Then and Now: Stop Motion

The '50s, the '60s and today.

A still from Coraline (2009)

Happy Thursday! In this issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, we’re comparing the past and present of stop motion.

As we’ve written, cels (the plastic sheets used for decades at Disney, Ghibli and beyond) are obsolete. Computers reshaped 2D animation way back in the ‘90s. But stop motion has been a different story. A hundred years ago, animators manipulated objects in front of cameras and photographed each subtle change, building up illusions of movement. Today, they’re still at it.

Stop motion saw a golden age in the ‘50s and ‘60s, when it bloomed in countries like Czechoslovakia, the USSR and Japan. Another golden age has come in the 2010s and 2020s. Even Guillermo del Toro’s been involved, winning an Oscar with Pinocchio (2022).

Why the resurgence? In part, it’s about handcrafted-ness. Stop motion stands out in a digital world. Like del Toro has said:

To me, there’s a valuable difference between stop motion as an art form and digital. Stop motion in the early days, where you have the moiré and the flicker of fur and fabric, even the atmospheric dust on the sets, and the imperfection of it was so gorgeous to look at. Because it told you how the thing was done.

That said, we’re no longer in those early days. Stop motion continues, but different techniques and philosophies have powered the two golden ages.