A small mammal searches for hope as she makes her way across a bombed-out city in the new animated short Little Shrew, set to Kate Bush’s song “Snowflake,” from her 2011 album Fifty Words for Snow. The lovingly hand-crafted short, which screens at the Woodstock Film Festival (on Saturday Oct. 18 at 4:30 p.m.) also features Bush’s son Albert (who was 12 at the time) singing the roll of a falling snowflake. Bush wrote and directed the animated black-and-white short, storyboarded from her own sketches and illustrations by Jim Kay, to raise money for children impacted by war (through the charity War Child). The project was produced by London-based animation studio, Inkubus.
The world-renowned singer/songwriter (Wuthering Heights, Running Up That Hill) and animation fan was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about her latest creative project in this exclusive interview:
Animag: Congratulations on your amazing animated short, which is debuting in festivals around the world. Can you tell us a little bit about how you decided to embark on this project?
Kate Bush: It wasn’t long after the invasion of Ukraine when I decided I really wanted to make a creative anti-war statement. I immediately felt that an animation would allow me to do this in the most imaginative way. I was particularly moved by how tragic it was that the children were being caught up in this terrible war. Originally my thoughts were to feature the lead character as a human little girl, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that an animal would be more likely to touch people.
It’s a terrible thing to say, but we’re all becoming de-sensitized to how people are being treated in visual media, especially in film. Just look at modern horror movies and then compare them to how people respond when a dog is hurt or injured in a movie. All people want to know is – “…Is the dog okay?”
I started to think about the most vulnerable creature I could think of and I decided to go for a tiny little shrew. Coincidentally, one of the tiniest is a Ukranian pygmy shrew, so I went for that. I imagined her as a little girl. I knew I wanted it to look hand-drawn — not CGI, and it had to be in black and white..
You have experimented with animation before (Elder Falls at Lake Tahoe, Wild Man) What do you love about creating art in this medium?
I’ve really loved animation ever since I saw my first Disney animation in the cinema. When I was a little girl that was the only way to see a Disney Film. They were never shown on TV and you could only see whichever film was doing the ’rounds’. This had the effect of making them very special. Something precious. I guess that feeling of them being special has stuck. In the context of Little Shrew, animation was the perfect medium – allowing us to create a tiny little creature who could travel through exactly the environment I imagined. It would never have had the same hit in live action. That’s the beauty of animation…anything and everything is possible.
What are some of your favorite animated shorts and movies, the ones that left a deep impression on you?
Like I said, the magic of those early Disney movies never really goes away. Snow White, Dumbo, The Jungle Book have especially stayed with me. I’d have to add Pixar’s Ratatouille and Monsters Inc. to the list. I also love Allegro non Troppo and Belleville Rendez-Vous (The Triplets of Belleville).
How did you decide which song to accompany the anti-war message of the short and why?
When I was trying to think of what the music would be, “Snowflake” just popped into my head and I thought – yeah, that could work. I knew we’d have to edit it down. The original track ran at over seven minutes and as animation is a very expensive medium, I knew it would need to be no more than three or four minutes long. I think the main reason I thought of that track is because the lead vocal was sung by my son when he was a little boy, so the presence of a little child is already center stage.
I felt the vulnerability of a young boy’s descant voice could work very well as the companion to the poor little shrew. They both have a tenderness about them.
As you set out to realize your vision for the short, what was your biggest challenge?
Trying to achieve an emotional hit. You’re never really sure until the piece is finished. I hope the audience feels moved when they see it.
I believe you used actual photographs by a Ukrainian war photographer as background for the short?
Absolutely! Maksim Levin’s photo was there right from the very beginning in my original storyboard. I was looking for a photo that could ’step out’ of the animation and show, just for a moment, what the real war was like. The idea was that up until that moment, we wouldn’t really know where we were. All the environments were from the shrew’s POV – like she was moving through a land of the giants. We know it’s a devastated place, but we never see the scale of it until the photo is revealed. I hoped that would add drama to the level of destruction of the war-torn city.
I found the photo online and thought it was incredibly powerful. I didn’t know anything at all about the photographer until we applied for clearance to use the photo in the film. Then we found out that Maksim had actually died just a couple of months after taking the photo. He’d been shot by Russian soldiers. It was such a shock. It really brought home the reality of the horror the Ukrainians are going through. It gave the use of the photo even more meaning. It’s such an important part of ‘Little Shrew’. It’s the centerpiece, really. I hope that he would’ve been happy for his incredibly powerful photo to be used by us.
Your music has always inspired hope and the exploration of a spiritual world beyond this material one. What is your take on the sorry state of the world in 2025? What gives you hope?
Thank you very much. what a really lovely thing to say. I guess it’s hard not to feel that this is the most frightening time I’ve ever known. Not just because of the wars, the reckless and arrogant attitudes of many of the world’s leaders, but also our fragility, both physically and mentally. I feel we’re losing our resilience .I worry how social media is encouraging people to become more narcissistic. It’s also making people anxious. What gives me hope are the wonderful people like the doctors who work in the middle of war zones, children who are finding ways they might be able to save the planet… As long as people’s hearts can still be touched, then there is hope. Then they can be moved to act in a way that could really make a difference.
Little Shrew was written and directed by Kate Bush. Animation was produced by Inkubus. Animation Producer: Gayle Martin; compositor: Lorenzo Cenci Di Bello; Little Shrew animation: Nicolette Van Gendt; Hope and drone animation: James Gifford; concept artwork: Jim Kay; Little Shrew rendering: Alan Henry; background artwork: Nicolas Loudot; photo: Maksim Levin; lead vocal: Albert McIntosh. You can learn more about the short and donate to the War Child charity here.
Little Shrew will screen as part of the rich animated shorts program of this year’s Woodstock Film Festival on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 4 p.m.
