“Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wild World,’ said the Rat. ‘And that's something that doesn't matter, either to you or to me. I've never been there, and I'm never going, nor you either if you've got any sense at all.” (Grahame, 1908).
In the one hundred and twelve years since the publication of Kenneth Grahame’s ‘The Wind In The Willows, the picturesque home of the characters has been lost to a thing of the imagination. That loss is the foundation of the animation ‘The Wind In The Willows,’ nominated for the Public Choice Award in the 2020 British Animation Awards and winning Best Animation in a Commercial. This essay will be considering the animation techniques, the context, and relevance to current society as well as the director’s background.
The Wildlife Trust collaborated with an independent creative agency, Don’t Panic, to create this animation as part of a national campaign to raise awareness of the wildlife crisis. It was produced by a very large team, crediting over fifty individuals on their website.
The film was directed by Thomas Harnett O’Meara, who studied for his undergraduate degree in illustration at The Manchester School Of Art. It was at this time that Harnett O’Meara became interested in stop-motion animation. In an interview with Creative Review, Harnett O’Meara described how he was drawn to this method of filmmaking,
“Stop motion felt like it walked an interesting line between live-action and animation. It covers so many of my interests, be it writing, cinematography, acting, or design. I like how you can move from one discipline to the next and come out with a film.”
Later, Harnett O’Meara studied animation at the Royal College Of Art, graduating with a Master's degree in 2015. His graduation film, ‘I’m Good With Plants’, was a narrative film with a linear plot and won awards at both BFI Future Film and Durham Film Festival. However, Harnett O’Meara’s portfolio of ten animated productions ventures from traditional narrative to the stream of consciousness found in ‘Papier,’ to the surrealism in both ‘A Chewy Intermission’ and his E4 Esting. The commonality of his films appears to be that they are mainly commercial films. One of his more notable commercial animations is the advert for a David Hockney exhibition at Tate. Harnett O’Meara created an animation in a pastiche of Hockey’s work, adding movements and transitions to bring the once motionless paintings to life. Reflecting on this opportunity in an interview, he stated that David Hockney holds a significant influence over his own work, along with visiting art galleries, museums, and everyday life. In summary, Harnett O’Meara has an established professional history of working in the commercialized world, which gave him transferable experience in this campaign animation.
The Wind In The Willows follows the format of a movie trailer. It does not have a narrative plot in itself but alludes enough of one to build intrigue. The tone of the animation begins very playful, whimsical and reminds the audience of the beloved characters. However, the tone juxtaposes environmental issues from the perspective of the animals. As David Attenborough starts providing voice-over and the subject grows darker, Attenborough begins to break the fourth wall, emphasizing that the threat to British wildlife is real and, while these characters are fictionalized, there are thousands of real animals suffering; between 1970 and 2013 WWF estimate 56% of wildlife species in the UK have declined. The animation finishes with a simple call to action to “join us”. The essence of this animation called upon the semiotics of nostalgia and childhood, both adults remembering their childhood and empathy for those who are children now. The emotive hook, clarity of the call to action, and the playful use of creating a trailer for a film that will never be made work exceptionally well.
The topic, of climate change and issues regarding the environment is critical today as we can find in a range of media from news headlines to the popularisation of reusable straws and packaging in social media influencers. Environmental awareness creates an appetite for films on the environment. This may have contributed to the popularity of the film, although, given The Wildlife Trust’s context and ideology, it is clear this is not a ‘cash grab’ or exploiting the topic for exposure. To summarise, animation plays largely on emotions in a clever though fairly direct manner and aids during a time when it is a very common topic for discussion at the present time.
In conclusion, ‘The Wind In The Willow is a short animated advert for a national campaign for the preservation of wildlife. It was produced by a large creative team with a costly budget and the creative license to utilize a beloved children’s tale and viewer’s affinity for the anthropomorphism of woodland animation a mix of winning qualities yoked together with a director with a longstanding history of adverts and commercial work.