Granpa

Film drawn and directed by Diane Jackson, produced by John Coates – the creators of ‘The Snowman’, based on the book by John Burningham. The film won the Prix Jeunesse International award for excellence in children’s television programming in 1990. The film review site Rotten Tomatoes has called the film “a sensitive and life-affirming animated adaptation”.

The film has rarely been repeated, nor released on DVD, perhaps due to its subject matter. The “Toonhound” review suggest that the film takes the tone of the ending of The Snowman even further, “exploring an aspect of life rarely approached in animated form.”[9]

Composer’s note: ‘Channel 4 regarded ‘The Snowman’ as a great success and Clare Kitson their director of animation began discussing possible similar projects with John Coates the TVC producer of the film quite soon afterwards. Sometime in 1984 John approached Diane Jackson and myself with the idea of ‘Granpa’, another  children’s picture book, but this time by author John Burningham. It is a story of a little girl of perhaps seven called Emily and her ageing grandfather and initially Diane and I were not enthusiastic because at the end the grandfather’s chair is suddenly empty – he has died.

On December 31st that year it happened that my own father was dying in Brighton General Hospital, aged 88, and my daughter Catherine who was then six came with me to visit him. She had had a very similar relationship as that described in the book, since she adored my father who was for ever telling stories and rhymes and jokes which made her laugh. The doctor told us that very sadly he could not last out the week and my daughter  said to me: ‘Will he go to heaven?’ I said: ‘I very much hope so’ and Catherine with the sublime innocence of youth said: ‘Can I come and watch?’  This made me laugh despite myself and to see how as children we are able to accept all of life in a way that we find so difficult as adults. When I got home I started playing ‘Auld lang Syne’, partly because it was New Year’s Eve and partly because I hoped that my father ‘would never be forget’ and by some sort of inspiration I began to weave a counter-melody over it. This was to be  the theme and the song for the film called ‘Make-Believe’. What I wanted to happen in the film was that, after all the flights of the imagination that Granpa and Emily experience, we see her grown-up and still remembering him, and that during the song which ends the film these memories fleetingly return to assert that his presence and memory is still with her.That is the meaning behind the lyrics:

‘Breathe no sigh for the day that is parting,

Welcome Spring and the year that is starting.

Leave worlds of make-believe,

See to eternity’ 

Channel 4 were talking about another film with nothing except music, but when finally Diane and I agreed to undertake it we felt that it would work better as a kind of opera, with words taking the action forward, sung by Emily and Granpa and a a children’s choir, not to mention a whale, a dog and some hippos!

Wikepedia says: Granpa is a 1989 English family-oriented animated film, based on a 1984 children’s illustrated story book by John Burningham. The film initially appeared on Channel 4 Television and was later released on VHS by Universal Studios.[1]

Directed by Dianne Jackson, who had previously adapted Raymond Briggs’s The Snowman into an animated film, it is hand-illustrated with coloured pencil in imitation of the style of the original Burningham book. In common with The Snowman, the music is by Howard Blake, who also wrote the script for the film, which is referred to as an “animated children’s opera”.[2] The voices of Granpa and Emily are by Peter Ustinov and Emily Osborne respectively.

An expensive film to produce, it won the Prix Jeunesse International award for excellence in children’s television programming in 1990.[3]

Recordings

Granpa

Format

Audio CD