The Gruffalo's Child

The Gruffalo's Child is a short animated adaptation of the picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, following the 2009 film about the mouse who outwitted a monster. The Gruffalo's daughter lives with her father at the edge of the woods, where he warns her about the Big Bad Mouse, the one creature he fears. Curiosity wins out, and one winter night she slips away into the snow to find it. Along the way she meets a snake, an owl and a fox, then a small mouse who scarcely resembles the terrifying figure from her father's stories.

The film is directed by Uwe Heidschötter and Johannes Weiland, from a screenplay by Johanna Stuttmann and Julia Donaldson. Its voice cast includes Helena Bonham Carter as Mother Squirrel, Shirley Henderson as the Gruffalo's Child, Robbie Coltrane as the Gruffalo, Rob Brydon as the Snake, John Hurt as the Owl and Tom Wilkinson as the Fox. It runs 26 minutes and was produced by Magic Light Pictures with Orange Eye and Studio Soi, across Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Released on Christmas Day 2011, the film holds a 7.1 rating on IMDb from around 4,300 votes and a 6.8 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes. Both place it in favourable territory, with the larger IMDb sample suggesting steady approval among those who seek out the half-hour format.