The Food Chain is Put on 'Paws' in this Adorable Christmas Animation

In a short that would rival any Christmas advert in the cuteness stakes, Blue Zoo have revealed their hotly anticipated Christmas short, Lynx & Birds.

In a timely story about love triumphing over fear, we follow the story of two adorable birds in an Attenborough-esque wildlife mockumentary, that unwittingly reveals a chink in the food chain. When the birds come face to face with a fearful predator, the lynx, there is a surprising turn of events that’s sure to warm the cockles.

Now in its sixth year, Blue Zoo run an incredibly popular company-wide shorts programme to encourage experimentation in the studio and a culture of creative collaboration. Everyone in the studio has the opportunity to pitch their idea, and everyone votes for their favourite, making it unique and entirely democratic. There was much excitement when the Christmas brief was brought to the table back in July, with two requirements - to produce a characterful creature and to create fur. Lots of it. Animation Director Simone Giampaolo and Art Director Francesco Mazza decided to take this to the extreme, producing a storyline with enough fur and feathers to test the capability of any render farm.

The lynx is a character not commonly seen on our screens, so hat’s off to Blue Zoo’s look dev team who researched every movement, characteristic and behaviour of the lynx, to produce possibly Blue Zoo’s finest ever creature. Typical of Blue Zoo’s shorts, there’s humour in abundance, and even the lynx is comical despite his facade, in a pantomime villain kind of way.  

And all this beautiful nature at play to a cinematic soundtrack of a 40-piece orchestra, composed by the legendary Brollyman.

Says Tom Box, Co-Founder of Blue Zoo Animation, “We always encourage our artists to challenge themselves and the studio with each new short, and this time they've really smashed our expectations to bits! From creating the challenging animals covered in beautifully rendered fur to working with an epic 40-piece orchestra, we couldn't be prouder of the film everyone has collaborated to make.”

Full Credits

Production Company: Blue Zoo Animation Studio

Directed by: Francesco Mazza & Simone Giampaolo

Art Direction & Design: Francesco Mazza

Animation Direction: Simone Giampaolo

Music: Brollyman

Narration: Darren Altman

Lead Modeller: Pietro Licini

CG Supervisor: Gherardo Zurla

Modelling & Texturing: Pietro Licini, Mélanie Gras, Hannah Wong

Head of Look Dev: Negar Bagheri

Grooming & Look Dev: Arthur Tibbett, Hannah Wong

Rigging, simulation and FX: Anthony Delliste

Lead Animator: Simone Giampaolo

Animators: Jim Sweeting, Owen Fern, Zoé Risser

Lighting TDs: Hannah Wong, Gherardo Zurla, Steven White

Compositing: Hannah Wong, Elaine Thomas, Negar Bagheri, Gherardo Zurla

Additional Art: Izzy Burton

Pipeline Team: Jay Tsang, Phil Stewart

Producer: Tom Box

Production Managers: Lizzie Hicks, Negar Bagheri

Voice Effects: Alec Smith

Sound Design & Mix: John Sutherland

VO Sound Engineer: Dom Boucher @ The Sound Company

Special Thanks:

Brollyman and Matthew Slater, Adam Shaw, Damian Hook, 

Joe Kinch, Sophie Rekasowski, Carole Baskin, Catherine Gallo, 

Jacques Gauthier, Fabrizia Spera, Alessandra Battaglia and all our families.