One of the world’s most beloved animation studios, Aardman continues to pump out stop-motion classics that charm the pants off anyone who sees them. From the Wallace & Gromit series to Chicken Run and Shaun Of The Sheep, the studio’s soft-spoken, play-doughy figurines are a welcome sight in an animation landscape filled with Boss Babies. While the quality of each entry into the canon varies, Aardman movies and specials tend to win over audiences by being heartfelt and idiosyncratic.
This brings us to Aardman’s latest, a 30-minute Christmas special called Robin Robin. By the looks of things, it’s going back to a well the studio knows best: unlikely animal pairings. Robin Robin, based on the teaser, follows a robin who is raised by mice (though, we pine for a movie called “Raised By Rats”—doesn’t that sound incredible? These types of stories are generally winners for the studio, dating back to Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park’s earliest outings, like Creature Comforts. Here’s how Netflix describes the special:
When her egg fortuitously rolls into a rubbish dump, Robin is raised by a loving family of mice. As she grows up, her differences become more apparent. Robin sets off on the heist to end all heists to prove to her family that she can be a really good mouse – but ends up discovering who she really is.
There’s a bit of Chicken Run in Netflix’s description—particularly the big about a “heist to end all heists.” Bronte Carmichael, best known for playing Christopher Robin’s daughter in Christopher Robin, takes the lead as the titular Robin. Meanwhile, Adeel Akhtar from Murdered By My Father and Enola Holmes plays the father mouse. Richard E. Grant plays Magpie, Robin’s supportive friend, Gillian Anderson rounds out the cast as the villainous Cat.
Robin Robin hits Netflix on November 27, and honestly, there’s got to be a worse way to kick off the holiday season than an Aardman special. We’ll try and find one.