THE SNOWMAN met with much critical acclaim and was nominated for an American Oscar and has won the British Academy Award for the best children’s film and more recently the Design and Art Directors Award for the best animation. The film was to have been shown on the cinema screen as the support film to E.T. but Stephen Spielberg decided that it followed the theme of his film too close for comfort.
A special flying sequence was animated by Stephen Weston and Robin White and this must be one of the best uses of roterscoping for a long time, as the boy and the snowman fly over the snow covered landscape to a meeting with Father Christmas. The film was part financed by Channel 4 who have also backed TVC’s latest production, another Raymond Briggs story WHEN THE WIND BLOWS dealing as it does with the most potent human issue facing us – the human consequences of a nuclear attack. It attacks the hypocritical manner in which the results of a nuclear war are minimised by nearly all governments. WHEN THE WIND BLOWS uses the traditional weapon of humour to spotlight an otherwise unthinkable horror.
WHEN THE WIND BLOWS is a book as powerful as Animal Farm or 1984 in its timely message.
Its success already as a radio and stage play underlines the need for a film. Production will take 15 months, enabling it to be premiered worldwide in 1984. So it looks like more success is ahead for T.V.C.
page 1 | page 2 | page 3 | page 4
Printed in Animator’s newsletter Issue 9 (Summer 1984)