***This article was written for the January ’25 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 346)***
What would Santa find if he went down the same rabbit hole that took Alice to Wonderland? That’s the fun premise behind the new animated musical feature The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland, which premieres on Hulu and Prime Video on November 15. Based on Carys Bexington’s best-selling book, which is a clever mix of Lewis Carroll’s timeless classic and Clement Clarke Moore’s poem Twas the Night Before Christmas. Produced by Universal Pictures Content Group and Lupus Films, the special is directed by Peter Baynton with a script by Sara Daddy. It features the voices of Gerard Butler as St. Nick, Emilia Clarke as the Queen of Hearts and Simone Ashley as Alice.
We had a chance to chat with the film’s producer Ruth Fielding (Kensuke’s Kingdom, Mog’s Christmas, Ethel & Ernest, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt) and Peter Baynton (The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse) to find out more about this early holiday treat.
Animation Magazine: Congratulations on delivering this wonderful animated adventure right before the holidays. I think we can all use such a charming gift right about now. Can you tell us a bit about how this project started and came to be?
Ruth Fielding: We were first shown Carys Bexington and Kate Hindley’s book by Helen McAleer, who was working for Macmillan Children’s books at the time. She was an executive producer on our film We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and thought that it felt like a Lupus Films project. We first developed it into a special, but then NBCUniversal felt it had legs for a feature, so we expanded the picture book into a feature film and commissioned Sara Daddy to write the screenplay. The book is written in rhyming couplets and so it was a challenge, but a fun one, for Sara to write the whole film in rhyme. We were working with Guy Chambers on another project at the time and we showed him the book. He instantly fell in love with it and started writing the songs.
What did you love about the original property?
Peter Baynton: It’s such a bold premise: Santa heads to Wonderland. Cue myriad daft ideas and opportunities for jokes and chaos. Carys’s book struck me as quite daring, mixing together these two until-now separate worlds, and there was something about it, the anarchy and nonsense of Lewis Carroll’s world colliding with the man-on-a-mission nature of St. Nick’s annual delivery round, that really caught the imagination. Carys Bexington’s skeptical reindeer rubbing up against St. Nick’s idealism tickled me, and the princess’s fable that forms the backbone of the film gives the story such a warm heart. Kate Hindley illustrated the original property, and I was bowled over by the charm of her drawings; they’re so characterful and appealing, and so rich in pattern and detail, that the prospect of bringing them to life in animation was very luring indeed.
Please tell us a bit about the animation and the tools used to create it?
Peter: We animated the characters in CelAction, software that was written originally for the team behind Peppa Pig. It’s a rigged 2D approach, a sort of digital equivalent to cut-out animation, and we were fortunate enough to have Joris van Hulzen, who has directed several series of Peppa Pig, as our animation director. We decided very early on that CelAction was going to be our tool of choice because it was clear that it would have been very difficult and expensive to animate using traditional 2D with all the fabric patterns, scribbly bits, fur-trims, freckles and buckles that make up Kate’s gorgeous illustrations. Cut-out felt like the best approach, and an exciting one for me because I was new to it.
Where was the animation done? How many people worked on it?
Ruth: The animation was all done in our studio in Islington in London. It was great to have all the crew working under one roof with Peter and the other HODs. We had around 60 people from storyboard through to compositing and it took us just over two years to make. We were delayed a bit by the actors’ strike, but other than that it was plain sailing and we had a lot of fun.
What would you say was the toughest aspect of marrying two very familiar and beloved children’s stories?
Peter: It felt really important to make sure the world of our film, and its characters, felt somehow truthful to their origins, and that the spirit of the film felt respectful and faithful to the original works, despite our obvious departures from them. Having said that, I always found there to be a dark and unsettling edge amidst the silliness and curiosity of Lewis Carroll’s world, so I think one tough aspect for me was grappling with that darker aspect of his world and deciding instead to focus more on the humorous and daft side of it.
What are you most pleased about?
Peter: I love St. Nick. I love his naive optimism and game spirit, and his kindness. I find Gerard’s performance so funny and heartwarming. I love the reindeer team and their down-to-earth pragmatism. We all need a team of skeptical reindeer in our lives! I love Emilia’s Queen of Hearts, her grumpiness (the Queen’s, not Emilia’s) and vulnerability. And really the whole cast for such a splendid ensemble of performances. I love the character animation and feel so proud of the team for creating such lovely performances, and I think the backgrounds are utterly gorgeous. I love Guy and Amy’s songs, and I love the sound design. Ultimately the film is the coming-together of a whole bunch of wonderful things, but I guess the thing I’m most pleased with is having created versions of these characters that I adore, that crack me up, and that I want to spend time with.
Can you talk about the overall look of the project?
Peter: I’m a sucker for a beautiful picture book and I wanted to keep the film feeling as illustrated, hand-crafted and 2D as possible, eschewing parallax camera moves by and large and CGI altogether, and just enjoying well-crafted character animation sitting on top of beautiful background paintings of delightfully designed locations. I find the hand-made nature of animation to be utterly charming; seeing the pencil marks, the techniques on display, the little idiosyncrasies that say, “a human made this.” Our fantastic art director Annes Stevens developed an approach to the background paintings that incorporated lots of drawn detail and hatched shading, and I think of them as fuller, cinematic versions of Kate Hindley’s simpler and flatter illustrations. Kate’s work is full of patterns and ornament, and we indulged our enthusiasm for them throughout the movie’s various locations — there are a few wallpaper designs I wouldn’t mind taking home with me let me tell you.
Of course, we have to know: What are some of your personal favorite animated holiday specials?
Ruth: I know this is biased as we made it, but my favorite holiday special is The Snowman and The Snowdog, because it always gets me in the mood for Christmas. It was such a joy to make using pencil on paper and the music is so festive. I know when it’s on, it’s time to settle down under the fleecy blanket on the sofa and indulge in Christmas TV.
Peter: It’s not animated, but I have to pick The Muppet Christmas Carol, which is basically perfect. I love Rizzo’s razzing of the Great Gonzo’s Dickens and the way they frame the story with that fourth-wall breaking narration. That playfulness was a great inspiration for our movie. I love Statler and Waldorf’s turn as the Marley and Marley, and Miss Piggy’s anti-Scrooge tirade right at the end. The songs are brilliant, and there’s such a confidence and joyfulness to it amidst that pathos. I love it!
Final thoughts on what you hope audiences will take away from The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland?
Peter: I hope they enjoy it, quite frankly. I hope they find it funny, entertaining, uplifting, surprising. I hope they get cheek-ache, and ear-worms. I hope there is kindled a renewed appreciation for the slide whistle. At the movie’s core there is kindness and a good deal of heart, so I hope kids and their adults too will take that away with them.
Ruth: Yeah, what he said!