STOP MOTION
The films with their ability to create something out of nothing.
The intricacies of animation go deeper than the illustrations on the page. Animation has many layers to it. It takes on many forms. Forever versatile in its craft. Creating movement out of the clay with a little motion and a dream to shape a vision that feels long lasting. A creative medium that feels timeless because it is. It is forging a creative style that has always been inventive. Influencing the filmmaker to be inventive with their choices. Cinema understands the methods that help to create innovative stories. It nurtures them. It preserves them The films that create art with high stakes through a medium that has been intricate by design. There is a rewarding feeling in watching the films that understand the delivery in art that matters. The films that deserve to be seen.
STREET OF CROCODILES (1986)
A puppet on strings parallels a human being feeling stuck in one place. The type of strings that can suffocate a person if it keeps them down long enough. When a puppet finds its strings detached, it opens up the space for curiosity to spread around the room. Enough fascination to step outside of the room that contains him and stepping into one that holds sinister motivation. You can’t help yourself but be attracted to the very thing that happens to lure you inside. It is luring him with purpose, to watch from a distance while he stumbles his way into all of the wrong choices. Eventually, it takes this wandering puppet to realize that he doesn’t need strings to guide him. He just needs to be thrust into the right circumstances in order to make the choices that matter in the grand scheme of time. ‘Street of Crocodiles’ follows the story of a puppet who explores the sinister room that he finds himself in after he is severed from his confinement.
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (2024)
Life is complicated. Life is messy. It may only be fully understood by experiencing it backwards. Your emotions are encompassed by what you have lived through. Specifically tailored by your experiences. The hardships that are learned from the separation of the little family that you have left. It sets someone who deems herself as a misfit onto a path of needed self confidence. Diving through the mess that has become her life in order to find the key to what happiness could be like for her. Clearing out the clutter relieves the pressure that she has felt for never living up to the person that she had always dreamed herself to be. Dreams that can shift in different ways. The end of the road that always varies by the path that you choose to take. She has to live her life forward. ‘Memoir of a Snail’ navigates the story of a lonely woman’s journey through grief.
DARKNESS, LIGHT, DARKNESS (1989)
Building yourself from the ground up, shaping your body to fit the shape of your mind in the way that it is formed intrinsically to fit who you are. We are individuals who are often molded by how we view ourselves. We become mentally blocked by how we perceive the image that looks back at us in the mirror. The conflicting confusion that exists in being okay with how you appear to be. Being content with who you are. That kind of confidence must be built from the inside in order for it to have any kind of effect from the outside. A person doesn’t feel it unless they believe it. They can’t believe it until they go through the building blocks of what it means to find their inner beauty. It is about figuring out which part fits into the right place. ‘Darkness, Light, Darkness’ gradually constructs the story of a human body reconstructing itself.
LABYRINTH (1963)
In order to find your wings, you have to understand where it is that you are flying to. We are simple human beings who get by with a mere use of guidance to fuel us. To keep our heads held high because lowering them even a little bit risks steering off of the track. It risks derailing the entire process of where you assumed you would be. Assumption doesn’t always have the best interest of a person at heart. A man who finds that he is not equipped to deal with the hands of life pushing him into his unsalvageable life. Devoured by the system that does not seek to help him benefit from anything that he has deemed worth living for. Eaten alive by his own choices. The decisions that have brought him to this point. The point of no return. ‘Labyrinth’ follows the story of a man who gets devoured by totalitarian rule.
DIMENSIONS OF DIALOGUE (1983)
The bare bones of what it takes to communicate with people shines a light on how society interacts with the faces that form in front of them. Faces that adapt to the light. The words that start to form naturally with the right tone at the right time. There is a rhythm in how people speak. Finding the beauty in communication. Building up the space to understand each other. Looking each other in the eyes and seeing where their mutual fascination can lead them to. The greatest depths can hold the space for fascinating conversations to start building from. Identities evolve because of it. It all circles back to the first slew of words shared by two people enamored by their mutual embrace. ‘Dimensions of Dialogue’ is a short film enamored by the formation of conversation.
MARY AND MAX (2009)
The most beautiful conversations start from the meeting of two strangers in different parts of the world. They may have little in common yet one smile could still light up a room. Finding some common ground through the little things that give their lives the meaning that it needs. A friendship between two unlikely pen pals who live at different stages of their lives. The people who find that talking about their struggles allows them the space to vent through a pen, a piece of paper and a thousand words. Those same words that often fail to come out when people feel disconnected from their voices. The right words will always come at the right time where they matter the most. ‘Mary and Max’ journeys on the story of two pen pals forming an unlikely friendship.
MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON (2021)
A tiny shell with a hunger to explore makes for an interesting perspective when figuring out the wonders of the world. An eagerness to explore the things that you have never seen before. An adorable shell who creates a vibrant existence for the life that only he knows how to live. A little life that feels big when life is lived in the way that it is meant to be lived. Living with an excitement in your heart and the joy that fills your eyes because for the first time in a while, you understand what it means to feel alive. You understood it because it had to be felt in order to be seen. Everybody loves adventure. Everybody loves the shell named Marcel. ‘Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’ follows the journey of a tiny one inch shell exploring the world.
WALLACE AND GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT (2005)
A small town in a quaint world where the people live their days in peace find their quiet to be disrupted when an unusual creature comes into the mix. It takes the unique duo of a man with a love for cheese and a charming dog to get to the bottom of what is wreaking havoc in their town. Ridding the gardens of the pests that nestle in the night. Their next best technical invention turns their home into an open space for the uninvited guests to invite themselves in. A duo that thinks on their feet. The team of two people throwing a lifeline into their town that is in desperation for a miracle. Something wicked is hopping into their lives. It is down to them to stop it. ‘Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ navigates the titular duo saving their town from a sinister invasion.
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1994)
Christmas can get dark in the town that runs off of the scares that help to keep them alive every October before the season of giving runs into its full drive. Some scare tactics become tired. They lose their appeal. When the appeal becomes lost, they begin to wonder if it ever had a permanent space in their lives. Taking the time to self reflect on the very thing that has brought them the comfort that has become a shield of safety. It opens up the space for the magic to feel more at ease in their hearts. The comfort that seeps back in at a reshaped version of life that shines a lens on their new view of what they love to do in their favourite time of the year. ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ follows the people of Halloween Town realizing that there is a change in the air.
PARANORMAN (2012)
There is something strange happening in this town. A feeling in the air that changes the energy of the people that surround themselves in it. The people who become shielded from the experiences that they are not supposed to see. The creatures who inhabit the same paths that they walk through every day. They never notice it until they come across an energy with an indescribable attraction attached to it. An attraction that lures people in for just enough time to create a distraction. It takes a kid with a special gift. A kid who can talk to the dead. A special ability to be in tune with himself emotionally. It’s all fun, games and a great time until he accidentally raises the dead. ‘ParaNorman’ focuses on the town of Blithe Hollow as a kid and his eccentric family try to protect their town.
The art of stop motion animation shines a light on the importance of preserving creativity. It comes at a time where creatives making use of what they have is not just another means to be creative with their voice, it is a sacred practice of being in tune with how they can shape the future in the industry. An art form that has approached a crucial point in the industry where a shortage in clay puts an entire studio like Aardman in jeopardy. The restriction forces the filmmakers to re-approach their perspective on art. Readjusting their methods on how they can create. Shifting minds leads to shifting art that progresses when creatives decide to do things a little differently. Small artistic changes that lead to a lifetime of artistic freedom.