Experiencing Interruptions?

The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead & Roundhead

When their home is destroyed, Boxhead & Roundhead must head to the big city to battle red tape, rent, rats and the rat race to get it back.
Art and industry, friendship and foul play are all in the mix in this, the most stressful adventure of all.

  • Elliot Cowan
    Director
  • Elliot Cowan
    Writer
  • Richard O'Connor
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Feature
  • Genres:
    road movie, environmental, social commentary, animation
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 11 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2014
  • Production Budget:
    80,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Melbourne International Animation Festival
    Melbourne Australia
    June 20, 2014
    World Premiere
  • Romanian International Film Festival
    Bucharest, Romania
    August 28, 2014
    Romanian Premiere
  • The Portobello Film Festival
    London, UK
    September 13, 2014
    UK Premiere
  • Be There! The Corfu Animation Festival
    Corfu, Greece
    October 19, 2014
  • ReAnimania. The International Animated Film Festival of Yerevan
    Yerevan, Armenia
    October 27, 2014
  • The 18th Japan Media Arts Festival
    Tokyo, Japan
    February 4, 2015
    Japanese Premier
  • Festival International du Film pour Enfants de Montréal
    Montreal, Canada
    February 28, 2015
    Canadian Premiere
  • Big Muddy Film Festival
    Carbondale, Illinois
    February 24, 2015
  • Athens Animfest
    Athens, Greece
    March 26, 2015
    Special Mention
  • Festival International du Film pour Enfants de Montréal
    Montreal, Canada
    February 28, 2015
  • Holland Animation Festival
    Holland Netherlands
    March 18, 2015
    Dutch Premiere
  • Independent Days Filmfest
    Karlsruhe, Germany
    February 22, 2015
    German premiere
  • Crossroads Film Festival
    Jackson, Mississippi
    March 15, 2015
  • CMS International Children's Festival
    Lucknow, India
    April 7, 2015
    Indian Premiere
  • Kecskemet Animation Film Festival
    Kecskemet, Hungary
    June 24, 2015
    Hungary
  • The Golden Kukor International Animation Festival
    Sofia, Bulgaria
    May 12, 2015
    Bulgarian premiere
  • The Pratt Institute
    Brooklyn
    December 16, 2014
  • University of the Arts
    Philadelphia, PA
    September 12, 2014
  • Mercy College
    Manhattan, NY
    October 3, 2014
  • Maryland Institute College of Art
    Baltimore, Maryland
    February 17, 2015
  • Concordia University
    Montreal, Canada
    January 8, 2015
  • PUSH! Film Festival
    Bristol, Tennessee
    June 12, 2015
    Excellence Award
  • Frederick Film Festival
    Frederick, Maryland
    June 26, 2015
  • Festival Of Colors
    Brooklyn, New York
    August 23, 2015
  • I.N.S.A.N.E Animation Film Festival
    Malmo, Sweden
    September 11, 2015
  • Fantoche
    Baden, Switzerland
    October 1, 2015
    Swiss Premiere
  • Indie Earth Animation Festival
    Chennai, India
    June 26, 2015
  • AMFM Festival
    Flagstaff, New Mexico
    August 27, 2015
  • Expotoons International Animation Festival
    Buenos Aires, Argentine
    September 3, 2015
    South American Premiere
    1st Prize, Feature Film Category
  • Animaze - The International Montreal Animation Festival
    Montreal, Canada
    April 16, 2015
  • Tehran Animation Festival
    Tehran, Iran
    March 8, 2015
  • Titletown Film Festival
    Green Bay, Wisconsin
    October 2, 2015
  • Blow Up Arthouse Film Festival
    Chicago
  • South Texas Underground Film Festival
    Corpus Christi, Texas
  • Queens World Film Festival
    Queens, New York
    March 18, 2016
    Queens Premiere
  • Antioch College
    Yellow Springs, Ohio
  • ASIFA East Public Screening
    New York, New York
    January 19, 2016
  • Teeside University
    Teeside, UK
  • Drawtastic
    Seattle, Washington
    April 30, 2016
  • Animex International Festival of Animation and Computer Games
    Middlesbrough, UK
    February 13, 2016
    UK Premiere
  • Animation Dingle
    Dingle, Ireland
    March 18, 2016
    Irish Premiere
  • Trenton Film Festival
    Trenton, New Jersey
    April 1, 2016
  • Ozark Foothills FilmFest
    Locust Grove, Arkasas
    April 9, 2016
  • Albuquerque Film & Music Experience
    Albuquerque, New Mexico
    April 24, 2016
Director Biography - Elliot Cowan

Elliot Cowan was born in Melbourne, Australia then moved to the wilds of Tasmania where he directed thousands of television commercials for regional television. In 2006 he left for London where he mostly worked with UIi Meyer animation. While in London he began animating the award winning Boxhead and Roundhead shorts. Now he lives in New York with all kinds of grown up stuff like a wife and child and a green card.
He teaches at The Pratt Institute, Mercy College, The University of the Arts and anywhere else that welcomes grumpy animation professors.
The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead & Roundhead is his first feature and he did almost all of it himself in between teaching, freelance animation gigs and his family.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Boxhead and Roundhead were created in 2005 as a reaction to a proliferation of sweet and cuddly children’s picture books.

Influenced by the works of Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson, director Elliot Cowan envisioned a world where the protagonists were never quite safe, never quite comfortable and never sure what was hiding around the next corner –much like everyday life in the 21st Century.

The first five of the original nine Boxhead & Roundhead shorts were animated in a dingy flat in London. Produced at the coffee table. The final four were done after Elliot moved to New York and the opportunity to create a feature rose.

Keen to move forward with new ideas, dialogue and colour were added (the shorts are mostly silent and black and white) and a feature length story hatched.

Director Elliot Cowan completed the majority of the work himself with help from talent culled from his classrooms at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute and The University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Australian cult band The Gadflys offered their music catalogue and veteran production designer Neil Campbell Ross (The Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) produced a series of incredible images that gives the film a unique look.

Throughout the production the most important thing was to maintain the relationship between the leads, BH & RH. It is very easy in animation to fall into a Ren and Stimpy styled friendship - a dumb one and an angry one.

B&R needed to be more than that. A pair who have gone through hardship and adversity and who compliment each other in such a way that although they are distinct characters they need one another to survive.