previous page
TOC
Features
Animals in the Afterlife The husband-and-wife directors of Even Mice Belong in Heaven discuss the making of their charming stop-motion movie. By Ramin Zahed
I
t’s not every day when we get the chance to experience an animated movie in which the main characters die and go to heaven in the beginning of the story. That’s exactly what happens in Czech directors Denisa Grimmová and Jan Bubeníček’s recent stop-motion feature Even Mice Belong in Heaven, in which an initially combative mouse and a gentle fox form a challenging friendship in the afterlife. Based on a picture book by Iva Procházková, the film was released in France and the U.K. last year and was nominated for the César for Best Animated Feature and a European Film Award. It was Grimmová who first came across the book and thought it would be a great project to adapt into an animated movie. “She was firmly convinced that we had to do it,” recalls Bubeníček, who is also her husband. “She was captivated primarily by the themes that the story encompassed, but also by the very natural way in which they are introduced for children. Denisa’s perseverance and the determination of producer Vladimír Lhoták gradually
set in motion a whirlwind that drew in more and more people.” “After many years of literary and artistic prep work, we started shooting in the autumn of 2018,” recalls Grimmová. “With eight animators and another 20 crewmembers on 14 sets, we took 1,400 shots on one by one. Post-production began on more than 900 shots while we were still shooting and continued for nearly half a year afterwards!”
A Tale of Friendship The 90-minute feature, which is a co-pro between the Czech Republic, France, Poland and Slovakia, is the result of several years of hard work from the directors and their teams. But it was the book’s original story that kept the filmmakers on the right path throughout the process. “The story of Mice looks like an uncomplicated story for children,” says Grimmová. “What we personally enjoy about it is how charged it is with seemingly insurmountable conflict and difficult and truly fundamental themes, like
death, the loss of loved ones, the loss of everything you’ve come to be. It is a film about looking for love and truth, which are often closer than we think. It’s also a story about sacrificing yourself for someone else, about cooperation — which ultimately always leads to victory … It offers strength and determination; it tears down stereotypes.” Altogether, the artists created about 105 puppets for the movie — the lead characters required 10 and eight copies, and there were 87 additional characters to design and create. All of them were designed by Grimmová and then built in two different studios: About one third of the puppets were built by the team at Momakin studio in Łódź, Poland, where all the mice and other rodents were created. All the foxes and the heavenly guardians were made in the studio in Prague. The animation team used Dragonframe software for the stop-motion shoot. As the film also incorporates CG animation, digital set extensions and VFX, InTheBox (Annecy), Amopix (Strasbourg), Le Stu-
www.animationmagazine.net 16
TOC
may 22
previous page
