Robin Shaw directs animated short awards hopeful The Tiger Who Came to Tea, from Lupus Films, an adaptation of the classic 1968 book from late author Judith Kerr. Academy Award nominee Benedict Cumberbatch and Golden Globe nominee David Oyelowo lead the voice cast, and Robbie Williams contributes a central song. It’s already been a big hit in the U.K. for more than a year.

Jackson Murphy: How big was the Christmas Eve 2019 TV debuting airing of this in the U.K.?

Robin Shaw: On Christmas Eve one of the main public service broadcasting channels here has an animation slot for these half-hour films. They’re really special. They’re loved by the whole nation. About 30 years ago there was a film called The Snowman and it really made people sit up and think, ‘Okay. This is British animation. These are nice family films that have been made in the U.K.’ It’s quite a prestigious slot to get and everyone sits down and they get massive audiences. Audiences that are really hard to find in the days of streaming. It’s quite an exciting thing. Obviously when you’ve worked on something so intensely for about 18 months, finally just to see it out there… it’s quite a strange experience, but really lovely. I watched it with my wife and some friends. We were having Christmas together.

JM: That’s great. This is a classic story from a classic book. What initially made you want to take this on? Was it a big risk?

RS: Definitely. Generations have loved the book since it came out [in 1968]. It’s quite a risky thing when you take on something that’s been loved by so many people in a very personal way. I always used to read it to my children in a certain way – always in the way I read it to myself when I was small. I always found the tiger quite scary, but in a good way – in a way that children like scary things. That was quite risky because I wanted to retain that essential, wild, scariness. He could do anything. He could eat this all up. Also, sometimes when books are turned into films, it loses something – either too much is added or the tone isn’t quite right and it doesn’t strike quite the right note. But I think with The Tiger Who Came to Tea, it really was struck perfectly. Judith Kerr as an illustrator has quite a funny take on perspective. It’s an unorthodox use of perspective in the book, which I managed to retain in the film as well with the use of the camerawork.

JM: Yeah. You spin around the table a little bit. And you’re right… about it being okay to scare children a little bit because the rewards are there. And I remember growing up reading a lot of picture books and children’s books where you’d have the images and certain places… and then the rest of it would be white. I loved seeing that in this because it brought me back to my childhood of reading those kinds of books.

RS: Exactly. Retaining the white space at times… I felt quite scared. There was a time when someone from Judith Kerr’s publishers came and said, ‘So when are you putting the backgrounds in?’ (laughs) And I said, “There aren’t any backgrounds. Look at the book. It’s just white paper. We gotta keep it.” I did try designing what the whole kitchen would like but it immediately became something else. There’s a whole balance on the page of color, line and white space. And in order to capture the essence of those illustrations, you have to keep all of that white space. Also the white space completely frees you narratively.

JM: I’m glad you kept it like that. Judith passed away in May 2019. Did you work with her closely on this before she passed?

RS: Very. She saw the first bits of animation coming through and she approved the whole animatic and soundtrack and the casting. She was very happy with the way it was going.

©Tiger Tea Productions

JM: Benedict Cumberbatch and David Oyelowo were both up for major Best Actor awards in the 2014-’15 season. What is special about them that made you want to bring them on board for this?

RS: David Oyelowo has got this wonderful mellifluous baritone. Because of the parts he’s played, he’s obviously quite versatile. He’s not one of those actors like… I don’t know… Michael Caine, where it’s always Michael Caine you see on screen. It’s Michael Caine as a butler or it’s Michael Caine bank owner or it’s Michael Caine as whatever. Do you know what I mean? It’s always Michael Caine. And that’s why he’s employed because people wanna see Michael Caine. (laughs) David Oyelowo can all do these things, so he was a really natural choice for the tiger.

Benedict Cumberbatch is perfect ’cause he could slip into the role of being the quintessential English father. Benedict is so… properly spoken. He’s still got this everyman quality about him, and people just love him. And people have to love Dad. I first became aware of him through a comedy series he did here for BBC Radio where he played a sort of accident-prone pilot charmingly. His comic timing is superb. That’s when I first became aware of him and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted him in this because I knew that he’d be able to take the raw lines he was given and turn them into something funny.

JM: Good. And I gotta ask you about the song “Hey, Tiger!” because I can’t get it out of my head! It’s so catchy.

RS: I still whistle it.

JM: How did you get Robbie Williams for this?

RS: We approached David Arnold, a big film composer because we thought he’d be able to do… an homage soundtrack to light jazz, easy listening tracks that were big at the time the book came out. And I knew from his theme for Sherlock, he’d be able to do a really good, classic, catchy series of tunes that could sum-up late 60s, early 70s. We approached him first. And he got his friend Don Black, Oscar-winning lyricist (Born Free) to write some lyrics. We loved the demo. And he knows Robbie Williams. He was at a function with Robbie Williams and he played the demo for him. [Don] said, “Do you know this book?” And Robbie said, “I love this book. I’ve read it to my daughter at least 3,000 times.” It was all quite serendipitous and came together very smoothly.

©Tiger Tea Productions

JM: You talk about the old fashioned feel of it, and as I was watching this short, I was thinking that this is old-fashioned storytelling. We take our time. We see the tiger eat everything, which is very different from what modern stories would do which is move, move, move constantly. Did you find that as you were going through this you realized, “This is a little different than we normally see from animation content these days”?

RS: Definitely. From the outset I wanted to do something that would be a completely different experience from most animated family-friendly films: in its look and its narrative and lack of a traditional story arc that’s often superimposed. There’s always a, “What has the main character learned about themselves kind of moment?” I mustn’t use bad language but whenever that moment comes in a film I just wanna leave or switch it off. But also with the pacing, I wanted the film to be a comedy of manners in some places. And that requires spending some time dealing with the tiger’s body language and that means taking your time. When they’re eating at the table, that sequence goes on for six or seven minutes, which is quite a long time. If you rush through it, all of those mannerisms, looks, noises, jumps and jokes wouldn’t work. I broke the script up into sequences and worked out where I wanted to take time.

JM: I was talking with Eric Stonestreet a couple years ago [for The Secret Life of Pets 2] and he says he goes to animation for fun – not for moral lessons. It’s interesting to hear that different makers and voice actors appreciate animation for different reasons.

RS: I don’t think audiences are moved by being told how to feel. They are moved by watching something that’s sincere. I might be wrong and I know there are a lot of people out there who watch Frozen over and over again. I’ve always thought that the things that make me cry are not the scenes in films where there’s a big wide eyed character [who looks teary-eyed] because they’re being taught some kind of lesson about themselves or they’ve proven their worth or they’ve learned to love themselves. I don’t care. Go learn to love yourself in your own time. I just want to see, in the case of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, this little girl having fun because there’s nothing more moving than a child having really simple, honest fun.

JM: And sincerity is a spot-on word when it comes to this short.

©Tiger Tea Productions

“The Tiger Who Came to Tea” was produced for Channel 4 by Ruth Fielding and Camilla Deakin at Lupus Films, with Ann-Janine Murtagh, Katie Fulford and Mia Jupp as Executive Producers for HarperCollins Children’s Books. Robin Shaw was the director and the screenplay was written by Joanna Harrison and based on a picture book by Judith Kerr OBE. UPHE Content Group is managing the international TV distribution, home entertainment and theatrical rights to the special.

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Jackson Murphy

Jackson Murphy is a movie critic and entertainment columnist. He is the creator of the website Lights-Camera-Jackson.com, and has made numerous appearances on television and radio.

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