Animation

Animation, A Calico Critter Christmas

Nat Hazzard

Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition

2024

I decided to go with stop-motion animation because my early teenage and tween years were dominated by watching stop-motion videos on YouTube other teenagers and young adults would make using various toys like American Girl dolls and Littlest Pet Shops. I was also inspired by the 10th anniversary stop motion short Aardman made for Over the Garden Wall that came out recently so that made me sure about my choice of medium. For my animation, I used Calico Critters since I casually collect them, mostly the ones with interesting costumes.

For the general themes and ideas, I was inspired by Charlie Brown animations. Charlie Brown cartoons have such a distinctive and recognizable animation style, and the content is very wholesome and earnest. Their most famous animation shorts are holiday-related ones and since we are entering the holiday season I decided to do something with a similar tone revolving around Christmas and Christmas preparations as the main theme. I knew I wanted to have the Calico Critters doing something similar to A Charlie Brown Christmas since the tree with a single ornament is the most iconic piece of Charlie Brown animation, along with the dance scene they have in the animation so I chose to have decorating a tree as plot focus as well as having a ending dance to show how all of they’re preparations paid off in the end.