Happy Christmas! Let's have a look at Dave Mullins' film, co-written with Sean Ono Lennon, which won Best Animated Short Film at the 2024 Oscars. We discuss the animation techniques, including use of the Unreal Engine, and talk about how John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Christmas song Happy Xmas (War Is Over) came about in 1971, and how it came to be used in the film.

• Watch the film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W68-XaFepOg
• We made a donation to the War Child charity for this episode, which you can too if you'd like: https://www.warchild.org.uk/donate-war-is-over-film
• The "making of" short documentary piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADIePh3JR40
• Yoko Ono's 1966 piece, Play It By Trust: https://www.imaginepeace.com/archives/24764
• Dave Mullins' Pixar short, Lou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIL0vSNx8Xg
• The Toy Story 3 scene in which the characters accept and wait for their death: https://youtu.be/Hg2DBQNvLBQ
• An article about the auction of the 1969 postcard John and Yoko sent UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-61174089

The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:

• Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod
• Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/beatlesfilmspod.bsky.social
• YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
• Threads https://www.threads.net/@beatlesfilmspod
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.