7 minute read
Rabbit Love
A new animated adaptation of The Runaway Bunny hops to HBO Max. By Karen Idelson
Margaret Wise Brown’s lyrical and popular children’s book The Runaway Bunny tells the story of a baby bunny who desperately wants to break free and see the outside world. The nearly 80-year-old book features iconic illustrations by Clement Hurd and has been namechecked on classic TV shows like Cheers for its ability to make even the most hardhearted of adults break down in tears.
Nevertheless, the book’s plot is simple and doesn’t feature the kinds of twists and turns that might entice most filmmakers to adapt it for the screen. The creatives who jump on board would have to find a way to fill in the story without pulling the tale too far off track. Enter director/producer Amy Schatz and director of animation Maciek Albrecht,
A Mother’s Day: HBO Max’s new animated special brings Margaret Wise Brown’s ode to motherhood to animated life. the Emmy-winning creative team behind the Classical Baby series and the Good Night Moon & Other Sleepytime Tales special “It’s a classic book and we set out to actually bring the book itself to life,” says Schatz. “The goal was to try to figure out how to make a film which was inspired by and actually captures the illustration, style and the poetry of the book. The challenge was really that it’s a picture book, and it takes maybe 10 minutes to read. So, the main question was, how do you make a film that brings to life a short picture book that’s really a quiet little story, a moment in time, an interaction between a mother bunny and her baby bunny playing in a field of grass? When you have something so beloved, and so classic, you have to make sure you get it right. Our goal was to stay as true to the tone and quality of the book, but to expand it and bring it to life as a film.”
A Musical Tale
Schatz brought in a cast of skilled vocal performers. Since the book itself already had a kind of ephemeral quality, the director also decided that music would be a powerful way to preserve the feeling of the book while giving the story and animation a chance to expand. The soundtrack features songs by many
A-list singer-songwriters. Ziggy Marley recorded “What a Wonderful World”; Mariah Carey updated her classic “Always Be My Baby”; Rufus Wainwright performs a lullaby called “Goodnight, My Angel”; Kelly Rowland is featured on “Make You Feel My Love”; and Rosanne Cash sings “You Are My Sunshine,” which was a hit for her father. Tracee Ellis Ross narrates the story. “They all did it in their home studios and we were lucky to get them to do it,” says Schatz. With the look of the book in mind, Albrecht went on a search for animators who had a skill and affinity for hand-drawn animation. His search led him to every corner of the planet. There were crew members from Poland, Vermont, California, Turkey, Russia, the Philippines and Colombia as well as other locations. And after carefully analyzing the original bunny drawings of the book, he also discovered there were certain differences between the bunnies from page to page.
Albrecht and Schatz found that when they followed the look of actual bunnies too closely, the eyes of the bunnies made the facial characteristics of the animals look mean or angry, so they worked on preserving the look of the original illustrations. While some other elements in the adaptation were not entirely hand drawn, all the bunnies were. “We had about 10 animators from all over the world,” says Albrecht. “It’s a very difficult thing to find someone who can do something like this. And everybody has their own way of drawing. I think it still has the same spirit as the book, having some differences from sequence to sequence. It has a little imperfection. This was such an incredible opportunity to go back to hand-drawn animation. The biggest part was organization, how to actually do it, trying to get everybody working online (because of COVID).” “Like any great children’s book, this one has deep messages for us,” says Schatz. “It’s about childhood. It’s about growing up. It’s about becoming independent. It’s about parenting and about love. And it’s a really timeless story about unconditional love, about how a child wants to test his or her independence and about a parent saying, ‘I’ll be here for you through thick and thin.’ It has this message of, ‘I will always be there for you, no matter where you go. And no matter what you do, I’ll be there.’ I think we always want to put stuff into the world for kids and for all of us that has some deep meaning to it. Especially during our times, having something beautiful to put into the world when it’s been such a difficult year. It was particularly meaningful to have this project, which is full of just a kind of gentleness.” ◆
The Runaway Bunny premieres on HBO Max on March 25.
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When did you realize you wanted to work in animation?
When I was in high school, all my friends were doing academic summer programs, but I applied to the California State Summer School for the Arts. They had all these different kinds of art you could study, and I picked animation because I thought that would be interesting. On the first day, I was really scared, but I loved that animation combined so many different things: writing, music and drawing.
Who are some of your biggest animation influences?
I have been watching Miyazaki movies forever. When I think about children’s programming that I admire, Jim Henson comes to mind immediately. He was this brilliant, creative spirit that made so many things that inspired my imagination and formed my sense of humor. Then, there are experimental animators like Norman McLaren and Oskar Fischinger. I also think Michel Gondry’s music videos are so clever.
What do you hope audiences will take away from your show?
I am so excited for people to see it. I hope they feel they really learn something new, something that they didn’t know before, in an entertaining way. I also hope they find a story that they can relate to and that they see themselves represented on TV. That they see someone that reminds them of themselves. The biggest thing is that I hope families feel that they can watch this show together and laugh and talk about it.
You’ve been one of the vocal champions of having diversity in animation both on the screen and behind it. What is your take on the progressive climate in 2021?
I am really excited about the diversity in animation today. It’s interesting because Mister Rogers is someone who has emerged as everyone’s favorite dude now. There is this feeling of appreciation for this fundamental caring attitude that he had. That’s what we want to show people: How to be gentle and understand our feelings. I’m excited to be in the position that I am currently. It hits home with me as I also have two kids at home myself.
I feel that kids deserve more respect, especially when I think of some of the children’s programming of my youth, which was about selling us toys. I mean, they were sort of entertaining us. You could show us any over-the-top, loud garbage, and we would be drawn to it as kids. I am excited that it’s not about that anymore and kids are able to judge content just as we are as adults. Sure, there are times that you just want to watch something trashy. It’s fine to have that as long as we have the other stuff, too, which is what I enjoy making — material that is deep, personal and a calming force and not about driving people to buy stuff. The more I can be part of that, the better I feel about what I’m putting out there and doing for my own kids. ◆
