One of my favorite stop motion animators are of course the Brothers Quay. My favorite film is The Street of Crocodiles. I got to see them at MOMA (Sept 2011) for their opening premiere : Through the Weeping Glass. I saw them again in August 2012 also at MOMA, for their exhibit: On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets. They are from Philadelphia but now live and have a studio in London.
Jan Svankmajer. Crazy ass shit! Jan to me is a surrealist painter, animating everything weird and dark. Svankmajer disregards smooth, flow-y action and instead goes for chaotic animation. He is famous for his short films: Meat Love and Dimensions of Dialogue. My favorite is Historia Naturae, Suita. I also saw Little Otik, Alice, and Faust which are his feature length films, incorporating live action. He lives in Prague, which is a city I want to visit and pretty much one of the birthplaces of puppetry.
Voltaire: "Let's start from the beginning, an entomologist who had motion blur in his films, back in 1930s - Ladislas Starevich." There are a lot of different spellings of his last name, as well as his first, since he moved from Russia, to France which could be Starevitch, Starewich or Starewitch. Anyway, He replaced beetle's legs with wires and attached sealing wax to their thorax so he could animate them. Some people say Starevich is the father of stop motion.
Ray Harryhausen's Clash of the Titans was my favorite film. I love that little owl, and Harryhausen created so many movies! Why the hell would you remake any of his movies? I remember Voltaire saying he meet him when he was a little kid and was too nervous to talk to him!
The popular Tim Burton. For my birthday, I saw an exhibit of his at MOMA and was so happy and of course really impressed. Henry Selick directed my favorite film, The Nightmare Before Christmas. I loved everything about it, including the soundtrack by Danny Elfman. Burton directed Frankenweenie, a 3D black and white stop motion movie which was really cute.
When I first saw this short film, More, by Mark Osbourne, it really hit home. To this day, I can watch it over and over. The song, Elegia by New Order is in it as well. It was also nominated for Best Animated Short Film in 1998.
My stop motion teacher's (Jeremy Bronson) company: MoSoMos It's in Brooklyn, New York.
Rankin and Bass's productions are some early stop motion movies I grew up with. Rudolph The Rednosed Reindeer was memorable. I also loved The Flight of Dragon and The Last Unicorn movies, both using traditional animation rather than stop motion. Rankin and Bass did outsource some of their animation to Japan.
Do you say AT-AT or A T A T? I say AT-AT! Anyway Phil Tippet used stop motion/go motion to animate the AT-ATs and Tauntauns. He also did Mad God, an independent stop motion film that looks really dark compared to his other projects. I blogged about it and click on June 2022 to read about it. Phil also received 2 academy awards for visual effects for Return of the Jedi and Jurassic Park.
Laika studio based in Portland, Oregon is my dream company to work for. Coraline is my favorite stop motion film from them. What a great story (written by Neil Gaiman) about a girl who finds a parallel world behind a secret door. Also directed by Henry Selick, Coraline used 3D stop motion and had about 150 sets. It also was nominated for the Best Animated Feature award.
Claymation and puppets from Aardman Studio! My favorite, The Pirates! An Adventure with Scientists, has everything I like. Claymation, puppets, scientists (me being one of them), and creatures from the deep are all up my alley!
Adam Elliot made this extraordinary film regarding unusual friendships and mental illness called Mary and Max. I love the look of this film and the story. It is so amazing and heart-felt and I recommend it so much!
So cute and based on a book, Fantastic Mr. Fox was entertaining. I adore all the character designs, sound, and stop motion animation. Directed by Wes Anderson, this stop motion movie has his signature style in animated form.
What I watched in 2023
This stop motion film by Christiane Cegavske named Blood Tea and Red String, came out in 2006, but I just watched it this year, while I was looking up stop motion films to watch on Youtube. I like everything about it-weird, surreal, and has an original music score. Check it out here. She is currently working on a new stop motion film called Seed in the Sand.
2022 Stop Motion Films on Netflix
The House- my favorite was: I-And heard within, a lie is spun on Netflix. One of three episodes, the first one was eerie (a good thing!) and told a story about a family moving into a new house.
Wendell and Will- directed by Henry Selick also on Netflix. Love the score: Fishbone, The Specials, Living Color, TV on the Radio are some incredible bands.
Pinocchio- by Guillermo del Toro also on Netflix. I mean you can't beat GT, he is pretty amazing in everything he does. Have you seen his house tour on Youtube?
Wendell and Will- directed by Henry Selick also on Netflix. Love the score: Fishbone, The Specials, Living Color, TV on the Radio are some incredible bands.
Pinocchio- by Guillermo del Toro also on Netflix. I mean you can't beat GT, he is pretty amazing in everything he does. Have you seen his house tour on Youtube?
2021 Stop Motion-Junk Head
Junk Head is a 2021 Japanese stop motion animated science fiction film written and directed by Takehide Hori, based on his 2013 short film Junk Head 1, which I saw some clips from a while ago. It has so many references from other movies and is so much fun to watch, especially the black Three Hell Ogres (Alexander, Francis, and Julian) who finds the main character.
2019 Stop Motion-Rilakkuma!
Netflix's stop motion series called Rilakkuma and Kaoru is so cute, you will die with all the cuteness! I had a smile from ear to ear the whole time I was watching it. I loved every second of it. I have a tattoo of Rilakkuma and want more tattoos. Anyway, the animation is from Dwarf Studio in Japan, which they also did DOMOKUN! Another one of my favorite characters, Domokun is a brown furry monster that has an open mouth that lives in a cave with some of his friends. Domokun passes gas a lot while Rilakkuma on the other hand, is a lazy bear that loves to eat and lounge around. I can't get enough of cute Japanese characters!
Animator Friends!
Akiko McQuerrey is an art director, filmmaker and puppet maker who's focusing on children's media. She was born in a port town (Yokohama) and bred in a beach town (Hayama) near Tokyo, Japan. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
My friend Mark Reynolds is a 3D animator practicing all forms of pixel coercion, animation, compositing, and motion graphics. He is living with his wife Sarah in Brooklyn, NY.
Razor Productions is a stop motion company run by my friend Rachel. She is a multi-talented, prolific, versatile, and creative non stop force. She makes all kinds of sets and design. Her company is in Brooklyn, NY.
More Animators!
Suzie Templeton is an Oscar-winning writer and director specializing in stop-motion animation.
Mighty Oak is a creative studio specialized in hand-made animation and design. The 3 female creative directors' mission is to bring the human back into the picture. They are in Brooklyn.
2D animation
While I love stop motion animation, I like to watch 2D animation as well. Primal by Genndy Tartakovsky is phenomenal. It is nominated for a 2023 Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program, and I was blown away when I first saw it. It doesn't provide much dialogue but includes beautiful and action packed animation. One of the main characters is Fang, a female T-rex Dinosaur and the other is Spear, a Neanderthal who is always shouting. Dinosaurs were around 245-66 million years ago, while Neanderthals were around 400,000-40,000 years ago! A huge difference, but Fang and Spear work together to make this violent animated series incredible. My favorite episode is Terror Under the Blood Moon.
Anime
Not stop motion, but anime is an art form. Akira, (1988) the best anime film and manga ( 6 volumes) ever. Prove me wrong. It has so much influence on almost every science fiction movie I have ever seen. Geinoh Yamashirogumi also included an amazing musical soundtrack which is ground breaking with so many collaborators. Kei who is voiced by Wendee Lee also voiced another one of my favorite anime characters, Faye Valentine. See below.
Cowboy Bebop the best anime TV series ran from 1998-1999 in Japan. Later on, it aired on Adult Swim. The best soundtrack along with the memorable characters, this space western will live with me forever. I have t-shirts, Pop Funko figures, keychains, and stickers of Jet, Faye, Spike, Ed and Ein. Hard luck woman was the episode where I cried like a little girl.