The Gruffalo (2009) Reviews

• Fantastic!!

  blodi_fab2010-01-13

  My son (who is 8) and I really enjoyed this. The animation is fantastic, the voices are great! We've been huge Gruffalo fans for years and I was worried that they would add to it, or take something from the charm but they did this brilliantly.The animal characters are well thought out, each given its own personality in the very small time they are on. It was funny and lovely to watch. The animals are beautifully done, the scenery is gorgeous. You could almost climb into the TV, really felt alive. I would recommend this to any parent and really any adult too. Tiny tiny drawback is the pace it quite slow, but its such a small drawback I still think is earns a well deserved 10/10! Can't rave about this enough, Well done BBC!

• A simple enjoyable story told in a very effective and enjoyable way

  bob the moo2010-01-19

  Having narrowly avoided a predator herself, a mother squirrel calms the nerves of her two young children by telling them a story of a plucky young mouse who travels deep into the woods in search of food only to find predators at every turn ready to trick him into becoming their next meal. While the satellite channels have pretty much taken away the "big movie premiere" as an event on BBC at Christmas time, the BBC still have their usual weapons by their sides to ensure that people looking for easy festive distraction know they can come to them. As a result we do get several episodes of Eastenders but it does also mean special films of existing shows (such as Dr Who etc) which sometimes can be quite good, but also animated programmes. The usual big winner that everyone thinks of is of course Wallace & Gromit, but this year there was none of them but there was this charming little film sitting comfortably just before the end of David Tenant on Doctor Who. Based on the very successful children's book (which I've not read), the rhyming dialogue of the mouse's speech appears to have made it as has the look and feel of the film since the animation is very close to what I have seen of the book. In terms of substance it is very simple but effective – you know where it is going but it has an easy delight to it that one cannot help enjoying. I'm not sure if it is from the book or not but I felt that the narrative device of having us be told the mouse's story via another story teller (and being able to see her audience while also be the audience ourselves) really did work to make it a bit more engaging. The cast is fairly packed with famous voices as well (and not just for UK viewers, which is normally how it works). Although I personally am yet to see what everyone likes about him, Corden does a good job as the mouse – despite the feeling that the BBC were putting him in everything (this was his first of three appearances at Christmas). He is quite restrained in his delivery, which suits the mouse and the clever little rhyming style of his speech. Carter's narrator is balanced and responsible, with Brydon, Hurt and Wilkinson doing good work in small bits as the predators. Coltrane is the only one that really makes an impression though, since his voice is quite distinctive and he plays up the gruff aspect of it. In terms of the stars, they are all good without being so good that it explains their involvement, but I suppose it helps the film and also represented an easy time commitment from them. What really made it for me though was the animation. The film looks great but it does it in a way that never feels showy or like it is being done for the sake of it. In terms of bringing it to the screen it somehow manages to be impressive and detailed but yet also keep the rounded colourful nature that one would expect with a children's animated book. To me, the animation did more than the star names in terms of creating the characters and while the casting is a coup that catches the eye, the animators deserve a lot of credit as well. Overall, a charming little delight – nothing to blow you away or having you rolling like Wallace & Gromit perhaps, but a simple enjoyable story told in a very effective and enjoyable way.

• A cute animated short about a little mouse who outsmarts his predators.

  fantasyescapist2010-01-20

  This came on BBC1 on Christmas Day, and like Wallace and Gromit before it, I recorded it so it could be watched later. I've finally got around to watching it, and I was pleasantly surprised. With a solid voice cast voicing the animals, the rhyming dialogue is sweet and never annoying. The story of the mouse, as told by a mother squirrel to her two babies is episodic but suitably so. The jokes were funny and it was even somewhat dark in places where it needed to be. The animation is probably not as polished as Lost and Found(2008) but has it's own caricatured, simplistic charm and is aesthetically faithful to the book(haven't read it, but have seen the cover). Overall, an entertaining and amusing short about deception and survival done in a colourful and light way. I enjoyed it along with The First Snow of Winter, also based on a picture book, that has a similar tone, also featuring a 'big, bad' wolf. Good for young kids and the young at heart.

• Too short perhaps, but superb all the same

  TheLittleSongbird2011-01-08

  I absolutely loved The Gruffalo. It is a little too short, but all the same it is still superb. The animation is beautiful, very true to the illustrations of the book, plus the characters are well modelled and move convincingly and the backgrounds and colours are ravishing. The story is cute and charming, simple it is, but simple as in a good way. The dialogue is always amusing, it is done in rhyme and bounces along with no problem at all. The pace is brisk and the characters like the story are simple but still engaging. The voice cast are all solid across the board as well. So overall, just superb, if it had been a tad longer it would have been perfection. 9/10 Bethany Cox

• Very cute and beautifully done

  Rectangular_businessman2012-07-15

  "The Gruffalo" is very pretty animated short, with a beautiful visual style and a charming story, which has all the classic elements from many fairy tales and fables. I liked a lot the aesthetic used for the characters in this short: Their cartoonish and stylish appearance made a good contrast with the realistic sceneries, resulting in something very pleasant. The story itself was something very simple, but incredibly charming. All the characters included from this short were endearing and likable. This is a highly enjoyable animation for the whole family. I would recommend it to anyone.