Throughout the production of “The Gruffalo” we felt very lucky to be able to approach both Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, the book’s author and its illustrator, for their advice. Early on, Axel graciously supplied us with a series of beautiful drawings of the film’s then potential sidecharacters, many of which -to our fault- didn’t make it into the film. One though, the toad, became a much beloved cast member to us (see him in action here). Top: Initial design for the toad by Axel Scheffler. Below: Modelsheet by Max Lang. Bottom: Final model by Wolfram Kampffmeyer and Felix Schaller.

Watch “The Gruffalo” on Dec. 24th, 10.40 am on ZDF and on Dec 25th, 04.30 pm on the BBC.

Top: Owl’s windbeaten “treetop house”, in a colourkey by Neil Ross. Below: An earlier layout for that same shot, with Owl’s house still seated in a conifer and some later designs for the tree as a broadleaf, both by Manu Arenas. Bottom: Manu’s eerie designs for the spiral staircase Mouse escapes on in that sequence.

See “The Gruffalo” this friday, Dec. 24th, 10.40 am on ZDF,

Above: Colourconcept for the lake by Neil Ross.

Below: An early sketch Manu Arenas had originally done for the film’s framestory (see Mother Squirrel in the background) ended up serving as the layout for Mouse’s lilypad-passage over the lake. See the German version of “The Gruffalo” premiere on Dec 24th 10.40 am on ZDF.

Here’s a fun piece of preproduction (for Gruffalo completists): Before they started working on the music for “The Gruffalo” Jakob sent composer René Aubry drawings detailing how he imagined the music would span the film.  A blithely un-musical piece of music writing, but quite close to how the different themes worked in the end. Below this, a repost from June 2010: René at his 30 year stage-anniversary concert at Peter Brooks’ legendary “Bouffes du Nord”, playing a sweet version of what he made of the green bar in Jakob’s drawing, the film’s “Mouse Theme”.

Left: Snake’s design was largely based on the way Max Lang drew the character in his storyboards.  Right: The final modelsheet, a dig. paint-over by Jakob Schuh based on a maquette by Klaus Morschheuser (click to enlarge).  See more from that sequence here.

Above: Some of the great work Harald Siepermann has done for the characterdesign of Owl, perfectly suggesting not only his design but literally his character. (click to enlarge) Watch the result on ZDF, 24.12.2010 10.40 am.

In earlier versions of Mouse’s very first encounter with his imaginary “friend”, the Gruffalo’s hands were treated almost like characters of their own: They walked about, teasing Mouse, bullying him, and eventually chasing him down, all without much effort on the Gruffalo’s part.  Sketches by Max Lang.

Variations for the Nut Tree, seen by the Mouse at the very beginning of the film and later serving as the dramatic location for the Mouse’s first encounter with the Gruffalo. Drawings by Manu Arenas.

Some more artwork from the Mouse’s passage over the stream. Top: Shotlayout by Manu Arenas. Middle: Colourkey by Neil Ross. Bottom: Propdesigns and schematic drawings by Manu Arenas. See more from that sequence here.

A comparison between Max Lang’s fine work on the storyboards for the Snake Sequence and, below, the final product. More from that sequence here.