Crafting Intermarché’s Christmas Fairy Tale of a Vegetarian Wolf from Scratch

​For years, Intermarché has held a specific crown in the French advertising landscape. The supermarket chain, alongside its agency Romance, has become synonymous with the ‘Christmas tearjerker’ – mini-movies grounded in realism, centred on human connection. But for 2025, the brand has thrown out its own rulebook. The humans have (mostly) been swapped for woodland creatures, and documentary realism has given way to a painterly storybook world.

The resulting film tells the story of a wolf who, tired of being the villain, swaps his carnivorous cravings for culinary creativity to win friends. To pull off this ambitious hybrid of live action and 3D animation, the agency tapped two production powerhouses: Divine for the live-action bookends, and WIZZ (with directing collective Illogic) for the animated core.

A Bold Hybrid Adventure

For live-action director Nadège Loiseau, the script represented a departure from the brand’s usual style. "The adventure! I had never worked on a hybrid film like this one, mixing live action and animation," she says. "It’s bold and rare, and I definitely wanted to be part of it, just as much as I wanted to contribute to the Intermarché saga, which is very well-established in France and whose every film is eagerly anticipated."

This enthusiasm was mirrored by the animation team at Illogic. "At Illogic, what we love above everything else is storytelling," they say. "So when we read the script, what immediately thrilled us was the ambition to tell a real story – with unique characters and genuine emotion. The theme itself is powerful; it deals with prejudice and tolerance, which is quite rare in advertising."

The Live Action Launchpad

The film uses a classic narrative device to bridge the gap between reality and fantasy. It opens with a young boy scared by a gift from his uncle: a plush wolf toy. To soothe him, the uncle spins a yarn that transports the audience into the animated forest. It’s a story of a wolf learning to adjust to a new diet that will find him less shunned by woodland creature society, after a wise hedgehog presents the novel possibility of vegetarian ingredients and dishes (all of which, handily, you can buy in Intermarché stores).

For Nadège, these bookends were not just functional; they were the emotional anchor. "The challenge was to introduce and conclude the film, meaning we had to quickly establish a context, a believable family, and an emotional connection with the characters in order to create a true launching pad for the animated part – and then stick a smooth landing at the end," she explains.

Achieving this required a specific focus. "The hardest part, but also the most exciting, is always trying to find the right emotion, and what I’m constantly chasing: sincerity," says Nadège.

That sincerity had to be forged in difficult conditions. While the film exudes a wintry cosiness, the shoot was a battle against the elements. "Let’s be honest, shooting in 40°C heat, in a Christmas setting, with a five-year-old child who had never acted before… that was quite a challenge! I loved it," Nadège recalls.

Capucine Charbonnier, executive producer at Divine, stresses how important it was to find that child. “Our mission was to create the emotional anchor of the film. A family you believe in, a bond that resonates, a child capable of carrying it all,” she says. “With Nadège and Ho Casting, we searched long and hard for that mix of fragility and imagination. The day we found our young actor, the film truly took its breath.”

That was a priority. "It was important for Nadège to have a small boy who was really naive and shy,” the EP continues. “Nadège always said it’s the most difficult part when you have to shoot with kids. Because after six years old, they are conscious of the camera. So you’d get a different performance from a boy who is more than six."

Then to help the child actor connect with the fantasy, they created "two physical versions of the little wolf, real, delicate objects, so they would exist both in the boy’s hands and in the animated world of Illogic. A meticulous, almost artisanal task, but essential to the magic."

Hand-Painting a 3D World

Once the uncle begins his tale, the film transitions into a lush, animated forest. "For this project, the artistic direction was absolutely crucial," explain the directors at Illogic. "Since it’s an uncle telling a story to his nephew, the visuals needed to clearly evoke a world coming from a child’s imagination."

To achieve this, the team avoided the hyper-realistic 3D look often seen in blockbusters. "From the beginning, we worked with incredible artists who explored visual styles inspired by Christmas tales and children’s book illustrations," says Illogic.

Amanda Stubbs, executive producer at WIZZ, notes that they worked with a German designer specialising in animal illustrations to nail the character designs early on. “That was a really good call to work with her initially,” she says, “because she did this whole exploration of 2D designs for these animals, and I think she just nailed it so fast and so quickly.”

"Once that artistic direction was set, the real technical challenge began: translating that handmade, storybook aesthetic into a 3D animated film using modern tools," say Illogic. "We had to preserve the essence of the style while pushing it much further to tell a story that feels relevant today."

The aesthetic aim was to play with how traditional fairytales are so often presented in animation, doing something unique, “rather than doing something that looks Pixar-esque, breaking that 3D look,” says Amanda. “It was almost trying to give that brush strokes texture on there as well, making reference to hand-drawn stories that we were used to looking at and reading when we were younger. There is a slightly painterly effect on top of the 3D which creates something that feels really crafted." 

The directors note that they treated the commercial with cinematic rigour. "We approached this project as if we were creating a scene from an animated feature film, with characters who have multiple layers and who could easily be developed even further if the film were longer."

This required intense craftsmanship. "Illogic thrives thanks to a team of artists and technicians who are each specialists in their field. On this project, almost 100% of what appears on screen was sculpted, animated, and painted by hand," they reveal. "For us, that’s a real added value; it shows that you can create films that truly stand out and resonate with audiences, while keeping people – real human craft – at the centre of the process."

The result, they hope, is "a visual style with soul and sensitivity, something truly unique. We’re proud to have taken on that challenge, and we hope it opens the door to even more ambitious projects in the future."

Then there are the ever-present challenges of a supermarket’s Christmas ad. "How are we going to present food in the world of animation? That was a big issue,” says Amanda. After all, the client wants to sell plenty of food over the festive period. “How does everything gel into the same world of being able to create appetizing food without removing you from this very emotional storytelling world?” ‘Spirited Away’ was a natural reference point. “You’ve got to make food look as delicious as that! They put the bar high. It feels very natural. The food looks great, but it’s all part of the storytelling; it is encompassed within this world."

A Coherent Whole

Combining live action and animation carries a risk of disjointed storytelling, but the collaboration between Divine, WIZZ, and Illogic ensured a unified vision.

"At every screening, I’m happy to see how coherent the entire film (live action and animation) feels," says Nadège. "We were progressing in parallel, but the shoot and editing of the live-action part happened well before the animation was finalised. So we not only had to imagine the final result, but also make sure the two parts would coexist, echo each other, and not overshadow one another."

She attributes this success to the partnership with the animation directors. "It was a real pleasure to do this with Illogic, who have two great qualities: their genius and their kindness."

Capucine agrees, noting that what she is most proud of is "this perfectly aligned collaboration... everyone striving for the same thing: the right emotion."

A Tender Sigh

The film concludes by returning to the live action, where the nephew has overcome his fear and fallen asleep cuddling the wolf.

"My small personal pride probably lies in the little tender sigh that ends each screening (on the mother’s look), giving me the feeling that the film’s landing is soft and successful," says Nadège.

For the team, the project was more than just another commercial. "But my greatest pride is clearly having taken part in this collective adventure," Nadège concludes. "Honestly, it may sound naïve (and it’s actually quite the opposite!), but in these troubled times, feeling that we were all moving in the same direction – from the creative team to post-production – with the same desire, ambition, and enthusiasm… honestly, it felt like Christmas came early!"

As Capucine summarises: "It’s not ‘just an ad.’ It’s a little tale, a suspended moment. And being part of that is exactly why we do this work."