The Gruffalo (film)

In an autumn wood, a Red squirrel mother finds a nut. Her children are playing until they see an owl. The mother squirrel drops the nut as she escapes from the owl, but her shocked children want her to tell them a story. So she tells the story of a mouse strolling through a deep dark wood.

Mouse tries to find a nut to eat but he can not reach it, so he makes a journey to a beautiful nut tree. Encountering three carnivorous animals along the way, who all wish to eat him, -- first a fox, then an owl, and finally a snake -- the plucky mouse uses his wits to survive. He lies to each animal that he is meeting a monster (calling his imaginary beast a ‘Gruffalo’), describes his terrible features, says that he is meeting him "right here", and that the Gruffalo's favourite food is whichever animal is threatening him at the time. Each predator then panics and flees, but later they realise that they have been tricked.

Mouse is confident until he finally reaches the nut tree and suddenly comes face to face with a real Gruffalo, exactly as he had described it. When the Gruffalo catches and threatens to eat him, Mouse uses his wits again and says that everyone in the wood is afraid of him, asking the Gruffalo to follow him and see. As the two of them meet the animals again, the presence of the Gruffalo frightens them away: The Gruffalo believes they are afraid of the mouse. As the Gruffalo prepares to eat the mouse, Mouse's tummy rumbles and he says his favourite food is Gruffalo crumble, causing the Gruffalo to retreat in fear. Finally safe, he finds the nut from earlier, which the Gruffalo had knocked down, and can eat it in peace.

When the mother squirrel ends her story, the children feel better and they all go to retrieve their nut as snow begins to fall.

In the credits is seen the house of the snake.

• Helena Bonham Carter as Mother Squirrel/Narrator
• James Corden as Mouse (The Main Character)
• Robbie Coltrane as The Gruffalo (The Title Character)
• Tom Wilkinson as Fox (He is more cowardly than Owl and Snake and sneezes a lot)
• John Hurt as Owl (He clicks his tongue and crashes into trees a lot)
• Rob Brydon as Snake (Unlike Fox and Owl, he is pure evil)
• Sam Lewis as First Little Squirrel
• Phoebe Givron-Taylor as Second Little Squirrel

The Gruffalo, written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, was published in 1999 and has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. In a BBC Radio 2 poll in 2009, the book was voted as the UK's favourite bedtime story. The book has been adapted into a 27-minute animated film, which was broadcast on BBC One in the UK on 25 December 2009. This new version features Robbie Coltrane in the title role and James Corden as the mouse as well as Helena Bonham Carter as the mother squirrel narrator and Rob Brydon as the Snake. The production was animated at the award-winning Studio Soi in Germany and produced through Magic Light Pictures. The film also has the voices of John Hurt as the Owl and Tom Wilkinson as the Fox. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film (Animated) on 25 January 2011. The film was also nominated for a BAFTA in 2010.

The film premiered on BBC One, Christmas Day 2009, watched by 9.8 million people. Review website Den of Geek described it as an "utterly charming piece of magic".[5]

The film has been broadcast across the world, including on ZDF in Germany. It premiered on United States television on 9 December 2010 on ABC Family during its 25 Days of Christmas programming block.[6] It also aired on YTV in Canada on 18 December 2011.

The Gruffalo has also been shown on Nick Jr in the UK and is distributed on DVD by Entertainment One. NCircle distribute the DVD in the US, Phase 4 in Canada and Concorde in Germany.

A Scottish Gaelic version has also been produced, with the voice of the Gruffalo provided by Bill Paterson. An Gruffalo was first shown on BBC Alba on Christmas Eve 2010.

The film has also proved a hit with festival audiences around the world. On top of its Academy Award and BAFTA nominations it has also been awarded prizes at festivals including Annecy International Animation Festival (France), Anima Mundi (Brazil), The Broadcast Awards 2011 (UK), Cartoons on the Bay (Italy), Chicago International Children's Festival (Canada), CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival (Canada), Ottawa International Animation Festival (Canada), Prix Jeunesse (Germany), Sapporo Short Fest (Japan), Shanghai Television Festival (China) and Internationales Trick Film Festival (Germany). The Gruffalo was also nominated for the prestigious Cartoon d'or 2011.

The sequel to the Gruffalo, based on the follow-up to the picture book, was shown on BBC One on Christmas Day 2011.

• Room on the Broom

• The Gruffalo at IMDb
• The Gruffalo on BBC Online
• The Gruffalo on Magic Light Pictures