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| Wander To Wonder |
The proud winner of this year’s Best Short Film BIFA and now shortlisted for an Oscar, stop-motion curiosity Wander To Wonder, which was written by Daan Bakker, Stienette Bosklopper and Simon Cartwright, and directed by Nina Gantz, has had an incredible ride for a decidedly strange piece of animation. Based around a fictional Seventies or early Eighties kids’ TV show, it features three loveable but quite disturbing-looking furry creatures who are, in turn, played by three tiny humans, and follows their struggle to determine a way forward after the death of their creator.
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| Wander To Wonder |
I met Nina at the same animation showcase where I had been talking to A Bear Named Wojtek director Iain Gardner, who was present as she spoke about the Covid pandemic and her related interest in exploring ideas around grief.
“That was such a seismic event that I feel like it probably was important enough for us to do something with it. I made something that was a bit absurd and a bit funny as well, because I feel that's the best way to deal with those kind of events.
“The film is about three miniature actors. I've got one here,” she says fondly, holding up the figured called Fumbleton for us to look at. “They are left behind in a TV show studio after their creator has passed away. And they have to deal with this and try and move on, while they keep on making the show for their fans that, of course, are not watching anymore. So there's already a contrast in that that I really loved, and that was really my inspiration. I watched those kids’ TV shows. When you look at them now, all the shows that you used to watch when you were young, there is something weird about them – you just look at them in a different way.
“While I was writing the film, I was taking care of someone that needed palliative care. When he died, I saw how differently everyone around me reacted to this grief. That really fed into the story of these three little people. For instance, Mary, she keeps on making the show and holding on to what she knows. And Fumbleton here, he actually tries to break free, finally. He feels all this time that he's been playing this stupid character in a TV show is done, and now he can show his capabilities as a serious Shakespearen actor. And then Billybud, he keeps on doing tricks for the audience. So this is how I made it, to put a little bit of humour back in it as well.”
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| Wander To Wonder |
Part of what has impressed critics and awards committees so much is the skilled animation technique on display.
“There's only actually a very little bit of live action in it,” Nina explains, referring to brief scenes which feature the TV show’s creator. “I come from a stop motion background and that's really where my love is. But then when I discovered the work of Ray Harryhausen – people might know his films, like Jason And The Argonauts and Clash Of The Titans – I was like, ‘This is amazing!’ And it stands the test of time so well, this mix of technique, you know, that I really wanted to use it and I thought this story really could use it as well.
“The tricky thing was that I had this live action character in a few shots and I wanted the little puppets to feel like they were part of that same world. So all of a sudden I needed to make the characters really quite realistic. So I dove into this 3D printing technique that you can see here. It's really a bit scary when you take it off, but it's like 3D facial replacements, and this way I could bring in all these expressions that the actors gave us. And that was really, really beautiful, to see how much detail I could get in all that. All these faces – like Amanda Lawrence [who plays Mary], she always spoke with the corners of her mouth down, and I also could model that into the 3D character. So that was a really brilliant thing to do, although it was really difficult to make it work.”
I tell her that, to me, Wander To Wonder reads like a marriage of the two most popular genres of 1970s British television: children's animation and post-apocalypse drama. She laughs.
“I definitely was going for 1970’s British kids’ TV but I wasn't aware of the post-apocalypse drama,” he says. “I will totally look into that. Any examples for me that I should watch?”
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| Wander To Wonder |
I suggest starting with the series Survivors, Doomwatch and Quatermass 4, whilst Iain steps in to recommend Children Of The Stones. “It’s a bit dystopian as well, albeit in the British folk horror genre – but for kids!”
She assures us that she’ll look them up, and I ask if there were any particular influences behind the design of the characters in her fictional TV series.
“References for the costumes came from the Flumps, the Wombles, Cheburashka and Colargol,” she says. “I really wanted then to be authentic Seventies or Eighties looking.”
“I love Cheburashka - I've been on a bit of a Gena the Crocodile deep dive this week!” says Iain, and she grins.
“It’s soooo fun!”
