bestselling book written by Carys Bexington, illustrated by Kate Hindley both book and film, as the title might suggest, is a mixture of the mistletoed merriment of ‘T’was the Night Before Christmas’ and the mirth and madness of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, putting jolly Saint Nick up against the decapitation delirious Queen of Hearts.
Bringing together a stellar cast including Gerard Butler (Saint Nick), Emilia Clarke (The Queen of Hearts) and Simone Ashley (Alice) the film sees our Christmas champion and his team of Reindeer take a dive into Wonderland where they have the enormous task of converting the mad monarch from a scrooge-like tinsel hater to a heartfelt christmas lover in order to save Christmas for everyone.
Staying faithful to the books (as Lupus is known for), the design of the film delivers a unique Santa and coupled with Gerard Butler’s enthusiastic vocal boisterousness. As he should Santa really shines in this feature and paired with the ferocious Queen of Hearts, delivered with mischievous, brattish energy from Emilia Clarke, the film makes for an entertaining tale, full of ingenuity, and enough twists and turns to stand out from the slew of Santa centric adventures that fight for our attention every year. From a technical point of view the animation is great too and though clearly rigged – a departure from the crayon heavy stylings we have grown used to from the studio, it faithfully fits the source material and allows the lavishly detailed character designs to move as they should.
Packed with all the ingredients that make a festive film memorable and endearing the film is a yummy yuletide treat for the whole family and is available to stream now on Sky Cinema in the UK, Now TV in Canada as well as Amazon and Hulu. We caught up with Director Peter Baynton and Producer Ruth Feilding to discuss The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland.
Ruth, When I came to the studio when you were making Mog I was told that there was a top secret project happening upstairs in the studio – this was clearly that project! How did this film end up at Lups Films?
Ruth Fielding – We started working on this about four or five years ago while making other projects. Helen McAleer, then at Macmillan, brought us the book, saying it had a bit of a Christmas special feel. Camilla and I looked at it, loved Kate Hindley’s illustrations, and appreciated how Carys cleverly mashed The Night Before Christmas and Alice in Wonderland together. It felt like a no-brainer. We optioned the book, developed it as a half-hour Christmas special, and later showed it to Universal. They loved it and suggested developing it into a feature.
Once we got the green light—which takes forever, with lots of development work—we commissioned Guy Chambers and Amy to write songs, as it was going to be a musical. We expanded the story with Sarah Daddy’s screenplay; she’d just written the first Puffin Rock feature, so we knew she could write a feature, but we didn’t realize how amazing she’d be at rhyming couplets. The book, like The Gruffalo, is all in rhyming couplets, and while we doubted it could work in a feature, once we committed to that rule, there was no turning back.
By the time we were greenlit, Peter had started The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. We really wanted him to direct, so we waited, storyboarding with him remotely—a process that took about nine months. Once the animatic was signed off, Peter was free, and he came back to direct it.
Director Peter Baynton and Producer Ruth Fielding of Lupus Films
You must be sick of animating snow Peter?
Peter Baynton – (Laughs) You want to get into specifics? Animating snow is harder than you think. There’s the falling snow and then the snow on the ground—do characters leave footprints? What’s the snow’s characteristic? In The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, we made all the footprints, but for this film, we decided early on not to because it’s essentially a whole additional department you need.
We also had to decide which sequences would have falling snow and which would just show snow on the ground. We picked the moments that needed to feel the most Christmassy for falling snow, as even that’s tricky. You need to maintain consistency in speed and density from shot to shot, especially when moving from a wide shot to a close-up. Sometimes, even if it’s technically consistent, it can suddenly look faster or denser. It’s a pain!
Lupus Films have delivered Father Christmas in animated form before, how do you make him unique every time?
RF – Our Saint Nick is entirely made by Gerard Butler—he did such an amazing job, I can’t imagine anyone else playing him. The great thing about this mash-up is that there could be others—Saint Nick venturing into another fairy tale, perhaps.
Gerard was a real find. We shot for the moon, thinking, Who do we really want? I never thought he’d say yes. Through a friend of a friend of Camilla’s—a Scottish connection in LA—we got the script and songs to him. As soon as he read it, he was all in: ‘I’ve got to do this.’
It wasn’t easy. The actors’ strike hit, and at one point, we thought it wouldn’t happen. He was devastated but pleaded, ‘Please wait for me.’ And we did. He truly is our Saint Nick, and I can’t imagine anyone else in the role.
PB – Gerard has so much energy and such a huge heart—he’s kind, gentle, and playful, like a kid. All of that went into Saint Nick, making it a perfect match.
What really struck me about this mash-up of Wonderland and Saint Nick is the contrast between organisation and chaos. Wonderland is unpredictable, chaotic, and nonsensical, while Saint Nick’s Christmas operation is probably the most logistically complex mission imaginable—putting DHL or FedEx to shame. He’s a man on a mission, thrown into a world that’s the complete antithesis of that.
What’s lovely is that, while Saint Nick is focused and determined, he also has a fun-loving side. He’s happy to pause, relax, have a cup of tea, and share a laugh. That combination was very appealing as a story.
The film captures the design of the book with a rigged animation style. Can you tell us about the design process?
PB – Early on—almost in our first or second meeting—we decided the film should look like the book. It felt important and, honestly, obvious. Kate Hindley, the illustrator, visited the studio early in the process and assumed we’d take her designs, toss them out, and start fresh. But that never occurred to us—her illustrations are gorgeous, full of charm, texture, patterns, and lovely detail. It would’ve been a waste not to use them as a strong basis for the film.
We chose rigged cel animation because it was more practical given the level of detail. Saint Nick’s beard is scribbly, his fur trim has intricate shading, everyone has freckles, and their cheeks are hatched in. If we’d drawn it in 2D, we’d either lose much of that detail or spend decades making the film. Rigged cel animation let us keep Kate’s beautiful designs and bring them to life.
RF – It feels like a cut-out pop-up book, with that aesthetic of opening pages. It suited cel animation well—almost like a proscenium arch stage where characters move side to side. But designing for a feature film meant we had to consider the detail, texture, and depth needed to make it feel like a movie, not just a TV episode or a book.
The idea of not using Kate Hindley’s illustrations never crossed our minds. She’s so lovely and assumed we’d redesign everything, but instead, she became a kind of associate art director. She contributed many character and location designs, working closely with our art director, Anna Stevens. It was a very collaborative process, which was really nice.
You’ve worked on music videos, short films, specials and now features, is there more room to play with a feature?
PB – I’m not sure if it’s a difference between shorts and features, but I’m always looking to play—probably to the production team’s annoyance! Especially with sequences on the roof, in the bedroom, and other set pieces, we loved figuring them out and finding bits of humour to add.
It was great collaborating with Sarah, our writer. For example, there’s a moment on the roof where we storyboarded it and thought, This could use a few lines. We’d send it to Sarah, she’d write some, send them back, and we’d go back and forth. It was a really rewarding process. I suppose that’s where having a bit more time on a feature film becomes a luxury—you can develop those moments more fully.
The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland is available to stream now on Sky Cinema in the UK. You can hear the full interview with Peter and Ruth on the Skwigly Animation Podcast.