The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

Actually what I discovered was this very, very tough job. And to animate that - I assumed wrongly - would be alright, would be easy.

In the book I use a nib which can go from very thin to extremely thick: it’s more than a line, it also works as light and shade. Of just how difficult it was to translate book drawings to animation. What kind of assumptions did you have about animation before starting the project? I discovered that so much of it was already in my head, so much of the film I had already seen and heard. So that initial journey for me was trying to work out what the process was, what roles had, and what they were responsible for, and what I felt instinctively I could contribute. And I didn’t know what my role was beyond that. was undefined at the outset … So the first thing threw at me was, “Can you just do rough drawings, pre-storyboard rough drawings, of what you think the film will be.” actually sent me on Amazon little white postcards and I did 300-400 drawings, I pinned them all to two enormous great boards, and scanned them all and sent them so we had a semblance of a structure. And then hospitals, PTSD units, people in the military, colleges, individuals, doctors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, you name it, were asking permission to use and I said, “Use them! You know, I haven’t done this to make money. And then when I shared them on Instagram I was pretty shocked by the response to them, I really wasn’t prepared for that. So the whole thing was initially embroiled in friendship. We’re old friends and we often have talked about what it means to be alive and what we find difficult and I started doing these drawings of the conversations and WhatsApped them.

I mean, initially I’d say it began on WhatsApp with a few friends, and me sending these drawings. The film was based on the book which began on Instagram – is that right? So I read a lot of emails and get letters and things and I find that very moving. And I think also, you know, my focus has always been on the response from people on the grassroots level. I think you try your best to make the best thing you can. A lot of people, they assume certain things, but the reality is you can’t assume anything. “But at the moment we’re just drinking a lot of tea and going, ‘That was quite intense.’”Įrm, a bit astonished I think. He admits he’s already pondering his next project.

A post shared by Charlie Mackesy years of daily four- to five-hour Zoom calls later, that hard work has paid off - and given Mackesy an insatiable appetite for animation.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy