John Lennon's 1971 song, “Happy Christmas (War Is Over),” and subsequent billboard campaign, is now a full family affair as his and Yoko's son Sean has executive produced a new 11-minute animated short film based on the song, War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko.
He tells The Hollywood Reporter that he "just felt like it deserved some kind of piece to help get it out there for another generation.
"The only problem was that every music video idea seemed to trivialize it. It almost felt goofy, like a Hallmark kind of thing. What are we going to show, a family sitting around a fire? It needed an actual narrative.”
The inspiration came from a story about the Christmas truce between British and German soldiers during World War I when opposing soldiers played soccer.
Director Peter Jackson, who put together The Beatles' Get Back documentary and the video for their new song, "Now and Then," says, “Sean and I are friends and he was initially wanting some advice about his script.
“I first heard from Sean a few weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, and it was clearly an important project for him. I remember telling him that an animated short film would take 12 to 14 months to make, and there was a very good chance the war in Ukraine will have resolved by the time it was finished. Here we are, and not only is the misery in Ukraine continuing with no end in sight, there’s now the war in Gaza.”
And Sean adds, "For me, it’s very sad that my parents’ message of peace and love is still relevant to this day. It seems like such an old story.
“Some people are very sensitive about this message of peace today. They feel like it’s a denial of peoples’ pain. And I am not criticizing anyone. I’m saying I really believe in resolving problems peacefully as a concept, even though it sounds very naive. It’s something I was raised to believe and I still believe it.”
The film has a brief run in theaters this fall to qualify for Oscar contention. Producers are currently shopping for a distributor so no word on when it will be released.
And in a related note, limited-edition acetates of the song have been donated to 50 charities, non-profits and care organizations for them to raise money for Peace and Love this holiday season.
In a note accompanying each record, Sean Ono Lennon says: "Happy Holidays. To raise the spirit of Peace and Love this December, here is one of only 50 Limited-Edition acetates that have been hand-cut at Abbey Road. It’s yours – to sell, auction, raise money to help your charity or to fund your Xmas party – to GIVE PEACE A CHANCE and REMEMBER LOVE."
Each one is stickered and numbered out of 50 and includes a machine-printed signature from Yoko Ono Lennon.