Robin Shaw is a BAFTA and ANNIE-nominated director and illustrator, known for his hand-drawn adaptations of classic children's books. His latest film, Mog’s Christmas, wonthe longform prize at the British Animation Awards and earning BAFTA and ANNIE nominations. Here is the novelpro junkie interview with 2025 BAFTA-nominated director Robin Shaw:
Shaw directed The Tiger Who Came to Tea, in 2019 and itwon an International Emmy and the Special Jury Prize at Annecy. His directorial debut was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (2016), based on the popular children's book.
Since 2020, he's been adapting Benji Davies' Storm Whale books for the screen. Alongside his film work, Shaw created a series of commemorative coins for the Royal Mint and published his own picture book, Me and My Dad, in 2017.
1.If you had to describe “Mog’s Christmas” using three words, it would be… They're kind of classic British children's books. They have a big fan base and they've been loved by generations. For me, that is quite appealing in itself, knowing how to take something that's loved as a book and turn it into a film, also respect everyone's perceptions of the book and how it's been. How they've experienced it either as a child or as a parent reading it to a child and learn how to take all the love that they have from that moment of sharing the reading and make it into a film that makes them feel equally as warm and happy. I also like their Britishness. I like the era that they are set in. I like the fact it's about a stupid cat--- I find that quite appealing because cats are quite stupid and I've got a dog who's very like Molly's quite stupid, but lovely. I like that it's set in London. There's an awful lot in the film that isn't in the book and one of those things is giving it a real London flavor. It’s really the London of my childhood. 4.Could you talk about your experience working with screenwriter Joanna Harrison? The interesting fact about Adjoa Andoh from my point of view is that I've long admired her work. From day one I wanted her to be the narrator of the film. She's very clever in that she just strikes just the right tone of managing to be the voice of Mog, but also the voice of the narrator. She tells us about Mog's emotions, but also tells us about the story. They're all great! The thing I really like about a really good, strong voice cast, which we had, is that they come in and they give you exactly what you want and then they give you more. They've never seen the story. They may have read the script, but they don't know what's in my mind until they meet me. Then they meet me and I give them a briefing about the character and they get it, they really get it. Then something strange happens where they suddenly turn into a different person. It's amazing. It's really admirable to watch. They give you so much more than you expected, and it means that you can take those recordings and add things to the animation, to the acting in the animation that you weren't expecting to be able to. Well, what happens is it goes to, your application gets accepted and then you find out what the long list is. The long list is where it gets whittled down to a few names. And then they said, the final nominations are going to be revealed on the 15thof January at 12 o'clock. So, we all tuned in to see them being revealed and I couldn't believe that. My fellow animators… There are three films in my category and I'm really interested to meet the directors of both the other films. One of them I think was a student until very recently and the other one is a Dutch woman who is a really talented animator and director so I'm interested to meet both of them. Well, I don't anticipate winning, but if I do, I think it's if we were to win, if we were lucky enough to win, I have a fair idea of what I’d say. Every time I make a speech, if I write it down, if I prepare it too much, it goes wrong. I don't like it, so I’m much better slightly going off the cuff, but I know what I’d say. I know who I’d say thank you to. None of them. Because they're animated. Animation is its own art form. It doesn't need to sort of be redone. It doesn't need to be translated into anything else, especially my films, because they're so based on drawn images. They're based on illustrations. It would be awful to even think about doing them as live action. I just can't see the point.
Fun, Warm, and Christmasy.
2.What drew you to direct the adaptation of Judith Kerr’s children's book?
For me, adapting books like these, not just doing adaptations of books like these, not just this one, but is there a real chance for me to do something very personal. I found it quite difficult to be honest and do my own thing in my work, unless I've got a vehicle like this to do it with. There's a lot of detail in there, not just visual detail, but the emotional content of the film is all very personal.
3.What was the most difficult scene to direct from the film?
For all sorts of reasons, there were scenes that were difficult to direct, but one of the difficult things with this film is communicating to the animators what you want the whole thing to feel like. There's a quality to the storytelling in the film, which is quite knowing, sort of like a pantomime, it’s aware of itself as being a story. It's not trying to just lose you in the story. It's telling you to sit down and enjoy the fact that someone's telling you a story. I think that sets it apart from some things, so from a lot of films. So, when you're directing, trying to explain that to animators can be quite a tricky thing. For instance, there's a scene when the dad and the two kids are walking down the high street and they pass all sorts of shops and explaining that to the animator was quite difficult because I wanted us not to hear a word they were saying, I wanted all their physical action to be very clear so that we'd know exactly what was going on between the three of them and I also wanted the pace of the action to have a certain energy to it. So, that was the most difficult scene to direct, just from a storytelling point of view. But in terms of technicalities, there were quite a lot of scenes that were hard in this film. There's a scene where we pull out from Mog on the chimney. We get wider and wider and wider and we zoom in to a window, we see one of the characters in the window and then pan along to another window. It all had to be very carefully choreographed and that was technically very, very difficult to do.
I've worked with Jo several times and I think we have a good working relationship when it comes to this thing. Joe's script will arrive and it will have been seen by all sorts of people, including me, and signed off and approved, but then it comes into my hands. Then, I chop and change it all about and add extra dialogue, but Joe's work gives all the structure and the skeleton for what the film is going to be script-wise.
5.You worked with actress Adjoa Andoh as she is the narrator of the film. Could you give us an interesting fact about her?
6.Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy,Miriam Margolyes, Gareth Berliner, and more were all voice actors in this film. Could you share your experience working with them?
7.What was the most memorable moment making this animated short film?
The bit I like best is recording the music because that comes at the end when all the picture is more or less finished, you can't do very much to it anymore. you know what the tunes are, you know what the melodies are for the music, then you go and hear, you go and watch the music being played with proper instruments in a recording studio and it is magical. My side of things is, more or less done, you can't really draw that many more pictures and I can't play the instruments so I don't feel responsible for the music. I can just enjoy watching other people doing something really amazing.
8.Congratulations on getting a BAFTA nomination for British Short Animation, how did you first find out that your film got nominated?
9.Out of this year’s BAFTA nominees, who are you excited to see or meet most at the ceremony?
10.If you win the award, are you going to have a speech prepared or are you going to wing it?
11.Is there any novel/novella/short story/article that you would be interested in adapting into an animated film or short?
There's a series of books called Storm Whale by Benji Davies. I've been wanting to make them into films for quite some time. Apart from that, I just want to make my own film.
12.Out of all your animated films, which one would you like to see adapted into a live-action film?
13.You also worked with Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman, Mark Williams, and David Oyelowo in various of your film projects. How was it like working with them?
Amazing! I think I've been really fortunate with the actors that I've been able to work with in that they've all given so much more than I expected... Olivia Coleman, Mark Williams. I've met Mark Williams again since and he remembered it very fondly. They're amazing.
14.Who (dead or alive) would you like to sit down and chat with?
Boring answer…My grandmother. No one famous, I'd be too tongue-tied, I'd be too intimidated. If it was someone I didn't like from history, I'd be too angry with them to make sense. But if someone I’d really like to see again and be able to sit down and talk to… is my grandmother. She was a very, very special lady.
15.Last question, in one word how would you sum up your overall experience with Mog’s Christmas?
Rewarding… it was difficult to make for all sorts of practical reasons. Because of the amount of effort that went into it, it came out really well. It survived all of the pressures that you have during a production and it came out really well. I'm quite proud of it. And I'm not generally proud of my own work, but I am quite proud of this one.
