How Director Jakob Schuh Turned Best Seller 'Gruffalo' Into Oscar-Nominated Short

4:42 PM PST 2/15/2011 by Noela Hueso

The German helmer didn't realize how beloved the children's tale was until after signing on -- which he says was a good thing.

When German director Jakob Schuh was approached in 2003 by British producer Michael Rose (Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) to direct an animated short film adaptation of The Gruffalo, a best-selling children's book in Europe, he didn't quite realize what a cultural phenomenon it was -- at least among the under-10 set and their parents. Sure, he had seen it prominently on display in the children's section of various bookstores in France and England -- which, as an avid collector of children's books, the animator frequented -- but he had never picked up British author Julia Donaldson's 700-word story about a canny mouse that outwits his predators.