Stop Motion and Claymation

In honor of Halloween, I will be writing about stop motion and claymation, since they are the most-used formats of Halloween-themed animated movies. These two terms refer to animation techniques that are nearly interchangeable. Stop motion is created by a figure that is manipulated across many images, giving it the illusion of movement, and since the figures are usually made of clay, the two terms are interchangeable for a lot of animated movies.

Gumby

It's hard to talk about claymation without mentioning Gumby or Wallace and Gromit, two of the earliest and most well-known ambassadors of the genre. Gumby is an animation-based franchise consisting of a popular, long-running t.v. show and a toy line, and due to its nostalgia, reception, and successful merchandising has secured its place in popular culture. Modern films and t.v. shows have also alluded to it, keeping it firm in our minds.

Wallace and Gromit

Wallace and Gromit, a film franchise, has become synonymous with British culture and claymation due to its critical success. One of the movies in the franchise,Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, has won multiple awards and become fairly well known from its reception and association with Dreamworks. 

This ties into Halloween because of two directors; Tim Burton and Henry Selick. These two directors/producers have become well-known for their use of stop motion animation and claymation to create horror-themed animated movies. These movies are usually critically and publicly well-received, and have become well-known and staples of both the animation technique and Halloween.

One of these movies, Coraline, is about a little girl named Coraline who discovers a secret door to an alternate version of reality where everybody is nice to her and has black button eyes. It is the Other Mother (video), who is her alternate mother, that is in charge and is trying to keep her locked there. This movie is a very creepy movie, but at the same time it is compelling and interesting. The animation style helps achieve this. Stop motion animation is choppier and allows for more grotesque images, both of which can make characters look psychotic and terrifying. When the Other Mother's true form is revealed, it is terrifying and nightmare-inducing, and that is partially due to how it is animated. Her movements are individual and non-flowing, so she looks monstrous in the way she moves. That is caused by stop-motion animation.


A fairly new movie, Frankenweenie is a interesting movie about a young boy who brings his dog back to life (video) in the same fashion as Frankenstein. The interesting thing about this movie is that it is completely black and white, despite being made in 2012. This was a bold and unique decision, especially considering it is animated, but I think that it just adds to the effect of the movie. Thanks to the black and white claymation, we get a both cute and disturbing movie that shows both the pros and cons of bringing something back to life. 

The Nightmare Before Christmas is easily the best-known and most well-received movie in this genre, and for good reason. It is the perfect combination of sweet, scary, and funny. Jack Skellington is a main character we root for and can relate to, yet are still scared by. By using stopmotion for a Christmas and Halloween musical mash up, we get both a light-hearted and terrifying movie. The animation is also adapted to fit different parts of the movie. When Jack is in Christmastown (video), the colors are bright and cheery and the characters are rounded and cute. On the other hand, in Halloweentown (video), the characters are gruesome, mishappen, and ugly. The fact that this style of animation can suite both of these vastly different worlds within the same movie and make them seem like they can coexist is amazing and a grand achievement. It wouldn't have the same effect in other mediums.         

To conclude, stopmotion and claymation, while not the cleanest or most beautiful animation, are the right mixture of charming and terrifying to create perfect animated Halloween movies.






























 pictures used:
http://a.dilcdn.com/bl/wpcontent/uploads/sites/8/2010/10/gumby-1.jpg
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/poohadventures/images/0/01/Wallace_and_Gromit.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130313190933

videos used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBO9Uy4uc_c#t=29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAcI2WAN17I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPblZa10_Pk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpvdAJYvofI