GranPa et Zoé: Mission Light, our latest project

Three years after the release of Lucia, here’s our latest project: Granpa & Zoé Mission Light!

Electromagnetism and space travel

It’s the story of an old koala bear and a young dingo who are brought together to save the light. Yes, when you put it like that, the concept may sound far-fetched. But it hides a film in which we’ve put everything we love: scientific content, tongue-in-cheek humour, endearing characters, spaceships and nods to our favourite films.

How did we manage to make a film that looks so much like us? The answer is simple: we didn’t commission it, we created it entirely ourselves. We are both directors and co-producers. It’s a first for us. And let’s be frank: we’re proud of the result. So we’re off to a great start, building a catalogue that we hope will grow over the years.

Let’s introduce ourselves

A retired scientist, GranPa spends his old age fishing, stuffing his face with eucalyptus sticks and talking for hours about the mysteries of the universe. Yes, he’s passionate about astrophysics – what better way to talk about light? – but he’s also very impulsive, and a bit of a scatterbrain. Two traits that don’t mix well, as you might guess. His passionate impulses often get him into uncomfortable situations. But it’s always with a dry sense of humour that he gets out of them. GrandPa may repeat that he wants to take it easy on his ranch, but he’s still very enthusiastic when adventure knocks on his door. Proof that he’s not that keen on retirement.

Meet Bogbob. A teenage alien who has found no better occupation than to harm our planet. An old enemy of GranPa’s, we can imagine past confrontations, desires for revenge never satisfied, a long list of thwarted plans. These two will never love each other. Perhaps it’s a generational mismatch, because at his age Bogbog is in the throes of an adolescent crisis. He spends his time geekering and talking back to his parents (too lax in our opinion). All this makes Bogbog a totally ungrateful character, with no empathy for living species. He carries out his attacks from his bedroom, on his keyboard. But there’s nothing Machiavellian about Bogbog – he’s not intelligent enough to be, he just wants to get on with the game. Opposing his plans is like switching off your console in the middle of a game. You’re sure to piss him off even more.

PS: don’t take this as a serious dig at gamers, because at 3D emotions, we’re gamers too. And not just a little! With Bogbog, we’ve made a bit of a caricature of ourselves.

Light, action!

Light is essential in astronomy, but it is rarely the subject of educational films.

We could not observe the stars without it, nor understand them without the information it contains. It gives us the composition, distance and movements of the stars. It is therefore the raw material of astronomers.

This is something that the public is perhaps unaware of, or does not fully appreciate. Nor do they imagine that the study of light could be the source of major discoveries.

But that’s not the whole story. The interesting thing about light is that it combines many things. Understanding its nature allows us to understand, among other things, colours, why the sun heats and illuminates us, and what infrared and ultraviolet light are.

Light is a surprising subject, because it allows us to make the connection between things we thought were foreign to each other. For example, it’s always surprising to learn that microwaves and light are the same thing, or that our eyes only perceive part of light, in the form of colours, and that a large part remains invisible to us.

It’s this astonishment that we wanted to convey.

Our approach to popularisation

Popularising science in a documentary is one thing – you can talk straight about it. In a story, it’s quite another. The scientific act must have a raison d’être.

All the twists and turns must naturally revolve around the subject. Starting with the trigger for the adventure. Light is both the goal of the characters, who are trying to save it, and the means to achieve it, because they need to understand it in order to move forward.

We conceived Granpa & Zoé as a two-stage learning experience. The beginning calmly introduces the important scientific concepts. Then the adventure gives them the opportunity to put them into practice.
The space voyage and the final tests serve as a reminder of what has been said, but in the form of phenomena to be understood and puzzles to be solved.

The biggest challenge, however, was to keep it fun and educational at the same time. How, for example, do you tackle the concepts of the geometry of light in a way that is still enjoyable for the audience? The solution lay in the writing and directing: science, yes, but motivated by pleasant narrative challenges, and with that, endearing characters, visual gags, good words and, above all, rhythm!

Data sheet

Duration: 28 min

Format : Fisheye

Versions :

• 4k
• 6k
• 8k
• 4k relief
• 6k relief
• 8k relief

TargetAudience: 7-12 ans

Language: en version anglaise et française

Exclusive Distributor : RSA Cosmos