Mog’s Christmas: Behind the scenes of this year’s must-watch festive animation

It is early August, but Mog’s Christmas is in full swing in a small corner of Islington. The sun is blazing as The Big Issue hops off the bus, walks across Islington Green – saying a cheery hello to the beautiful Street Cat Bob statue along the way, before knocking on a bright pink door in search of festive treats.

Inside, is a clue as to why we are here. There are posters for some of the best kids’ animations of recent times all over the walls as we make our way up the stairs.

We are on location at Lupus Films, where founders Camilla Deakin and Ruth Fielding, plus director Robin Shaw and the team are hard at work on Channel 4’s follow up to We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, The Snowman and The Snowdog and 2019’s The Tiger Who Came To Tea.

The voice actors have already recorded their parts. Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh narrates the story, The Crown’s queen of the screen Claire Foy plays Mrs Thomas, the brilliant Zawe Ashton voices a new character, neighbour Mrs Gaynor, while Miriam Margolyes and Maggie Steed play the aunts and Charlie Higson is the jolly uncle. Listen out, too, for Benedict Cumberbatch, as Mr Thomas, delivering the immortal fan-favourite line “Bother that cat.”

We see an early, unfinished black and white version of the film, in which Mog, Judith Kerr’s famous forgetful cat, feels left out at Christmas when gaudy decorations, two aunts on tiptoe and a jolly uncle, plus a walking, talking living tree disrupt her regular routine.

“The Mog books are such lovely books. It was the obvious next place to go and this story is a lot of fun,” says Deakin. “One of the nice things with The Tiger Who Came To Tea was leaning into the humour, and we’ve been able to take it even further with this.

“Cats are just inherently funny. I’m a cat owner. Even from the very early days of Robin’s first rough storyboard drawings, Mog had me in stitches, with those funny things cats do. Suddenly stopping to lick their leg, reversing bum first into your face, walking on exactly the thing that you’re trying to do. There will be a lot of recognition from pet owners when they watch this film.”

Fielding agrees. “Judith Kerr was very upbeat person and always keen to have fun. She enjoyed a party. She was a very positive life-force to be around. When she came into the studio, she was great fun. You had a good chat with her about Pencils and your approach to artwork, didn’t you, Robin? And she was one of those people who always find the fun in any situation.”

Getting big names to join in the fun is always a challenge.

“But it’s a joy as well,” continues Fielding. “Because once we have decided who we are going to approach, we are banking on them knowing the books and having that nostalgic love of Judith Kerr. So Claire Foy came in and said, ‘we love Mog in our house’, because her kids were such fans. The same was true for Benedict Cumberbatch.

“Also, with someone like Benedict, they often want to do something their kids can watch. And a lot of what he does is 18-rated movies.”

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There are additional scenes – a bus ride to buy the Christmas tree, some choice ad libs from Miriam Margolyes, and a catchy new song, As Long As I Belong, performed by Sophie Ellis-Bextor to bring into Mog’s world.

Ellis-Bexter, whose song is one of the highlights of the expanded story, is also a fan. “She loves to read them with her five kids,” says Deakin. “So we always aim high and just hope they go for it.”

The actors can influence the animators as well.

“Miram Margolyes was very physical in everything she was doing during the recording session,” says Shaw. “So a lot of that is reflected in the animation.”

Turning a 24-page picture book into a 25-minute film is some feat. At 25 frames per second, that is a lot of drawing – with some of the 63 artists specialising in cats, others focusing on a specific character, while others still create the 206 hand-painted backgrounds.

“It’s acting with a pencil,” is how Shaw describes it. And there’s a lot of acting on show when we visit. Rough sketches to capture the movement, more precise outlines, colouring, focusing on cat’s stripes or the light reflecting off balloons.

Animator Ed Smith is doing 3D animation. “I rough the drawings out like a blueprint for the assists and the art workers to make the final thing,” he says. “I start with probably the worst drawings you’ve ever seen to get the basic movement.”

And yes, they do act out the scenes themselves to work out Mog’s moves.

“It’s hard with a cat,” says Smith. “We are not anatomically the same. But there are many videos of Robin on the table, on all fours, with his bum in the air!”

Smith is drawing Mog on the roof of the Thomas house. “15 seconds is a very long scene in animation,” he says. “Mog is getting snow on her face in this one, and really doesn’t like it.”

Every inch of wall is covered in sketches while Shaw’s original storyboards are always on display for reference.

Kate Mercer is sitting close by, adding more and more layers of detail – working at the end of the process begun by Shaw and then sketched out by Smith.

“Everyone’s wondering why we chose a cat with stripes,” she jokes.

“But every tiny detail brings the character into the world. It’s very satisfying. Especially when you’ve got the background in place.

“I’m having a lot of fun following the light reflecting off the balloons before Mog pops one and gets scared. When you know so many people have done this scene beforehand and then you’re there to put it together and pass it on to someone else – it’s a very lovely pipeline.”

Gradually, as each of the 16,574 animated frames is passed along the pipeline, the animation comes to life.

And the final result is beautiful. Mog’s Christmas captures the spirit of Judith Kerr’s original drawings and story, expands the world a little without ever losing the humour and joy and the sharpness of the writing. A lot of bother goes into perfecting that cat. But the result is practically purrfect festive family fun…

Mog’s Christmas is on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve at 7.45pm

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