First Look Artwork for ‘Boxen: The Childhood Chronicles of C.S. Lewis’ Animated Show

Vincent Seiber’s production company, Midnight Road—one of the companies behind Netflix’s upcoming Narnia adaptations—has quietly updated its website to include early artwork for a different project: Boxen: The Childhood Chronicles of C.S. Lewis.

Developed by Chalkdust Animation Studios, Boxen is set to be a serialized animated adaptation of the very first stories written by C.S. Lewis. Long before Narnia, Lewis and his older brother Warnie began inventing stories of talking animals and rival kingdoms.

First published posthumously in 1985, Boxen collected many of these childhood tales, which Lewis and his brother began crafting between the ages of 8 and 15. They created a detailed world full of kingdoms with their own cultures, economies and traditions— though Lewis would later describe it as lacking “the least hint of wonder […] there was no poetry, even no romance, in it.”

The new images, presumably part of the show’s initial concept drawings, show key artwork, world map and character profiles.

The series is being developed for a target audience of 4 to 7 year olds, with a visual style designed to feel like a pop-up storybook. In a profile with Variety last year, the project was described as:

Aesthetically, “Boxen” is being developed to feel like a kids’ pop-up book, with each shot feeling layered. Backgrounds will look like matte paintings, midgrounds will feature hybrid 2D/CG props and sets, and the characters in the foreground will be animated in crisp CG with a classic storybook look.”

Production of Boxen will feature a mix of traditional animation tools, motion capture and cutting-edge software. According to Executive Producer Jared Mass, the ambition behind Boxen is large-scale.

In terms of scope, Mass says his artists are thinking on a scale similar to Nickelodeon’s “Avatar the Last Airbender.” “That show is for older kids, but in terms of the scale of the world, it’s a good comparison,” he says. “In ‘Boxen,’ there are 13 provinces, and they’re all geographically distinct, but we want to make sure they all feel cohesive.”

Mass hopes that the show “[…] stands for something, is entertaining, and meets the high standards of C.S. Lewis’s work”. 

According to Midnight Road’s website, no director or distributor has signed onto the project yet. However, financing for season one has already been secured through Noble Road Media.

What do you think of Boxen’s early concept art? Is this a project that interests you? Check out our Patreon-exclusive podcast, where Glumpuddle and Doom delve into the appeal of Boxen, explore the chances of Lewis being featured as a character, and speculate on Netflix’s potential involvement in distributing the series.