The campaign was created to promote the reverse camera in the Vauxhall Astra Ultimate. To do that in an unexpected way, we took globally-recognised stories and told them backwards – to show that when things happen in reverse (like when you reverse a car), they don’t always end happily. Each story was told by a different animation company, giving the campaign a deliberately broad and varied visual style – all tied together by the same core idea.

Overall aesthetic design was the most important consideration of each film. Having a campaign with a distinct look for each execution was a fundamental part of our approach – and it began with choosing three different animation houses with very different skillsets and creative styles. However, we worked with each team of animators to arrive at our final aesthetic design in a similar way. Characters were developed over several stages of experimentation, building from a core part of each story to lead us to a style that complimented the narrative while fitting with Vauxhall’s brand: likeable, approachable and enjoyable for everyone. Jack & The Beanstalk’s look was built around Jack himself – a character who we would see go from fully grown to a baby. So his exaggerated features were developed to make him recognisable whatever his age. That aesthetic was then applied to other characters and the world they all inhabit. The Ugly Duckling begins with our hero as a beautiful swan, so an almost heavenly, exaggeratedly elegant style was created, with slender, elongated elements matching the graceful look of a swan. Cinderella, a classic princess story, has an aesthetic rooted in a child’s dollhouse, with stop-motion combining with CGI to bring the dolls to life. Techniques ranged from traditional hand drawings to digital 2D and 3D modelling to model making and set building – involving creatives, visual artists, 3D artists, designers, animators and filmmakers in the UK, Spain and Brazil. The essential approach to each aesthetic, though, was driven by the same desire: to bring the films to life in a way that amplified the idea – while giving the creators the freedom to express it in their own way. In total, the work took more than 5,000 hours to complete.