“There is a line between faith and madness.”

— Anonymous

: Feature Documentary

The Mission

National Geographic / Lightbox

How does faith become a fatal obsession? From National Geographic Documentary Films and Emmy® winning directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, THE MISSION examines the mythology of exploration that led to the death of John Chau.

We created the animated sequences to help drive some of the film’s most intimate and powerful moments.

Through Animation, Reality Meets Fantasy.

Inspired by fantasy comics and novels as a boy, John truly imagined himself as a character in his own adventure; one only the most devoted would consider; his mission to North Sentinel Island.

The thinking was simple. Through animation, we could show both sides of John and potentially bridge moments of the film together. He could be the great adventurer, set upon an epic quest, but grounded in reality from the writings he left behind in his diaries.

“John really sort of willed himself into being a character and a story of his own imagining, and reality met fantasy,” Moss says.

“He was living a Boys’ Own adventure. If we could bring the audience into that experience through animation, we’d be in a sense keeping with John himself as a character, as a person, and why he undertook this… why he thought he could succeed.”

: Concept Artwork

: Final Artwork

Faith, Madness, and an Obsession with a Forbidden Island.

"The animation is almost comic-like in its spontaneity and sense of simplistic wonder, most closely resembling Chau’s great love of "Tintin." The approach honors his exploratory spirit thanks to the inspiring, vivid visuals."

—Vanity Fair, First Look
"Loved it. This is a Conradian voyage to the edge of the world, and it takes you into psychological territory I find incredibly compelling."

— Film Week, LAist
"There’s something wonderfully Herzogian about “The Mission,” a philosophical quest in which wild ambition goes hand in hand with folly at the very limits of so-called civilization."

—Variety
The animation drives both the film’s most intimate, father-son strands and its most exciting sequences.

- Vanity Fair

National Geographic / Lightbox

Through Animation, Reality Meets Fantasy.

Faith, Madness, and an Obsession with a Forbidden Island.

"The animation is almost comic-like in its spontaneity and sense of simplistic wonder, most closely resembling Chau’s great love of "Tintin." The approach honors his exploratory spirit thanks to the inspiring, vivid visuals."

"Loved it. This is a Conradian voyage to the edge of the world, and it takes you into psychological territory I find incredibly compelling."

"There’s something wonderfully Herzogian about “The Mission,” a philosophical quest in which wild ambition goes hand in hand with folly at the very limits of so-called civilization."

The animation drives both the film’s most intimate, father-son strands and its most exciting sequences.