THE LOST THING
The Lost Thing is a delightful book by Shaun Tan, an award winning Australian author and illustrator. Published in 2000 by Thomas C Lothian, it is a fantasy story about a boy who comes upon a bizarre but benign creature at the beach while hunting for bottle tops for his collection.
The story was developed over about a year and Tan says that the boy is loosely based on himself beach-combing near his Western Australian childhood home. The plot involves the boy’s attempts to figure out what to do with the creature which include visiting fancifully named government departments like the “Department Of Odds & Ends.” Classic themes such as the need to belong, alienation and bureaucratic indifference are explored as the story moves towards its intriguing conclusion.
In 2010 The Lost Thing was adapted into a short animated film which was co-directed by Tan and Andrew Ruhemann and narrated by actor/comic Tim Minchin, and at the 2011 Academy Awards it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. The Oscar win is all the more impressive as The Lost Thing’s main competitor was an adaptation of The Gruffalo, which not only was a best selling children’s book but boasted the star power of actors Robbie Coltrane, Helena Bonham Carter and John Hurt.
Rewind a little to 2006 and I had the good fortune to attend the Byron Bay Writer’s Festival where Shaun Tan was a featured speaker. Both myself and my daughter were fans of his work and so I lined up with many others to have a copy of The Lost Thing signed by the author. Fortuitously, I had chosen that book totally at random from the 5 or 6 Tan titles that were available at the festival bookstore.
Shaun Tan turned out to be every bit as charming as his work suggests he would be. Not only did he sign the flyleaf, but also embossed it with his very impressive DEPARTMENT OF ODDS & ENDS rubber stamp and a very cool sketch of the book’s central character giving me a wave and a hello!
What price on eBay you may ask? Well, I’m here to tell you that you can continue to wonder, because that’s not going to happen.
Michael D Hansen - 24 July 2013
Go here http://www.acmi.net.au/shaun-tan-lost-thing.aspx for details of an ACMI exhibition dealing with the transition from book to film.
ADDITIONAL STUFF - Went to the ACMI exhibition on Saturday afternoon with my daughter and it was an absolute treat. All kinds of audio visual presentations, prints of sketches, colour palettes, fabric samples for textures, and a fascinating insight into the intricacies of the animation process, PLUS a tiny alcove where you can watch the Grammy winning film. Shaun Tan will also be featured at The Melbourne Writer's Festival (22 Aug - 1 Sept).
MDH - 28 July 2013
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