This short film following the first story is one that I got the opportunity to see when they showed the original again, I was looking forward to seeing if this sequel, also shown at Christmas, would be as good as the first. Basically two Little Squirrels (Sam Lewis and Phoebe Givron-Taylor) are being told the story of a forest monster's child by Mother Squirrel (Helena Bonham Carter). The Gruffalo (Robbie Coltrane) inside the dark cave of the forest has warned his Child (Shirley Henderson), his daughter, not to go into the woods looking for the Big Bad Mouse, the only thing he is afraid of. Of course while he is fast asleep she ignores this advice and decides to wander into the forest and see if she can find the scary Mouse (James Corden) he is talking about. On her way she encounters the three predators that the Mouse came to face previously, the Fox (Tom Wilkinson), the Owl (John Hurt) and the Snake (Rob Brydon), who all tell her where she may find him, but not definitely. Time passes and she slowly thinks she has been tricked and that there is no Big Bad Mouse after all, but then a Mouse appears out of his home, and he spots the Gruffalo's Child. To avoid her eating him the Mouse tells her that the Big Bad Mouse does exist, and invites her to meet him, and with the help of the bright moonlight she is terrified by his large shadow. She runs back to the Gruffalo cave in terror, passing the three predators along the way, and she clams down, happy that her father was right and that she did get to see the monster he fears. The computer animation is really good for this simple and fun story, the younger audience will definitely have fun with the adorable Gruffalo's child, the hideous but likable Gruffalo himself, the lovable Mouse, and the other characters as well, and the older audience will like the well known voices bringing them to life, is an easy to enjoy family fantasy. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Short Animated Film, and it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Short Animation. Very good!
Review of The Gruffalo's Child
