Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
I’m starting off with sharing what I saw on Christmas TV with ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’. This is the animated adaptation of the children’s picture book by Judith Kerr, who sadly passed away this year. I had to see ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’ on Channel 4 and I wasn’t disappointed by it at all! 🙂
I used to read ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’ when I was a little boy at school. The book was published in 1968. I don’t have vivid recollections of the book, but I recall the charming artwork featured in it by Judith Kerr. I had to watch the animated adaptation on TV and relieve my childhood.
I hoped for ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’ animated adaptation to be something like ‘The Snowman’ and ‘The Snowman and the Snowdog’ that I watched on TV. Thankfully it had a similar artistic style to the animation with it being fantastically hand-drawn and having actors the voicing the characters.
The story is about a little girl called Sophie. She and her mummy receive a visit from a talking tiger who’s come over for tea. The Tiger doesn’t eat Sophie and her mummy. Instead he enjoys having cakes, sandwiches and guzzling tea from a teapot. The story itself is charming and whimsical indeed.
Lasting for about 30 minutes, this animated adaptation dramatised by Joanna Harrison is faithful to the original book by Judith Kerr. Even Judith Kerr gave approval of the animation style before she died. It was lovely to watch this story as it featured some very amusing laugh-out-loud moments in it.
The Tiger, voiced by David Oyelowo (who’s going to be in ‘Peter Rabbit 2’ in 2020), is very funny to watch in this animated story. I often wondered whether he would eat Sophie and her mummy. Instead he ends up greedy, eating all of the food and drinking all of the tea in the house. So greedy!!!
Yet the Tiger is quite polite and charming in the story, especially befriending Sophie at some points. I’m not sure where the Tiger came from and why he specifically wanted tea at Sophie and her mummy’s house. But it’s a children’s story and I shouldn’t question it. It does remain quite charming. 😀
The rest of the voice cast is equally good in this animated special. The story is narrated by David Walliams of ‘Little Britain’ fame. There’s Sophie voiced by Clara Ross; Sophie’s daddy voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch (Yes! Him!) and there’s Sophie’s mummy who is voiced by Tamsin Grieg here.
The animated special also features a special musical number. I’m sure it wasn’t in the original book. 😀 The song is called ‘Hey Tiger’ and is performed by Robbie Williams. The song matches with the animation when it goes into a surreal, dream-like sequence. I’m sure that wasn’t in the book either. 🙂
I liked how the story ended with the Tiger saying “Thank you” to Sophie and her mummy for the tea. At least he was polite. I’m relieved nothing bad happened to Sophie and her mummy when the Tiger came to tea. Even when Sophie tries to roar and the Tiger roars in her face, nothing bad happens! 😀
In the special, my Mum suspected the stripy orange cat at the start and at the end was the Tiger all along. It’s not confirmed, but I’m sure she’s right. It even looks like a Tiger. The story concludes with Sophie; her mummy and her daddy going to a cafe. Next day, Sophie and mummy get more food. 😀
‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’ animated adaptation is great! I enjoyed every minute of it! It was lovely to see on Christmas Eve via Channel 4. It remains faithful to the original book by Judith Kerr and honours her memory. I loved the whimsical funny moments featured throughout it. It’s superb!
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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