The European Union is big.
And, in 2004, it got even bigger .
That said, what better way to educate children about the EU than through the voice of their peers – other real European schoolchildren?
The Union may have been expanding, but we decided to ask smaller people for help in explaining these big ideas.
That is what Little Europeans is all about. Using an ‘edutainment’ style animated film, we journey around the member states outlining key information about each country along the way in a simple yet engaging manner.
In-depth research amongst the target audience of primary school children was required in order to ensure the production was effective. We asked for schoolchildren’s insights and understandings of the history, role and objectives of the EU through several rounds of interviews. Using this information, we could then produce brief but informative videos that helped other children to understand what the EU was actually about.
Endorsed and used by the European Commission, this DVD engages with its young audience by delivering the message in a snappy and entertaining series of 1 minute animated modules per country.
Animo collaborated with Academy Award nominated animators Brown Bag Films to realise our vision for Little Europeans. We managed to utilise Brown Bag’s characteristic technique of using real-life children’s dialogue as voiceovers to their hand drawn characters to generate an optimal means of expressing child-friendly examples of the wisdom of EU founders.
