Mog's Christmas

Seems that a traditional animated feature per Christmas is now standard for the UK. This year we get this adaptation of Judith Kerr's book. The animation is beyond stellar, with long, panning shots. Mog herself moves and has manneirisms much like a real cat.

On a purely technical level, this short is quite lovely. Story wise, however, it's a bit hard to stomach Mog's clear extremely realistic discomfort at the Christmas chaos. As a cat owner myself, her confusion and fear tug at my heartstrings, and I don't fel the resolution fixes this since the family decides to traumatize her further.

Also, some of the human characters were pretty annoying.

I watched this twice - once on Christmas Eve and because I enjoyed it so much, again on Christmas Day with my extended family. And as my rather unoriginal title says, this animated short is absolutely lovely. The animation looks like the books come to life, and for anyone who has a sweet if a little dopey cat, the body language is completely true to life. The song, while a little on the cheesy side, is rather beautiful too, but isn't that exactly what you want at Christmas? Also it made me cry, but in a very good way and reminded me of when I was a kid and the world felt like a far better and kinder place than it is now - whether that's the delusion of being a child, I don't know, but for some sweet, escapist fun, it's just what you need.

The animation is made in the style of the story, not designed to be excitable or adventurous, with a hand drawn pencil feel to it. It has the exact same layout and feel as 'The tiger who came to tea' by the same author, set in London again. Yes it's set in the days before technology, but that's when the book was written.

I really do feel that the audience is designed for children under 6 and adults who grew up with the book. This isn't exciting to watch, it's more relaxing and a comfort to know what will happen.

I can guarantee that they will choose another of the mog books to animate next year and look forward to watching more!

1976's Mog's Christmas gets its 2023 TV debut via channel 4's lovingly produced Christmas Eve treat.

Judith Kerr's much loved Mog gets her 1st proper animated outing that pays homage to Kerr's own illustrations as well as having more than a hint of Sylvain Chomet and Studio Ghibli's fantastic creations.

Here not very clever, but much loved family cat Mog has her nose put out of joint by all the fuss and bustle of Christmas and the strange relations cluttering up HER house. In response Mog climbs onto the roof and , much to her family's distress, refuses to come down. Framed by David Arnold's beautiful score and featuring the centrepiece song As Long As I Belong, this is 30 minutes of joy.

Mog the Cat is a treasured part of my childhood and I now love reading the books to my five year old, so I was a little nervous that this would not live up to my expectations.

It totally exceeded them, the original story is fleshed out a little, with a few choice additions from other books. Little touches, like Morecambe and Wise being on the television is a shop window really anchor it in its time and add little touches of nostalgia for adults.

My little one was transfixed throughout, as were the adults in the room.

Gentle, humourous and utterly, utterly charming. I can't praise this enough.