The longer I read Animation Obsessive the more I appreciate your efforts to share the world of animation, and to shape the way others think about the possiblilites inherent in animation to entertain, inform and stimulate new ideas. And, of course, to remind us of the successes of the past.
so fun to hear personally from you guys! I've been reading re:frame ever since y'all recommended it and really enjoy their concise reviews about the animation ecosystem!
Even without the expensive polish, there's no getting around the meticulous process involved in a stop mo film. It's amazing to me how all that concetrated energy comes through in the final product! It's exciting to see films like Frankelda being celebrated in a moment where perfection is becoming synonymous with the empty calories of AI. Maybe handmade, quirky, AND affordable can find its way back into the mainstream. Here's hoping.
It's funny, Laika's massively popular Wildworld trailer was pushing this idea as well with lines like "From the hands that created...", and the comments shared an overwhelmingly anti-AI / love for stop motion sentiment too. However, their approach seems antithetical to this. To me, Wildworld looks almost indistinguisible from a full CGI-animated Pixar-esque film. In my opinion, the studio has increasingly allowed for technical proficiency to trample artistic vision with each subsequent production. The appeal of stop motion is seeing real objects come to life, something tangibly inanimate move. Their puppets are so textureless and fluidly animated, they don't look like puppets. Surely it took an immense amount of work, but what's the point if the end result has none of the medium's distinct charm. You can barely see those "hands that create" on the screen. Meanwhile, far less successful projects like Frankelda and Hidari are actually great examples of modern stop motion that retains that tactility and human feeling, as you very eloquently argued here. Makes me wonder if a majority really wants that then, even if it claims it does.
PS: On the topic of stop motion, I'm fascinated by a little subgenre of films that use everyday objects to mimic human behaviour and societal structures without giving them anthropomorphic features, instead associating their characteristics with our own in creative ways. Most of these films seem to come from Soviet-era Eastern Europe, perhaps as a direct response to Western cartoons, or as a result of Communism's materialistic view of the world, or cause it helped to bypass censorship when creating social satire / political commentary works which were quite common back then. Would love an article touching on or related to this subject, here's a list of what I've been able to find so far in case it's of any use or interest: https://letterboxd.com/__carlos/list/anti-anthropomorphism/
When I heard “I Am Frankelda” was coming to Netflix, I was so excited!I only saw its trailers; I wanted to see it so badly! And I waited so long to hear where and when it’d release in the states!
I think my only reservation about it going to Netflix is its infamy for its lack of physical media releases. I’d really like to add “I Am Frankelda” to my library of animated films, and there’s so many other animated Netflix films that I’d love to own on physical media (especially Klaus and Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood).
I can confirm I am one of the thousands upon thousands of film enthusiasts who love practical, tactical filmmaking over the meaningless slop that is generative AI as well as the overuse of CGI! The sense of reality to such productions is so palpably magical! One of my favorite examples (outside of stop motion) is Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, especially with all of the miniatures and bigatures that were involved in it!
I really hope the film industry goes into more practical filmmaking as time goes on. I really think it could use it, especially because of AI and the overuse of CGI.
Also Michel Gondry’s cut-out animated stories inspired by his daughter, which are great fun.
I think what’s being lost a little is simplicity & I’ll be upfront in saying I use AI a lot these days where you face issues like subscriptions to use the tools or complex set-ups requiring costly hardware and some practical knowledge of node based workflows to achieve anything usable.
Earlier it was a case of you, a camera, lights and some film and that’s it - a more direct and straight line to the end result.
Love this. Agree that a work clearly being “by humans for humans” and the general “roughness” of the productions cited here make them more “real” and far more interesting.
Speaking of which, I like the addition of the personal notes at the end of the newsletter too! As always, thanks for all you do
I love all of the “flaws” and happy accidents! I wrote a piece about it that I think pairs well with yours. I look forward to Animation Obsessive every week! Thank you for everything y’all do.
All for the human touch in animation, including hand drawn animation, which I am currently pursuing. For me the messiness of handmade things, as opposed to machine-assisted perfection, is a choice - it suits me. I am not a "precision" artist, but very much the kind that loves a tactile surface, a warm surface. But the perfection types - who existed before AI but used othet tools, but by hand instead - are another kind of artist. It's difficult in a very machine-oriented age for people not to use them to mimic reality. But if you are more of a fan of the imagination and the intangible, what is felt with raw feeling rather than analyzed and put in a comfortable box by human logic and reasoning, then you're appreciating and giving credit to the fact that we cannot control everything. I think it's a healthy balance therefore to communicate with the less comprehensible aspect of life, and that shows up in the senses. BTW, just discovered The Wolf House - this film is a direct engagement of what can only be surmised, and not neatly. ♥️
The longer I read Animation Obsessive the more I appreciate your efforts to share the world of animation, and to shape the way others think about the possiblilites inherent in animation to entertain, inform and stimulate new ideas. And, of course, to remind us of the successes of the past.
so fun to hear personally from you guys! I've been reading re:frame ever since y'all recommended it and really enjoy their concise reviews about the animation ecosystem!
Even without the expensive polish, there's no getting around the meticulous process involved in a stop mo film. It's amazing to me how all that concetrated energy comes through in the final product! It's exciting to see films like Frankelda being celebrated in a moment where perfection is becoming synonymous with the empty calories of AI. Maybe handmade, quirky, AND affordable can find its way back into the mainstream. Here's hoping.
It's funny, Laika's massively popular Wildworld trailer was pushing this idea as well with lines like "From the hands that created...", and the comments shared an overwhelmingly anti-AI / love for stop motion sentiment too. However, their approach seems antithetical to this. To me, Wildworld looks almost indistinguisible from a full CGI-animated Pixar-esque film. In my opinion, the studio has increasingly allowed for technical proficiency to trample artistic vision with each subsequent production. The appeal of stop motion is seeing real objects come to life, something tangibly inanimate move. Their puppets are so textureless and fluidly animated, they don't look like puppets. Surely it took an immense amount of work, but what's the point if the end result has none of the medium's distinct charm. You can barely see those "hands that create" on the screen. Meanwhile, far less successful projects like Frankelda and Hidari are actually great examples of modern stop motion that retains that tactility and human feeling, as you very eloquently argued here. Makes me wonder if a majority really wants that then, even if it claims it does.
PS: On the topic of stop motion, I'm fascinated by a little subgenre of films that use everyday objects to mimic human behaviour and societal structures without giving them anthropomorphic features, instead associating their characteristics with our own in creative ways. Most of these films seem to come from Soviet-era Eastern Europe, perhaps as a direct response to Western cartoons, or as a result of Communism's materialistic view of the world, or cause it helped to bypass censorship when creating social satire / political commentary works which were quite common back then. Would love an article touching on or related to this subject, here's a list of what I've been able to find so far in case it's of any use or interest: https://letterboxd.com/__carlos/list/anti-anthropomorphism/
When I heard “I Am Frankelda” was coming to Netflix, I was so excited!I only saw its trailers; I wanted to see it so badly! And I waited so long to hear where and when it’d release in the states!
I think my only reservation about it going to Netflix is its infamy for its lack of physical media releases. I’d really like to add “I Am Frankelda” to my library of animated films, and there’s so many other animated Netflix films that I’d love to own on physical media (especially Klaus and Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood).
I can confirm I am one of the thousands upon thousands of film enthusiasts who love practical, tactical filmmaking over the meaningless slop that is generative AI as well as the overuse of CGI! The sense of reality to such productions is so palpably magical! One of my favorite examples (outside of stop motion) is Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, especially with all of the miniatures and bigatures that were involved in it!
I really hope the film industry goes into more practical filmmaking as time goes on. I really think it could use it, especially because of AI and the overuse of CGI.
Having been brought up on Morph in Take Hart ( https://www.aardman.com/film-tv-games/morph/ ), and later Wallace and Gromit, I've always had a soft spot for stop-motion.
I'm so excited Kiri and Lou have a film! I was recently introduced to them by my almost-2-year-old nephew and they are excellent.
Also Michel Gondry’s cut-out animated stories inspired by his daughter, which are great fun.
I think what’s being lost a little is simplicity & I’ll be upfront in saying I use AI a lot these days where you face issues like subscriptions to use the tools or complex set-ups requiring costly hardware and some practical knowledge of node based workflows to achieve anything usable.
Earlier it was a case of you, a camera, lights and some film and that’s it - a more direct and straight line to the end result.
Love this. Agree that a work clearly being “by humans for humans” and the general “roughness” of the productions cited here make them more “real” and far more interesting.
Speaking of which, I like the addition of the personal notes at the end of the newsletter too! As always, thanks for all you do
I love all of the “flaws” and happy accidents! I wrote a piece about it that I think pairs well with yours. I look forward to Animation Obsessive every week! Thank you for everything y’all do.
https://obsoletemedia.substack.com/p/the-case-for-handmade-films?r=2b8fpu&utm_medium=ios
All for the human touch in animation, including hand drawn animation, which I am currently pursuing. For me the messiness of handmade things, as opposed to machine-assisted perfection, is a choice - it suits me. I am not a "precision" artist, but very much the kind that loves a tactile surface, a warm surface. But the perfection types - who existed before AI but used othet tools, but by hand instead - are another kind of artist. It's difficult in a very machine-oriented age for people not to use them to mimic reality. But if you are more of a fan of the imagination and the intangible, what is felt with raw feeling rather than analyzed and put in a comfortable box by human logic and reasoning, then you're appreciating and giving credit to the fact that we cannot control everything. I think it's a healthy balance therefore to communicate with the less comprehensible aspect of life, and that shows up in the senses. BTW, just discovered The Wolf House - this film is a direct engagement of what can only be surmised, and not neatly. ♥️