The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse began as a picture book without a continuous plot, pairing hand-drawn illustrations with short lines of dialogue. In 2022, the BBC and Apple TV+ adapted it into a 34-minute animated short, co-directed by Mackesy and Peter Baynton. More than 100 animators spent two years recreating his pen-and-ink lines and watercolor textures in traditional hand-drawn animation.

This Animated Story edition is the illustrated book of the film: frames from the animation paired with Mackesy's handwritten words, plus many new scenes not in the original book. The biggest difference from the original is that it has a complete storyline and shows how the four characters met.

The Taiwanese edition is published by CommonWealth Magazine, translated by Han Chieh-kuang, in full-color hardcover, 192 pages.

• The Boy: lost, lonely and full of questions, searching for “home” the whole way.
• The Mole: always thinking about cake and saying silly things; he's the book's comic relief, yet often says the warmest words.
• The Fox: hurt in the past, silent and wary, suspicious of everyone at first.
• The Horse: gentle and wise, with a secret hidden inside.

Many readers see the four characters as different sides of one person: curiosity, innocence, defensiveness and wisdom.

1. The lost boy meets a mole in the snow. They talk about everything from eating cake to the meaning of life, and the mole decides to help him find home.
2. They meet a fox caught in a snare. The fox looks dangerous, but the mole frees him anyway, and from then on the fox quietly follows along.
3. The group meets the gentle horse. The horse later reveals he has wings, which he has kept hidden because other horses were jealous.
4. The four friends cross snowfields and storms, and as they help each other again and again, they slowly find the answer to what “home” is.

• Asking for help isn't giving up: asking others for help is a refusal to give up, and a kind of courage.
• We only see the outside: we can only see each other's outsides, but almost everything happens on the inside.
• Take care of what's in front of you: when big things feel out of control, focus on the small things you love nearby.
• You matter: you are loved, and you bring something to the world no one else can, so hold on.
• What home means: home isn't necessarily a physical place; it's being with the people you love.

• Premiered on BBC One on December 24, 2022, and was released worldwide on Apple TV+ the next day.
• Voice cast: Jude Coward Nicoll (the Boy), Tom Hollander (the Mole), Idris Elba (the Fox), Gabriel Byrne (the Horse); the score was composed by Isobel Waller-Bridge and performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra.
• The production team of more than 120 people from over 20 countries worked remotely during the pandemic.
• Won the Oscar for Best Animated Short, the BAFTA for Best British Short Animation, and several Annie Awards.

Mackesy hoped this would be a book that 80-year-old grandparents could read with their 8-year-old grandchildren. The Animated Story keeps the original's wisdom and warmth, adds the humor the mole brings, and makes the whole story easy to read in one sitting.

It reminds readers: it's okay to be vulnerable, asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of, and kindness matters more than cleverness. When you're lost, the people willing to walk beside you are home.