Film-maker releases 'little match girl' animated movie

Matt Hickinbottom is the writer/director of 'Emily – The Little Match Girl' which he has adapted from the original and much-loved Hans Christen Andersen fairytale.

It premiered at the IMAX at Resorts World NEC on Sunday November 28 before going out on general release the following day.

Emily – The Little Match Girl has gone on general release

The film features the voices of screen stars David Bradley (Harry Potter/Game of Thrones) and Lesley Joseph (Birds of a Feather) as well as Deb Nicholls and Sue Hawkins, of Black Country comedy group The Fizzogs.

The idea for the film originated when Matt was still a college student and he stumbled across the book of the fairytale.

He said: "A book fell off the library shelf and saw this image of a girl striking a match. I flicked through it and suddenly these images and story jumped off the page at me.

“It told of all this magic which was happening to her in what little life she had left.”

Matt was not a trained pianist but sitting at the piano at his family home he wrote a song called “If I Could Wish Upon A Star” which now features in the movie.

It was not until the peak of the pandemic that Matt decided to put his idea for the film into production.

Matt, who has worked on projects for Walt Disney, Sony and other TV and movie channels during his career, said: “We had lot a few people who were close to us and I thought if I am not going to do something with this now it will never get done.

“So, between Christmas 2020 and the New Year, I made the decision that nothing was going to stop me making this movie. I used an amazing 3D animation creator called iClone and am delighted with the result.”

Music from the film is available on CD or download.