Write a short summary of what happens in the film.

We open to David Fane, a children’s show host from the 80’s/90’s sitting in front of a crackling fire, wearing a robe with a book in hand. Dave invites the viewer to enjoy a little Nursery Rhyme time. He starts off Humpty Dumpty. As he reads the well-known rhyme, we transition into an animated world and watch the story unfold. The story book style animation shows Humpty falling off the wall, but then Dave continues the narrative. As Dave rhymes we see the kings horses and men attempt to resuscitate Humpty, then his wife arriving. Then, we see how she is stuck with a financial burden and finally left alone at his funeral with nothing but a house she must sell. We end on the Partners Life end frame explaining how it doesn’t have to be unhappily ever after if you plan ahead.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

Because we were telling nostalgic nursery rhymes, we wanted a host that brought people back to their childhoods even more. So, we chose Dave Fane, a children’s show host from when our target audience were kids. Also, because it was a nursery rhyme for adults, we only played the film between 8pm and 9:30pm (after the kids had gone to bed).

Tell the jury about the animation used and summarise any relevant challenges or techniques.

The challenge was to make these animations feel like story books from the target audiences childhoods. To achieve the look and feel we wanted we chose a 2D cell animation style, paired with an illustrative style that mimics the beautiful books from the 80’s. Again, this was to play into the nostalgic theme. We kept the backgrounds flat and panned, pushed and pulled throughout the action as it unfolded in the foreground. We wanted to always focus on the characters to make it simple and story-like. To switch scenes we needed transitions, these came in the form of objects passing by the screen for example egg yolk running or the bills filling up the screen.