A CHRISTMAS CARTOON: War Game (2001)

       “War Game” is an animated war movie based on the famous Christmas Truce of 1914.  It is a faithful rendition of the story told in the children’s novel by Michael Foreman although some characters were added for the film.  The book is very popular and the movie won several awards, including the Children’s Choice Award at  the British Animation Awards.  The movie was a welcome addition to the WWI movie fraternity.

                The movie opens with some British blokes playing one last football (soccer to us Yanks) match before enlisting for a much bigger game.  The soldiers are portrayed as puppets.  This movie is not exactly subtle.  Lord Kitchener literally comes out of the poster to encourage impressionable young men to “play the game”.  Crowds cheer and peers pressure and the main characters say “everyone else is going” to their parents.  So they’re off to the trenches with mother’s sobs ringing in their ears.  The trenches are nicely rendered, as is no man’s land.

                Months pass and it is Christmas time.  On the eve, German’s can be heard singing “Silent Night”.  On the morn a Brit comes out with a football and the fraternization kicks off, literally.  It’s more of a kickabout than a game, but fun is had by all.  Naturally, when the generals find out they are incensed with the thought that fun could coincide with hatred for the enemy and commitment to the war effort.  “There is to be no repeat of this unwarlike activity.”  And there isn’t, as the final scene emphasizes.  The Tommies go over the top following a soccer ball.  With predictable results.

                Clocking in at less than thirty minutes, “War Game” is a nice little movie and it does the service of introducing kids to a semi-famous incident in the Great War.  It is educational in that respect because it accurately renders the legend of the Christmas Truce.  I say “legend” because the incident (actually several similar incidents) is debated by historians.  The evidence for the fraternization comes mainly from letters and memoirs so there could have been some embellishment.  Evidently it did begin with Christmas caroling wafting across no man’s land on Christmas Eve.  Then the next day, some brave Christian soul dared to buck the trend and come out without belligerence.  Others followed and gifts of food, tobacco, and liquor were exchanged.  Tentative hand-shakes were followed by heartfelt hugs.  The soccer story is the cherry on top of the Christmas pudding.  This act of comradeship is referred to in a few primary sources and may have been more than one “game”.  The most heralded version had the Scots squaring off with the Germans.  According to one version, the Scots used the distraction of their kilts being blown by the wind to expose their bare bums to win the match.  Sadly, the movie does not depict this.  Maybe in the future “unrated, adult” edition.

                The animation is interesting.  However, that strength does not overcome the main flaws of the movie.  Even for a movie aimed at children, the plot is trite and very schmaltzy.  I think our current generation of kids who have been weaned on Nick Junior will not be impressed or entertained.  Plus the movie is pretty depressing.  The anti-war trope is better aimed at an adult audience.  Or young men approaching military age.  It is hardly ground-breaking to suggest that the youth of Britain were naïve about war and the powers that be were using them.  The movie deserves some credit for giving children an idea of trench life, but it does not give a realistic account of the Christmas Truce.  Hopefully it encourages research on the subject.

GRADE  =  C

THE BOOK:  War Games by Michael Foreman is a children’s book.  The art work is watercolorish, but effective.  In the book, Freddie and his mates go to war due to peer and crowd pressure.  When they arrive in France, they go through typical soldier jobs which do not include combat until the end.  In the process of covering soldier life, Foreman throws in a lot of facts usually in the form of captions to actual pictures.  The book includes not just the drawings, but also a lot of cool propaganda posters and advertisements.  In this respect the book reads like a docudrama.  This sets it apart from most children’s books.  It also makes it a weird hybrid.  The story is aimed at children, but the facts are above their level.  Without the trivia, the book would be light-weight and frankly, boring.  You don’t really get to know the characters.  The plot is very simplistic, which is natural for a book aimed at children.  You get little of the misery the soldiers went through until the big, depressing finish.  As far as the soccer “match”, it is more of an actual game than the kick-around of the movie.

GRADE  =  C