A version of this story about Charlie Mackesy and “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” will appear in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap awards magazine.
Charlie Mackesy’s 2019 best-selling book, “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse,” is a small illustrated volume in which very little happens other than a conversation between four different creatures about kindness, love, and self acceptance. A delicate and philosophical creation, it has been adapted into a 34-minute film that adds just enough plot without betraying the heart of the original book.
The film, which is available on Apple TV+, is nominated in the Best Animated Short Film category at the Oscars. But it’s already won the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Best British Animation and took home four awards at Saturday’s Annie Awards. In addition to winning Best Special Production, it triumphed in the categories of character animation, directing and editorial for animated TV/media productions. Those four wins were second only to “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” among all movies or productions of any length at the Annies.
Mackesy made his film debut on the project, serving as co-director with Peter Baynton and co-writer with Jon Croker.
In the book’s introduction, he writes, “When I was making the book, I often wondered, who the hell am I to be doing this?” And then he quotes the horse: “The thing is, everybody’s doing it.” I imagine that you too must have felt directing your first film.
Yes, I do. Of course I felt that. But I feel that in general about life. It’s not specific to the movie.
If you’ve written a book on learning to accept that you’re enough, you might as well take your own advice.
Yes, you are absolutely right. I didn’t want to not be involved. The book was made for a reason, it wasn’t just a business venture. So we wanted to try to make the movie feel like the book made people feel.
At the same time, he must have known that he was going to have to change it.
Oh yeah. I mean the word adaptation it’s pretty essential. Because obviously the book was just my drawings, and they vary in shape, size, and disorder. So we had to work really hard to make each character as close to the book as possible, but also as simple as possible so everyone could work on it. That was difficult, but in the end it was a very moving experience.
I thought I was going to have to give up a lot. I was worried that the boy wasn’t really the boy or that the horse wouldn’t move as well as I expected. But I remember when I saw the first two or three seconds of the kid moving in the ink, I just cried because I thought, “Oh wow, this is so much more than I thought it could be. They have done something that I couldn’t have done.” It was an immense relief for me to feel that I could let it go.
The book is a series of conversations, and what little plot there is is reflected in the drawings. Was it difficult to find a narrative that was strong enough to drive the short, but at the same time not overwhelm the conversations that are at the heart of it?
Yes. That’s a very good point. It was a fine line. You need events strong enough to hold you together and move forward, but you don’t want to drown out the message. We were very aware of that.
What were the new skills you had to learn?
Audition of actors Character direction. Working on music with Isobel Waller-Bridge. The big difference between making a book and a movie is that a book reader can pick up a book and put it down and can create their own thought pauses. Whereas in the film, they are more at the mercy of the filmmaker because you have to create the space.
I feel like I’ve done three PhDs. And I feel like the team had two jobs. One was to make a movie, the other was to teach me how to make a movie.
Has this experience made you want to do more in film?
Yes. Movies have played a big part of my life, but I never thought I’d have the chance to make one. And now that I did it, it became very difficult for me to go back to making still drawings. It feels like they are a means to an end rather than an end in themselves. Now when I’m drawing, it almost feels like they’re sets for a movie.
