One such director is Wes Anderson – whose 2009 film Fantastic Mr. Fox featured stop motion animation throughout. Adapted from the Roald Dahl book of the same name, it tells the story of a community of wild animals, led by the titular character, as they attempt to thrive despite the efforts of a nearby group of farmers. Especially striking in this film is the painstaking attention to detail in the animation, with minute details like movements in individual strands of fur visible on the characters. Despite the difference in technique compared to his live action films, Fantastic Mr. Fox maintains Anderson’s distinct style, and the film manages to deftly achieve a heartwarming feel without being over-sentimental.
Another important figure of contemporary stop motion animation is Tim Burton. As a director and producer, he has worked on many well-known stop motion films, often alongside Henry Selick. His films commonly fall into the genre of gothic horror, telling stories like that of a man who accidently proposes to a deceased woman while rehearsing his vows and is transported to the underworld (Corpse Bride, 2005), or of an king from a mythical Halloween town who stumbles across a Christmas town and attempts to take over Christmas himself (The Nightmare Before Christmas, 1993). While these films might not have as strong an appeal revisiting them as an older viewer, the cult following they maintain is a testament to their distinct aesthetic, unique charm, and resonance.
the success and content of many films which use stop motion demonstrate its continuing appeal
Stop-motion can also be used alongside and spliced between shots of live action video. Czech director Jan Svankmajer’s 1988 film Alice utilizes stop motion props and characters alongside the actor lead to produce a unique interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Alice interacts with an increasingly bizarre array of creatures and scenarios as she follows a white rabbit through a maze-like series of rooms, with the characters, including Alice herself, transforming back and forwards between inanimate objects and living creatures throughout. Intended to reframe the Lewis Carroll story as closer to a nightmare than a fairytale, it’s hard to imagine the film’s surreal and unsettling effect would be the same had any technique other than stop motion been chosen to portray these characters.
It can be argued that this animation style represents an outdated approach to filmmaking, no longer necessary or suitable to a 21st century audience, but the success and content of many films which use stop motion demonstrate its continuing appeal. As studios increasingly trend towards choices in filmmaking which aim to minimise risk and cost, prioritising commercial success and mainstream appeal above all else (arguably at the expense of creativity and originality), the value of techniques like stop motion, even with their sometimes disjointed appearance, time consuming nature and other imperfections becomes clear.
many artists continue to advocate for and make use of stop motion in their films.
The musician Brian Eno illustrates well the sentiment behind what makes art forms like stop motion still feel important today, in the following quote:
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”