Animation studio Aardman has teamed up with the global campaign, "Malaria Must Die So Millions Can Live," to raise awareness of the deadly history of malaria and call upon leaders to “unite and fight” the disease that takes the life of a child every two minutes.

Voiced by actor Hugh Laurie, the animated piece takes viewers through the history of the disease from the first recorded case in Ancient China–4,718 years ago–to current day. This engaging short film by Aardman also highlights the huge progress that’s been made in the fight against malaria, while reminding us that half the world’s population is still at risk, fighting against the threat of drug resistance.”

This animation for Malaria Must Die continues the tradition of Aardman creating content for charities and not for profit organizations, helping them to communicate complex messages through the medium of animation. Recent projects include “Share the Orange” and “Santa Forgot” for Alzheimer’s Research UK and “Pantosaurus” for the NSPCC.

Danny Capozzi, animation Director at Aardman, said, “We love making films for charities because it gives us the opportunity to use our creativity in a meaningful way beyond simply entertaining. Storytelling through animation can be a powerful tool in helping people to understand complex or difficult subjects and we felt it was important to take a sensitive approach to recounting the history of malaria. We hope that our film achieves this by communicating a difficult message in an accessible way for the Malaria Must Die campaign and helps in the fight against this terrible disease.”

Capozzi added, “Being a film about the history of Malaria, we wanted it to have a vintage 8mm projector feel but with a unique graphic style that would capture the audiences attention. The production of the film was very fluid and organic and we added little gags and funny nuances along the way, becoming richer every day.”

Credits

Client Malaria No More UK Production Aardman Animations, Bristol, UK Danny Capozzi, director; Gareth Owen, producer; Jane Davies, 2D animator; Christopher Bowles, Joe Wood, additional animation; Fernando Lechuga, compositor; Dan Pask, Dominic Pitt, editors. Music Hitpoint Richard Clarke Sound Design Laura Izzard, sound designer; Colin Chipchase, sound designer, dubbing mixer.

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