Stop motion

Stop motion is an animation technique which makes static objects appear to be moving. It is central to the claymation technique used on popular children's shows such as Gumby and to the puppet-based animation of such well-known films as (Tim Burton's)The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993), Chicken Run (DreamWorks/Aardman Animations, 2000) and Corpse Bride (Tim Burton, 2005).

History

Stop motion animation is perhaps as old as film-making itself. The first instance of the technique can be credited to Georges Méliès for A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune, 1902).

Related Topics:
Georges Méliès - A Trip to the Moon

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The great European pioneer of this technique was Wladyslaw Starewicz, who animated The Beautiful Lukanida (1910) - the first puppet animated film. The technique took hold among the avant-garde in Eastern Europe in the 1920s and '30s, growing out of a strong cultural tradition of puppetry. Notable artists include the Russian Alexander Ptushko, Hungarian George Pal and the influential Czech animator Jirí Trnka. The aesthetic tradion of the puppet film was continued by Bretislav Pojar, Kihachiro Kawamoto, Jan Švankmajer, Stephen and Timothy Quay (Brothers Quay), and Galina Beda.

Related Topics:
Wladyslaw Starewicz - Avant-garde - Puppetry - Alexander Ptushko - George Pal - Jirí Trnka - Bretislav Pojar - Jan Švankmajer - Brothers Quay

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The great pioneer of American stop motion was Willis O'Brien, who animated King Kong. His student Ray Harryhausen made numerous movies with the same technique; most famously, the skeleton scene from Jason and the Argonauts (1964). But America and Britain were slower to embrace the puppet film and the use of stop motion grew out of other sources.

Related Topics:
Willis O'Brien - King Kong - Ray Harryhausen - Jason and the Argonauts

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American children's television in the 1950s had often used string-puppets and in Britain the glove-puppet had been part of popular culture from the days of Punch and Judy. In the 1960s the French animator Serge Danot created The Magic Roundabout (from 1965) which played for many years on the BBC. British artists, Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall (Cosgrove Hall Films), produced a full-length film The Wind in the Willows (1983) based on Kenneth Grahame's children's classic.

Related Topics:
Punch and Judy - The Magic Roundabout - BBC - Cosgrove Hall Films - The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

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In North America, Jules Bass produced a series of popular Christmas specials such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964), while Art Clokey created the television series Gumby (using claymation) and Davey and Goliath (1960-1977).

Related Topics:
Art Clokey - Gumby - Claymation - Davey and Goliath

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