DISCLAIMER: I am a Charlie Mackesy super fan, full stop.
I was gifted a copy of The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse the year it was published and wept my way through the stunning illustrations and poignant narrative.
I mean, who can find fault with such concepts as:
And
After falling in love with the book, I started following Charlie on Instagram. I would later learn that, per usual, I was late to the party. Charlie had been sharing his work with hundreds of thousands of followers prior to creating the book. He posts daily, and his beautiful drawings remind us of what it means to be human. When he announced that he was animating his illustrations from the book for a short film, I was thrilled. He so generously shared with us that challenging process. When he started teasing actual snippets from the film, I added the notation “BMFH film” in my calendar so that I wouldn’t forget to watch it.
Seeing Charlie’s beautiful drawings brought to life through a simple story of friendship, perseverance and kindness had a profound effect on me, as I know it did for so many others.
That’s why I was momentarily stunned to read a review captioned:
“…Charlie Mackesy’s animation ruined my Christmas Eve
Children’s story? No: this was dreadful, single-line cod-philosophy that should have stayed as an Instagram account.”
Oh my goodness.
After looking up “cod-philosophy,” I continued through this review in an effort to understand how and why anyone could call the movie “dreadful.”
Then I got to the middle:
“Nothing happened. NOTHING HAPPENED! There was no story.”
Well now. This is where I beg to differ.
At the beginning of the movie, the boy is alone. He is lost and searching for “home.”
At the end of the movie, the boy has acquired three new friends, weathered adversity and discovered a different sense of “home.”
Along the way, each character reveals vulnerability that ultimately strengthens the bonds of love between them.
That’s quite enough of a story for me.
I agree with you!!
This is a beautiful story, precious illustrations. My Mom used to share this quote with us often as I grew up with 9 siblings who often saw things differently:“Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder”. I grew to adapt my perspective of this quote to: Art is understanding the author’s heart. When we understand their point, it’s hard not to see or feel the beauty ❤️