Richard Curtis calls That Christmas 'most special' film he's worked on

Watch: Richard Curtis and Simon Otto discuss That Christmas

Richard Curtis is almost synonymous with Christmas, and in particular Christmas movies. So many of the films he either wrote or directed are celebrated and re-watched time and again during the festive season, but the writer tells Yahoo UK his new film That Christmas is "one of the most special" he's worked on.

The Love Actually creator penned the festive animated film for Netflix alongside Peter Souter, with How to Train Your Dragon's head of character animation Simon Otto taking directing duties for the first time. It follows a group of kids who are tasked with saving Christmas after calamities befall their seaside town one after the other, and for Curtis the experience has surpassed other films he's worked on before it.

"It was lovely this late in my career to be doing something so new," Curtis tells Yahoo UK. "I'm so used to the processes of live action movies, you cast it, then you shoot it, then you try and fix it in the edit.

"We really loved the process of developing what the characters look like [in That Christmas], and then actually almost finishing the movie and then starting the movie all over again. and being able to add things. It's been a completely new, very long experience, with some extremely nice people, so it's been one of the most special films I've ever worked on."

Otto adds that he felt "extremely privileged" to work on the film with Curtis and develop the story he co-wrote with Souter for the big screen.

He explains: "I got to do something that feels so original, it's completely different than what I would have made previously. It's a multi-threaded storyline, it's a Christmas movie.

"It's a Richard Curtis written film, so when that idea and opportunity came up, I didn't have to think twice and it's been such a wonderful journey for the last four years, much longer than [Richard] thought, but it was really special."

Giving voice to the narrative

The movie has a stellar cast behind it, including Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, Bill Nighy, Rhys Darby and Brian Cox as Santa Claus. Shaw and Darby also spoke with Yahoo UK about the experience of making the film, and shared their delight at playing characters as memorable as teacher Ms Trapper and optimistic (almost to a fault) parent Mr McNutt.

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Shaw says: "I don't do many animated films and there aren't that many that get made actually —it's a phenomenon that they get made as they take such a long time. So I was very pleased to be asked to play Ms Trapper, I think I would have done anything actually in the film! But luckily I got to do this wonderful part and so I was very pleased."

"Richard definitely had me in mind for this person," Darby adds. "I think because he's a little naive, optimistic and he brings a much needed joy to any situation, even when you're in a stressful predicament, which they always end up in.

"I have a friend myself who brings that similar warmth no matter what's going on, he's like a walking hug, and I think in this day and age it's nice to have a friend like that, it's important. So I was really chuffed to be able to play this little optimistic guy."

What Shaw enjoyed most was the way in which That Christmas approached difficult subjects like grief, parenthood, and the importance of community over the course of the narrative. The film's examination of different kinds of families, like Danny and his mum Mrs Williams (Whittaker) who raises him alone while balancing the demands of her work as a carer is another thing Shaw appreciates.

She says: "Nobody is entirely comfortable in their skin, because we either have a present or a past that is gnawing at our happiness. So I think the film, and the book, has a very good story about it. It's much more healing, I think, for audiences to see something about ill-ease that then has moments of happiness, rather than some blanket version of saccharine happiness. So it's a very good story."

A stellar directorial debut

That Christmas is Otto's directorial debut after working for years with DreamWorks animation, where he has worked as an animator for films like Prince of Egypt and The Road to El Dorado, and later the head of character animation and story artist for the How To Train Your Dragon films.

But Otto found the process of directing "very similar" to his roles in other projects: "When I work in a film, as an animator or story artist or director I'm diving really deep, it's all about the research. It's all about understanding what you're making and understanding the world.

"So whether you're researching cats and dogs for a black dragon in How To Train Your Dragon, or researching what Suffolk looks like for That Christmas... it's about finding truth in that, finding who they are and how they work, and one of the critical questions I always ask is what makes them entertaining? Like what makes you want to watch this little boy who's alone at home waiting for his dad to arrive only communicating with his mom via post-it notes?

"What does that feel like in real world? And how do we make it fun to watch? So in a way, it's very similar, except it's not a dragon. In this case, it's a little boy, or a a lonely teacher, at Christmas. I didn't think of it as a Christmas movie, I thought of it as a movie that is in the vein of Richard Curtis's films that happens to take place at Christmas."

Otto's approach to directing was something that Shaw and Darby connected well with, as the latter expressed: "He was very professional, he's got so much experience, he made it easy. Even though I was in an international situation, I was doing a lot of my recording from New Zealand and I did some in LA, he just made it easy."

Shaw concurs, adding: "[He's] just fantastic. Simon is so on it, so enthusiastic, so positive, so accurate. So inventive that and very, very conscientious. We worked very hard at these sections, they may seem very fluent but we recorded it separately. When I watched the film this week, I thought my goodness this is just magnificent... so it's wonderful to see the characters coming together and how they share a tone.

"Simon has done all that, but they've worked endlessly —Simon and his team— to make this as good as it is and it really has got a depth of field that is not necessarily always in animated films. So it was fantastic being with him."

That Christmas premieres in UK cinemas on Friday 29 November, and it will be released on Netflix on Wednesday 4 December.