WATCH: New Charity Animation ‘The Elephant in the Room’ Shines a Light on School Holiday Poverty in the UK
Skwigly
Save The Children’s imaginative new animated short film uses the story of an elephant to highlight the challenges facing one in eight UK families during the summer holidays.
The animation is part of the charity’s national campaign to raise awareness of summer holiday poverty and to shine a light on resources available for families struggling outside of term-time, with a clear message that poverty no longer needs to be the elephant in the room.
Recent polling from the charity found one in eight (14%) families across the country are struggling to afford even basic summer essentials such as sun-cream and sunhats for their children this year, with 88 per cent of parents admitting to feeling financial and emotional pressure during the school holidays. Three in five say it is financially the hardest time of year, beating even Christmas.
Created by illustrator Alice Bowsher at Grand Matter, and bought to life by animators at Plastic Horse, the 90 second animation is voiced by actor Save the Children supporter Himesh Patel narrating the viewpoint of a child worrying about having ‘no stories to tell or clothes to wear’ when he goes back to school after the school holidays.
Dorcas Brown, Co-Founder of Grand Matter, said:
Animation and illustration have such a unique power to connect and inspire, often telling the difficult stories other mediums can’t. Save The Children came to us with a truly wonderful script, with an important message that deserves to be handled sensitively but with confidence. The film explores identifiable everyday family scenarios using a playful visual style and an ever-growing elephant in the room, inspiring understanding of the simple truths without alienating.
Illustrator Alice Bowsher, added:
I thought a lot about 90s children’s cartoons when working on this project. The sort of things you would watch when you got home from school, Sesame Street, Arthur and Hey Arnold! I feel the tone of these cartoons lends itself well to this campaign, focusing on how families might struggle to get by when children are off school during the holidays.
My illustrations started out as roughs on the iPad. Working this way allows me to get ideas down quickly, then refine them. Once they’re refined and finalised, I draw them up with brush and ink. I keep the layers for each scene separate, so the characters and background aren’t all one thing. Once they’re scanned in, I send the drawings to Plastic Horse, who work their animation magic.
Plastic Horse animators, said:
It was such a great opportunity to be involved in this campaign. As parents ourselves, we can see just how vital STC’s work is. We’ve worked with Alice many times over the years, so animating her illustrations feels like second nature to us now. We begin by cutting up her illustrations in Photoshop and then use After Effects to manipulate them into what you see on screen. Animation can often be a meticulous process, but Alice’s illustrations are so full of character and charm that they make every project an enjoyable one to work on.
Himesh Patel (Image provided by Save The Children)
Lending his support and voice to the charity campaign, narrator, actor and Save The Children supporter, Himesh Patel, said:.
‘As a father of two young girls, their health and happiness is the most important thing to me. I wanted to support Save The Children’s summer holiday campaign to help draw attention to the number of children that will be going without food or activities this summer.
By voicing The Elephant in the Room, I hope it helps quash any stigma felt by families that find themselves struggling this summer and shows that there are resources available to help bridge the summer holiday gap.
Dan Paskins, Save the Children’s Executive Director for UK Impact, said:
Whilst 71% of parents said their children associate the school holidays with excitement and 66% with joy, only 16% said they can provide their child with a similar summer experience to the one they had when they were young.
This film aims to reflect the experiences of thousands of families across the UK faced with summer holiday poverty right now. Four million children are growing up in poverty this summer, we want them to know they are not alone and that poverty no longer needs to be the elephant in the room.
Save the Children has been working directly with families and communities across the UK, making sure children don’t miss out on childhood because of poverty. Through our grants programme, we’ve delivered more than 10,500 grants reaching over 21,000 children, working alongside more than 120 trusted local partner organisations in 30 communities across the UK.