Module 8: Stop Motion Animation

All of the other previous modules focused on drawn animation, but animation is defined as the creation of the illusion of movement, and that includes another major form of animation: stop motion animation. This is a massive field that includes puppet animation or animation with different media like clay or sand. In fact some of the earliest animated films were done with stop motion animation. This style only became more prolific with improving technology as it is still a viable form of animation with many users.

1. What are the most successful films in this module, and why.
Now we are getting to the point where the topic has become so broad that the list of the most successful films will run close to a dozen. I'll start with Ladislaw Starevitch, who pioneered the realm of puppet animation. He may not have been the first, but he was one of the first to use it as an art style. The Devil's Ball was technologically impressive, but I'd say The Cameraman's Revenge was more successful. It was very progressive in not only its animation, but also its storyline. The animation technique and the story involving adultery could easily fit into today's media even though it was made 100 years ago. George Pal's animation made using replacement animation were successful in its ability to make more realistic and fluid movements in stop motion animation, and his most successful film would have to be Tulips Shall Grow (even though Tubby the Tuba may be his most popular). The film was not only a showcase for his replacement technique in the characters of Jan and Janette and the Screwballs, but it also combined a love story with anti-war propaganda from some stunning war imagery, which was especially appropriate considering it was made in the era when America just got into World War II. King Kong's stop motion animation done by Willis O'Brien may seem unrealistic by today's standards, but it was a major part of the film's success, especially with O'Brien's ability to make Kong somewhat of a more sympathetic character, allowing the film to become named as one of the top 50 films in both of the American Film Institute's top 100 movies lists.

Jiri Trnka and Jan Svankmajer were successful stop motion animators. The Hand was successful not only for getting its message out in the middle of a totalitarian regime, but also for the technique of combining stop motion puppetry with an actual hand without making the puppets seem dead like they were in Svankmajer's Alice. Other films combined both such as Daniel Greaves's Manipulation and Peter Lord's Adam, but they never seem to do it as successfully even though they were made decades later. Similarly, Dimensions of Dialogue was successful for a combination of its profound message and its technique. I still marvel at how Svankmajer and his team was able to differentiate the debris near the end of the first episode. Using clay as a tool for stop motion animation may have gotten started early on in stop motion puppetry, but it didn't really catch on until the 1960s, and didn't become prominent until Will Vinton and Bob Gardiner's Closed Mondays. The film explored different techniques at manipulating and making realistic models using clay. It also combined plenty of surreal imagery and a powerful ending to help it win one of the most competitive Best Animated Short races of all time. (Beating out two of the best films ever to come out of the National Film Board of Canada in Hunger [my favorite Oscar nominated film from 1972-1981] and The Family that Dwelt Apart, Disney's Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, and John/Faith Hubley's Voyage to Next.) Similarly, Adam Elliott's Harvie Krumpet was successful for its combination of dark comedy and its use of 2D animation to augment the claymation.

The most successful films in this module are the ones by Aardman Animation. They were founded back in the early 1970s but didn't gain prominence until 1986 when they helped animate the successful "Sledgehammer" music video we saw in the last module. Creature Comforts and A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit put them on the map with its double nomination in the Best Animated Short category (Creature Comfort won), but it wasn't until The Wrong Trousers and A Grand Day Out that Aardman had its greatest success. The films were successful on so many levels. The team of the silent but able Gromit and the loquacious but incompetent Wallace made for one of the most dynamic duos in animation history. The storylines were suspenseful but never lost the sense of humor by providing some of the most vibrant slapstick moments since the days of Tex Avery. And they reached a new peak in fluid claymation. The characters may not be realistic, but they are fluid and as such made them very appealing. Aardman had several successful films afterward, but none of them ever surpassed The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, the latter of which Time's Richard Corliss called "the real Best Picture" of 1995.

2. Why did Czechoslovakia become a center for puppet animation?
The primary reason I feel Czechoslovakia became a mecca for stop motion animators is the same reason why Hollywood became a hub for motion pictures. It's because some of the greatest practitioners had operated in that region. Many great stop motion animators worked in the country, including Karol Dodal, Karel Zemen, and most important Jiri Trnka. Their output of films such as The Hand and Baron Munchausen were instrumental in attracting younger animators both within Czechoslovakia but also around the world. Of course one reason why so many great puppet animators were in Czechoslovakia in the first place probably has to do with the importance of puppetry within Czech society in the first place. Marionette puppetry have been a crucial part of the Czech culture for hundreds of years. Not only are puppets a form of entertainment, but they can be a source of entertainment in the days before the internet. Many children in Czechoslovakia undoubtedly grew up watching puppet shows in puppet theaters. With the advent of film it made sense for filmmakers to take the puppet shows they grew up watching and put them into film. Trnka and Jan Svankmajer has outright named these puppet theaters as inspirations for their work. It is the combination of puppetry being part of Czech culture and the rise of many great stop motion animators that led to Czechoslovakia becoming a hub for puppet animation.

And yet even though Czechoslovakia was the home of the first foreign film to be nominated in the Best Animated Short category, A Place in the Sun (O misto na slunci) by Frantisek Vystrcil was a traditional cel animation film. It's also darned near impossible to find without a knowledge of Czech.

3. Which ones should have been left out, or excerpted, and why? Do you have any suggestions for new inclusions?
The films being shown are good. There's already a lot of films, but I can still think of some more films that would fit. Tubby the Tuba probably remains George Pal's most endearing work and would be another great example of his films. Eliot Noyes Jr.'s Clay or the Origin of Species was another landmark film in claymation, even if it was kind of avant garde. Co Hoedeman's The Sand Castle and Tyron Montgomery's Quest were two films that had spectacular use of sand-covered puppets in vast and detailed sets to make their animation. And while The Great Cognito was a decent film, I much preferred Will Vinton's Rip Van Winkle, especially for its climactic scene in the middle where Winkle communes with nature while traveling through surreal landscapes. It is the most dazzling part of a pretty good film