Stick Man, a Triggerfish Animation Studios’ collaboration with Oscar-nominated UK production company Magic Light Pictures, is one of four nominees for Best Animation at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Children’s Awards.
Established in 1996, Triggerfish Animation Studios is a Cape Town-based film and entertainment company.
The studio has produced two feature films: Adventures in Zambezia (2012), starring Jeremy Suarez, Abigail Breslin and Samuel L. Jackson, and Khumba (2013), starring Jake T. Austin, AnnaSophia Robb and Liam Neeson. The two movies are among the top five highest-grossing South African films of all time. They’re about to start production on their third feature, Seal Team.
Directed by London-based Jeroen Jaspaert and co-directed by South African Daniel Snaddon, Stick Man is up against Cartoon Network’s The Amazing World of Gumball, Aardman Animations’ Shaun The Sheep: The Farmer’s Llamas, and Disney’s Counterfeit Cat.
Animated in Cape Town, Stick Man is an adaptation of 2015’s number one bestselling backlist picture book, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo).
“Stick Man lives in the family tree with his Stick Lady Love and their stick children three,” until he’s taken further and further away from home on an epic adventure across the seasons.
He runs from a playful dog, gets thrown in a river, escapes from a swan’s nest, and even ends up on top of a fire, as he tries to get back to his family in time for Christmas.
Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) voices Stick Man, with Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) as Santa, Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous) as the narrator, and Rob Brydon, Sally Hawkins and Russell Tovey completing the all-star voice cast.
The BAFTA nomination is just the latest accolade for the 26-minute short film, which has won seven international awards on three continents so far, including the Cristal for a TV Production at the world’s leading animation festival, Annecy.
Stick Man premiered on BBC One last Christmas to nearly 10m viewers. Triggerfish is finishing off its second BBC One Christmas collaboration with Magic Light Pictures, Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes, and is underway on a third, The Highway Rat, another Donaldson/Scheffler adaptation.
Check out the promo for the movie below:
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