The Charm of Stop Motion

Hello hello hello!  So I had a thought the other day.  I'd really like to start updating this blog more often (like once a week) but at first I was thinking I don't really have much to show from just one week of work.  Then I realized how great of a thing that is.  If I post once a week, I can showcase smaller amounts of things and talk more about them.  My posts can be more focused on a specific topic rather than a pell-mell gathering of everything I've done for the past several months that all get stuffed into a single post like the way I stuff all my laundry into one washing machine because I'm too cheap to pay for two loads.  Well, it's time for me to stop being so stingy with my time and write better, shorter, more interesting blog posts.  I'd also like to start writing more about art-related things that aren't necessarily specific pieces I've done.  Kind of like the stuff I do at the end of each post, but better.

So today, I'd like to talk about Stop-Motion.

This post was inspired by a conversation my sister and I had last night while we were Skyping and I was supposed to be revising an essay.  That's when the best of conversations are had.

Recently I went to see The Lego Movie, which was decent, not as great as I was hoping, but certainly not a failure.  Before the movie started we were treated to the customary previews approved to accompany our feature film.  Side Note: I love watching previews.  I like to know what's coming up, but not only that, I think there's a sense of magic to previews.  It's amazing how much emotion a 1-2 minute sequence of second-long clips can stir up.  Previews get me excited (good ones that is) even if I don't always really care to see their movie. End side note.  So anyways, there were actually some decent previews we saw like Earth to Echo which looks a little frightening, but also intriguing, as well as this one:

The Boxtrolls!  A new stop-motion animated film from the incredible studio Laika.  Not only does this trailer make this out to be a wonderfully delightful movie, but it also shows you some of the behind-the-scenes magic of making a stop-motion film.

This is what I'd like to talk about today.  Stop-motion.  But not just stop-motion itself (that would take a very long time) but this magical charm and beauty that stop-motion has.

After watching this trailer for the first time I had the thought, "Looks great, definitely a must-see.  But why does everything in stop-motion have to be so . . . ugly."  Ugly isn't exactly the word I'm looking for, but I can't think of anything better that would encompass morbid and creepy and dark and something else all at the same time.  Don't get me wrong.  I love movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie, and Coraline, but why can't someone make a stop-motion movie where everything is beautiful and normal.  Movies like Tangled or Frozen.

After some stewing and watching a few more Youtube videos of behind-the-scenes stuff, I came up with an answer.

Stop-motion itself is beautiful, and it doesn't need beautiful or normal subjects to make it appealing.  I've often heard in interviews and movies like the one above about the "charm" of stop-motion.  Neil Gaiman refers to it as "the miracle of stop-motion", but I believe he's talking about the same thing.  Stop-motion can take something normally perceived as terrifying or ugly or weird and get people to call it stunning and gorgeous.  A work of art.  If you were to shoot just about any film like this as live action or even in regular animation, it just wouldn't work.  Can you imagine something like the Corpse Bride in anything other than stop-motion.  I'm suddenly reminded of the movie The Princess and the Goblin.  It's a bit of an odd one and I wasn't a huge fan, but I think it would be incredibly more successful as a stop-motion film.

Okay, sorry, that was a little off topic.

I think people make stop-motion films about odd and strange subjects because stop-motion can do something for those things that no other film form can.  It can make them beautiful without taking away from what they are.  This is where things get a little personal for me.  Let's face it, I'm far from what the world might call normal.  But to me, stop-motion films are proof that in the right place everything, even my strange ideas and general awkwardness can be beautiful.  It's not about covering up or trying to fit in (I realize not everyone thinks stop-motion is as magical as I do, there's a reason they aren't the films breaking box office records), it's about representing something in an honest, good-natured way.  Stop-motion sends a message about being yourself.  It's okay to be . . . different.  Different is great.

Okay, wow.  That went a little longer than I meant it to.  Okay, I just want to leave off with one final sentiment.  The beauty of stop-motion films lies in the fact that they are "ugly".  People out there trying to be "normal" will continue to find them creepy and weird, but that's okay.  If the big companies decided to get their hands on little studios like Mackinnon and Saunders or Laika, they'd try to beautify them and it wouldn't be good.

Erg, well, I'm not sure if I really got out what I was trying to say, but I hope you guys find this somewhat interesting.

Until next week!  (Hopefully)