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Grendel Grendel Grendel is a 1981 Australian animated film written, directed and designed by Alexander Stitt and starring Peter Ustinov. It was based on John Gardner's novel Grendel.[2] The music was composed and conducted by Bruce Smeaton and has been released on the 1M1 Records label.

Like Gardner's novel, the film is a retelling of part of the epic poem Beowulf from the monster Grendel's point of view. Grendel (voiced by Ustinov) is by turns a thoughtful and contemplative character and a rampaging monster who attacks the mead hall of an early Danish kingdom, biting the head off of one would-be defender. This was the second full-length fully animated film ever made in Australia (coming after 1972's Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon).