Save The Children’s touching animated short takes inspiration from kids cartoons to tackle the subject of summer holiday poverty

Although every school in the UK breaks up for a six-week holiday each summer, this time off looks very different for every family. According to Save The Children’s research, three in five parents say it is “financially the hardest time of year”, beating even Christmas – the charity’s new heartfelt short tackles just that. Illustrated by Alice Bowsher and animated by Plastic Horse, the imaginative campaign follows the story of an elephant to highlight the silence around summer holiday poverty and promote the resources the charity offers for families struggling outside of term-time, in order for the subject to ‘no longer be the elephant in the room’.

The touching 90-second animation is voiced by British actor and Save The Children supporter Himesh Patel, narrating the viewpoint of a little boy sharing his concerns about having ‘no stories to tell or clothes to wear’ when he goes back to school after the holidays. Told from the perspective of a child, “the film aims to reflect the experiences of thousands of families across the UK faced with summer holidays right now,” shares Save the Children’s executive director in the UK, Dan Paskin. “Four million children are growing up in poverty this summer, we want them to know they are not alone.”

London-based illustrator Alice Bowsher’s background in large-scale murals, children’s books and colourful character illustrations made her the perfect fit for the commission. Simple and playful, her scenes sensitively draw out everyday family scenarios populated by an ever-growing elephant character in her wonderfully naive visual style. In response to Save The Children’s script, the artist took a lot of inspiration from 90s children’s cartoons to shape the visual narrative: “The sort of things you would watch when you got home from school, Sesame Street, Arthur and Hey Arnold,” she says. “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.”

Starting out as rough digital sketches, once the final drawings were defined with brush and ink, Alice scanned each individual frame in and handed them over to the team at artist-led animation studio Plastic Horse. “We’ve worked with Alice many times over the years, so animating her illustrations feels like second nature to us now,” shares David Gilbert, co-founder of Plastic Horse. “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. It was such a great opportunity to be involved in this campaign,” he ends. “As parents ourselves, we can see just how vital Save The Children’s work is.”

Save the Children is working directly with families and communities across the UK, making sure children don’t miss out on childhood because of poverty. Through its grants programme, the charity has 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.  You can find out more about the charity’s global mission via its website.