 | This article contains promotional content .(February 2020) |
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| Formerly | Orange Eyes Limited (2008–2019) [1] |
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| Company type |
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| Founded | 2003 |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | London, England |
| Website | magiclightpictures |
Magic Light Pictures Limited is a British independent film and television production company based in London, England. The company was founded in 2003 by producers Martin Pope and Michael Rose.
Since 2009, Magic Light Pictures have produced 12 30-minute animated specials based on the best-selling children's story books by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler: The Gruffalo (2009), The Gruffalo's Child (2011), Room on the Broom (2012), Stick Man (2015), The Highway Rat (2017), Zog (2018), The Snail and the Whale (2019), Zog and the Flying Doctors (2020), Superworm (2021), The Smeds and The Smoos (2022), Tabby McTat (2023) and Tiddler (2024). Overall, their productions have won more than 40 awards, including two Children's BAFTAs [2] and the Prix Jeunesse, [3] [4] and have been nominated three times for an Academy Award for Best Short Animation. Their most recent production, Tiddler, premiered at approximately 2:35pm on Christmas Day 2024 and was watched by more than 8.2 million viewers.
Their other productions include: the Oscar-nominated [5] Revolting Rhymes (2016), The Velveteen Rabbit an animated short, (2023), a TV series for children aged 12 and under called Pip and Posy , (2021), and feature films including the Oscar-nominated [6] Chico & Rita (2010), a Spanish language animated feature; Wild Target (2010), a comedy thriller starring Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt; the English version of Terkel in Trouble , a Danish language animated feature; and Sparkle (2007), a romantic comedy feature starring Shaun Evans and Stockard Channing.
| Title | Year | Co-produced with | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terkel in Trouble (English UK dub) | 2006 | A. Film Production | Animated Feature |
| Sparkle | 2007 | Isle of Man Film | Romantic Comedy |
| Glorious 39 | 2009 | BBC Films Quickfire Films Screen East Content Investment Fund Talkback Thames UK Film Council | Thriller |
| The Gruffalo | Studio SOI | Animated Short | |
| Wild Target | 2010 | CinemaNX Isle of Man Film Matador Pictures | Black Comedy |
| Chico and Rita | Fernando Trueba PC Estudio Mariscal | Animated Feature | |
| The Gruffalo's Child | 2011 | Studio SOI | Animated Short |
| One Life | IM Global BBC Earth Films | Documentary | |
| Room on the Broom | 2012 | Studio SOI | Animated Short |
| Stick Man | 2015 | Triggerfish Animation Studios | |
| Revolting Rhymes | 2016 | ||
| The Highway Rat | 2017 | ||
| Zog | 2018 | ||
| The Snail and the Whale | 2019 | ||
| Zog and the Flying Doctors | 2020 | ||
| Superworm | 2021 | Blue Zoo Animation Studio | |
| Pip and Posy | Animated TV Series | ||
| The Smeds and The Smoos | 2022 | Animated Short | |
| The Velveteen Rabbit | 2023 | Samson Films Red Knuckles Studio | Fantasy |
| Tabby McTat | Red Star Animation Studio | Animated Short | |
| Tiddler | 2024 | Red Star Animation Studio | Animated Short |
| Production | Ceremony | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Snail and the Whale | British Academy Children's Awards [7] [8] | Best Director | Magic Light Pictures | Won |
| Best Animation | Magic Light Pictures | Won | ||
| The Highway Rat | 46th Annie Awards [9] | Best Animated Special Production | Magic Light Pictures | Nominated |
| Rose d'Or [10] | Children and Youth | Magic Light Pictures | Won | |
| Revolting Rhymes | 90th Academy Awards [11] | Best Animated Short Film | Jakob Schuh Jan Lachauer | Nominated |
| British Academy Children's Awards [12] | Best Animation | Jakob Schuh Jan Lachauer Martin Pope Michael Rose | Won | |
| 6th International Emmy Kids Awards [13] | Kids: Animation | Michael Rose Martin Pope Magic Light Pictures | Won | |
| Stick Man | British Academy Children's Awards [14] | Best Animation | Production Team | Nominated |
| British Animation Awards [15] | Best Use of Sound | Adrian Rhodes Magic Light Pictures | Won | |
| Best Voice Performance | Martin Freeman Magic Light Pictures | Won | ||
| Best Long Form | Jeroen Jaspaert Daniel Snaddon Magic Light Pictures | Nominated | ||
| Room on the Broom | 86th Academy Awards [16] | Best Animated Short Film | Max Lang Jan Lachauer | Nominated |
| British Academy Children's Awards | Best Animation | Max Lang Jan Lachauer Magic Light Pictures | Won | |
| International Emmy Kids Awards | Kids: Animation | Max Lang Jan Lachauer Magic Light Pictures | Won | |
| The Gruffalo's Child | British Animation Awards [17] | Best Long Form | Johannes Weiland Uwe Heidschötter | Won |
| British Academy Children's Awards | Best Animation | Johannes Weiland Uwe Heidschötter Magic Light Pictures | Nominated | |
| Chico and Rita | 84th Academy Awards [18] | Best Animated Feature | Fernando Trueba Javier Mariscal | Nominated |
| The Gruffalo | 83rd Academy Awards [19] | Best Animated Short Film | Jakob Schuh Max Lang | Nominated |
| 62nd British Academy Film Awards [20] | Best Short Animation | Michael Rose Martin Pope Jakob Schuh Max Lang | Nominated | |
| Prix Jeunesse International [21] | Prix Jeunesse 7-11 Fiction | Magic Light Pictures | Won | |
| Prize of the Children's Jury 7-11 Fiction | Magic Light Pictures | Won |
Magic Light Pictures runs a licensing programme and carries ranges in Sainsbury's, Debenhams, John Lewis, Waterstones, and M&S, among others. [22] Launched in 2009, the programme has markets in Germany, Australia, Scandinavia, New Zealand and the USA. Products available in The Gruffalo brand include plush, stationery, homewares, games, toys and apparel. [23]
Magic Light has won five Licensing Awards [24] [25] [26] for their branded apparel, furniture and Forestry Commission trails.
Magic Light Pictures has several award-winning brand partnerships with organisations including Chessington World of Adventures Resort, [27] Forestry Commission England [28] and Arla milk. [29]
The Chessington World of Adventures Resort currently hosts the Gruffalo River Ride Adventure, themed hotel rooms, an arena dedicated to the films and characters, and a food outlet. In March 2019 Chessington launched a Room on the Broom attraction with specifically themed hotel rooms. [30]
Since the year 2014, The Forestry Commission has worked with Magic Light on providing free, self-lead trails based on the Gruffalo brand family on over 20 sites around the UK, as well as offering Gruffalo orienteering, Gruffalo sculptures in several forests, and an augmented reality app, The Gruffalo Spotter. [31]
2019 marked the 20th anniversary of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's Gruffalo book and 10 years since the premiere of the animated special on BBC One. As part of the celebration, Magic Light partnered with the Royal Mint to release a set of commemorative silver and gold fifty pence collectors' coins, and with the Royal Mail to release a set of bespoke Gruffalo stamps. [32]
Since 2013, Magic Light Pictures has developed a range of mini-game and augmented reality apps based around the Gruffalo brand family. [33] Room on the Broom: Games and Gruffalo: Games were both nominated for a Children's BAFTA in the Interactive Adapted category in 2014 and 2015 respectively. [34] [35]
The Gruffalo Spotter app, launched in early 2017, is an augmented reality app that works alongside the Forestry Commission trails, where users can follow a set of clues and signs to locate animated characters from the book and take photos with them. The app was nominated at the 2017 BAFTA awards in the Interactive category. [36]
Chessington World of Adventures Resort is a 128 acres theme park, zoo and hotel complex in Chessington, Greater London, England, around 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Central London. The complex originally opened as Chessington Zoo in 1931; the theme park aspect was developed by The Tussauds Group, debuting on 7 July 1987 as one of the first combined animal-amusement parks in the UK. The theme park, which features over 40 rides, is now owned by Merlin Entertainments, following its merger with The Tussauds Group in 2007. Under Merlin, Chessington has been increasingly developed into a resort and tourist destination, including two on-site hotels, swimming pools, a campground, spa and fitness facilities.
The Gruffalo is a British children's picture book by author Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. It tells the story of a mouse taking a walk in the woods and deceiving different predators, including the Gruffalo. The Gruffalo was first published in 1999 in the United Kingdom by Macmillan Children's Books. It is about 700 words long and is written in rhyming couplets featuring repetitive verse. It is an example of a trickster story and was inspired by a Chinese folk tale called "The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger". The Gruffalo has sold over 13.5 million copies and has won several prizes for children's literature including the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.
The British Academy Children's Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). They have been awarded annually since 1996, before which time they were a part of the main British Academy Television Awards. It currently includes categories for television productions, feature films and video games.
The Sand Castle is a 1977 stop motion animated short created by Co Hoedeman for the National Film Board of Canada. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 50th Academy Awards.
The Gruffalo is a 2009 animated fantasy short television film based on the 1999 picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.
Bubbleworks was a dark water ride opened in 1990 at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in Greater London, England. It took riders through animated scenes of a comical factory producing fizzy pop. The original ride closed, to be redesigned in 2006 with a sponsorship by Imperial Leather toiletries, with the majority of the animations removed. The new Bubbleworks then closed in September 2016 to be replaced by The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure.
The Gruffalo's Child is a 2011 animated fantasy short television film based on the 2004 picture book of the same name written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. A sequel to The Gruffalo, the film was shown on Christmas Day 2011 in the United Kingdom, exactly two years after the debut of the first film.
Stephen Rosenbaum is an American visual effects artist and supervisor, and has worked on numerous movie, tv and music productions, including six that have won Academy Awards. He has been nominated three times for an Academy Award and two times for a BAFTA Award. He has won both awards twice for his contributions on Forrest Gump and Avatar, and has played artist and supervisor roles on such pioneering films as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Abyss, X2: X-Men United, Death Becomes Her, Contact and The Perfect Storm.
Triggerfish is a computer animation film studio based in Cape Town, South Africa and Galway, Ireland. The studio is best known for its animated feature films Adventures in Zambezia (2012), Khumba (2013), and Seal Team (2021), as well as the work they have done on television specials created for UK producers Magic Light Pictures. In 2016, Stick Man was awarded the Cristal for best TV production at the Annecy International Animation Festival. In 2017, Revolting Rhymes again won the Cristal for best TV production at the Annecy Festival, and was nominated for the Best Short Film (Animated) Oscar at the 2018 Academy Awards. In 2019, Netflix announced that Triggerfish would produce its first African animated TV series. In 2020, Zog won the International Emmy for Best Kids Animation. In 2021, The Snail and The Whale won Best Special Production at The Annie Awards, while Triggerfish received the Mifa Animation Industry Award at Annecy for "the pioneering role that the company has played in animation in South Africa, and Africa most widely.” In 2022, their third film, Seal Team, made the Netflix Top 10 Films global list for its launch week.
Room on the Broom is a 2012 short stop motion computer animated television film based on the picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The film was nominated for the Best Animated Short Film at the 2014 Academy Awards. It also won the British Academy Children's Award for Animation in 2013.
Hocus Pocus Hall was a themed walk-through attraction at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in southwest London, England. Scenes featured 3D UV artwork, viewed via 3-D glasses worn by the guest. The attraction was located on the ground floor of the Burnt Stub Mansion. It opened in 2003 and closed in 2018 to be redeveloped as Room On The Broom: A Magical Journey.
Stick Man, written by former Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, is a children's story about an anthropomorphic wooden stick who becomes separated from his family home and his Odyssey-like adventure to return there. He is eventually reunited with his family in the "family tree" as a result of his interaction with Father Christmas. It takes place in England.
Revolting Rhymes is a 2016 British animated fantasy comedy drama television film written for the screen and directed by Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer, based on the 1982 book of the same name written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake.
The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure is a dark water ride that opened in March 2017 at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in Greater London, England, developed by Merlin Entertainments. It takes riders through scenes based on The Gruffalo franchise. The scenes consist largely of digital projection and include clips from the 2009 animated film The Gruffalo.
Zog is a 2010 children's picture book by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, about a young accident-prone dragon, named Zog, who wants to be the best student in dragon school.
Jakob Schuh is a German animator, best known for his animated film, Revolting Rhymes Part One & Two for which he received critical acclaim and received an Academy Award nomination for Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
The British Academy Children and Young People Award for Animation is an award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). It is given to "animated content for children and young people six and over". It was first awarded at the 1st edition of the British Academy Children's Awards in 1996, with Welsh claymation-style series Gogs being the first recipient of the award.
Pip and Posy is a series of British children's picture books written by Camilla Reid and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, known for his work on the Gruffalo series with author Julia Donaldson. The series follows the adventures of two animal friends, Pip the rabbit and Posy the mouse, as they navigate the ups and downs of their everyday lives.
Michael Peter Rose OBE is a British film producer and co-founder of Magic Light Pictures, a London-based independent film production company. In 2023 Rose was awarded the OBE for services to animation.
Martin Pope is a British film producer and co-founder of Magic Light Pictures, a London-based independent film production company.
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