When actor/filmmaker Katrina Mathers and renowned children’s author and illustrator Leigh Hobbs wanted to bring the popular character Mr Chicken from book to screen, a Creative Projects Fund grant made it happen.
What is Mr Chicken Goes To Mars?
Mr Chicken Goes To Mars is a 2D animated short children’s film, which I produced in close collaboration with the amazing children’s author and illustrator and former Children’s Laureate, Leigh Hobbs. Leigh wrote and storyboarded the film, animated all the characters and hand-painted the backgrounds and assets. We then directed it together.
How did your Creative Projects Fund grant enable this project?
The funding for us wasn’t just about creating the completed film, it was also about finding a way to combine our creative skills and interests, to experiment, learn, and discover new ways to extend our audience reach, and to also potentially develop a pipeline for generating animated content together in the future.
How did your collaboration with Leigh Hobbs come about?
I’d been working with Leigh on other projects including managing some of his social media, and we also made a web series together during lockdown called ‘That’s Me’ which we offered to kids and teachers for free, to help inspire classroom activities.
During this period of working together, we often talked about our mutual love of animation. Leigh studied animation back in arts school days, and along with some others, I used to run an animation and visual effects (VFX) studio.
We also share a similar sense of humour and tend to agree on what we like and don’t like, in terms of such things as timing, character, pace, tone and sound.
How did your collaboration with Leigh Hobbs come about?
I’d been working with Leigh on other projects including managing some of his social media, and we also made a web series together during lockdown called ‘That’s Me’ which we offered to kids and teachers for free, to help inspire classroom activities.
During this period of working together, we often talked about our mutual love of animation. Leigh studied animation back in arts school days, and along with some others, I used to run an animation and visual effects (VFX) studio.
We also share a similar sense of humour and tend to agree on what we like and don’t like, in terms of such things as timing, character, pace, tone and sound.
And how did Mr Chicken come to life?
Leigh was in the process of writing and illustrating his newest children’s book at the time: ‘Mr Chicken Goes to Mars’ (published by Allen & Unwin) and so I was witnessing the creation of his wonderful paintings as they evolved.
“If I could raise some modest funds”, I suggested to him, “then we could pay for someone who is experienced in using some simple animation software to help guide you through animating and exporting the characters, and if we map out the backgrounds and assets we need, then you can hand paint everything and I can put it all together with some VFX and motion design help. Then all we’ll need is a great soundtrack!”
So I applied for the Creative Projects Fund grant for $20k, based on a loose and simple story concept by Leigh, that we thought would go hand-in-hand with the book, but wasn’t a literal adaptation of the book.
When did Mr Chicken premiere and what has been the reaction so far?
Mr Chicken Goes to Mars premiered at Flickerfest 2024 in January and has gone on to enjoy a fantastic film festival run so far. We’ve won more than a few awards and the film is still being programmed and invited to festivals all over the world. Audience feedback has been absolutely fantastic.
Leigh and I adore watching the film play with audiences; there’s always plenty of laughter and smiles! The most common response we hear from the mouths of three, four or five year olds as soon as the film finishes, is probably the word: ‘Again!’. We love that!
Katrina’s company Cherry Hands Media received a Creative Projects Fund grant in 2022. Watch a trailer for Mr Chicken Goes to Mars here and check out Katrina and Leigh’s work on their socials.