The Gruffalo’s Child is a 2011 25-minute animated Short Film directed by Johannes Weiland and Uwe Heidschotter, It is a sequel to The Gruffalo and part of a series of adaptations of Julia Donaldson's children's books by The BBC, a series that includes The Highway Rat, Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale and Zog.
The voice cast includes Helena Bonham Carter as the Narrator and Mother Squirrel, Shirley Henderson as The Gruffalo’s Child, Robbie Coltrane as the Gruffalo, James Corden as the Mouse, Tom Wilkinson as the Fox, John Hurt as the Owl and Rob Brydon as the Snake.
The Gruffalo’s Child uses the following tropes
- Adaptation Expansion: In the animated film, the story is narrated by a squirrel who is reassuring her scared children that the large footprints in the snow did not belong to the Gruffalo (whom she told a story about previously) and she tells the story. As well as that, several other moments are added, for example the Snake suggests the Gruffalo’s child go down to the lake, which is frozen, claiming the Big Bad Mouse is down there, and then the Gruffalo’s Child sees Snake smiling when the ice breaks and she nearly drowns, and angering the Snake when she survives.
- Big Bad: The Gruffalo's Child is told about the "Big Bad Mouse", which the Mouse actually turns out to be.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The Gruffalo and his Child are not exactly aliens but they are beasts. The Gruffalo has orange eyes, knobbly knees, large teeth, a black tongue, and purple prickles all over his back, and dark brown fur. The Child has yellow eyes, normal knees, large (but not as large as her fathers) teeth, pink prickles and beige fur. Whether this is because the Child is a girl and not male is unknown, or it could be because she’s a child and not grown up yet.
- Daddy's Girl: The Gruffalo’s daughter lives with her father in a cave, and it’s made clear that he cares for her and is protective of her. Despite his abrasive nature of dragging her back to the cave after she tried to enter The Deep Dark Wood, he’s clearly trying to protect her from the so-called Big Bad Mouse.
