'The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse' Trailer is Gorgeous
The Fox, The Boy, The Mole, and The Horse, in "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse"
Apple TV+
Most of the Christmas traditions we think of today as standards of the season were invented in the 1840s when the newly crowned Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, popularized his Germanic holiday standards. But, which the exception of A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker, most of the entertainment standards of the season stem from the early post-World War II years. From the carols that get covered year after year to the TV specials, the vast majority we introduced between 1945-1965. Few have broken through since then, but with the arrival of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, the 2020s may have finally landed one.
The "modern classics" that have arrived in the last 50 years can be counted on one hand: 1986's "Last Christmas" and 1991's "All I Want For Christmas Is You;" 1983's A Christmas Story, and 2003's Elf. That doesn't mean the entertainment world isn't trying — go turn on The Hallmark Channel if you don't believe me — but most, like this year's two new Christmas Carol offerings, Scrooge and Spirited, fail to fly. However, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, based on the 2019 illustrated children's book by Charlie Mackesy, captures the season's spirit and is a gorgeously drawn animated film.
It helps that Mackesy is the man behind the short film and that he took his black and white illustrations and reimagined them in full color for the project. He also didn't allow the special to be done digitally with the latest CGI animation technology. Instead, this special is entirely hand-drawn traditional animation, and though one might not think that makes a difference, the trailer says otherwise.
Here's the film's synopsis:
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse takes audiences of all ages on an extraordinary, poignant and heartfelt journey this festive season, as the deeply resonating story follows the unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse as they journey together in the boy’s search for home.
The animated special stars newcomer Jude Coward Nicoll as the titular Boy, with an A-list cast of voice actors around him. In order of appearance in the trailer, the short film stars Tom Hollander (Us) as the Mole, Idris Elba (Luther) as the Fox, and Gabriel Byrne (War of the Worlds) as the Horse. The soundtrack was composed by Isobel Waller-Bridge (Emma), with Mackesy working in collaboration with director Jon Croker (Paddington 2).
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse premieres in the U.K. on BBC One and iPlayer on Christmas Eve, December 24, and begins streaming the next day in the U.S. on Apple TV+.
