The Gruffalo

The Gruffalo is a children's book by writer and playwright Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, that tells the story of a mouse, the protagonist of the book, taking a walk in a European forest. The book has sold over 13 million copies, has won several prizes for children's literature, and has been developed into plays on both the West End and Broadway.

The Gruffalo was initially published in 1999 in the United Kingdom by Macmillan Children's Books (ISBN 0-333-71093-2) as a 32-page hardback edition, was followed six months later by a paperback edition, and subsequently by a small-format board book edition. It was penned for readers aged three to seven, and is about 700 words long. It is written in rhyming couplets, featuring repetitive verse with minor variance.

Plot

The protagonist of The Gruffalo is a mouse. The story of the mouse's walk through the woods unfolds in two phases; in both, the mouse uses cunning to evade danger.

On his way the mouse encounters several dangerous animals (a fox, an owl, and a snake). Each of these animals, clearly intending to eat the mouse, invites him back to their home for a meal. The cunning mouse declines each offer. To dissuade further advances, he tells each animal that he has plans to dine with his friend, a gruffalo, a monster-like hybrid that's half grizzly bear and half buffalo, whose favourite food happens to be the relevant animal, and describes the features of the gruffalo's monstrous anatomy. Frightened that the gruffalo might eat it, each animal flees. Knowing the gruffalo to be fictional, the mouse gloats thus:

The Gruffalo (film)

The Gruffalo is a 2009 British-German short computer animated TV film based on the picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

Directed by Jakob Schuh and Max Lang, the film was produced by Michael Rose and Martin Pope of Magic Light Pictures, London, in association with the award winning Studio Soi in Ludwigsburg, Germany, who developed and created the film.

The cast includes Helena Bonham Carter, Rob Brydon, Robbie Coltrane, James Corden, John Hurt and Tom Wilkinson.

9.8 million people watched the UK premiere on BBC One, Friday 25 December 2009 and the film went on to receive both an Academy Award and a BAFTA nomination. It was screened in US theaters, distributed by Kidtoon Films. In December 2012, the film and its sequel The Gruffalo's Child premiered on television in the United States on PBS Kids Sprout.

Plot

A mother red squirrel tells a story to her son and daughter about a mouse who takes a walk through the woods in search of a nut. Encountering three predators who all wish to eat him - first a fox, then an owl, then a snake - the plucky mouse uses his wits to survive. He lies to each one that he is meeting a monster with terrible features (calling his imaginary creature a ‘Gruffalo’), says that its favourite food is whichever animal he is speaking to at the time, and that he is meeting the Gruffalo "right here". Each predator then panics and runs away.