In this film we meet Charlotte, a little girl who can’t be outside in sunlight and has to spend her life living in the shadows. One day she meets a professor who tells her she has an extremely rare disease called EPP, which causes her skin to burn and hurt if she’s exposed to light. After much thinking and researching, he creates a special cosmetic sunscreen just for her, which allows her to play in the light, just like all the other kids.

EPP is an extremely rare skin disease triggered by the blue light in the sun’s rays. It affects fewer than 10 000 people, globally. Diagnosed at 2, Charlotte was condemned to a life in the dark as there is no cure. But her parents refused to give up and contacted NIVEA, who promised to help. After researching EPP, a special cosmetic sunscreen was created, just for Charlotte. While not a cure, the bespoke cream, allows her to be outside burn and pain free. As skincare experts, NIVEA wants consumers to believe in their skin, no matter who they are. The success of Charlotte’s Cream formed the inspiration for a brand campaign. The brief was to raise awareness of EPP to a global audience and demonstrate NIVEA’s leading skincare expertise.

The Shadow Jumper is a 2D digital animation hand-drawn with Photoshop and then animated with TVPAINT. The animators used a palette of NIVEA brand colours to contrast the worlds of light and shadow that little Charlotte could not transcend. The art direction utilised these very contrasting colours of yellow and blue to highlight this very Manichean picture between light and darkness but still created a joyful and playful tone.

This close collaboration between the director and the illustrator resulted in a moving and uplifting narrative about a very serious disease, creating empathetic characters and bringing a bit of magic and mystery to a very clinical process. We wanted to tell a positive story from a child’s perspective, about overcoming a serious challenge in her life with a ground-breaking, almost magical product.