Stop Motion Oscars; Three Out Of Five Isn’t Bad
Skwigly
OK, a stop motion movie didn’t receive the prize of best animated feature film at the recent Oscars
but three out of the five nominees were stop-motion movies and the event did feel a little weighted
in this direction.
Why this was the case isn’t exactly clear, but it’s just possible that the great movie-going public
is beginning to tire a little of the Pixar or Pixar-esque computer animation “churn em out” style.
Certainly, if what is working in the cinema in London is anything to go by – there is a little “Pixar-
fatigue” setting in.
Stop motion films bring something entirely different, of course. And for the uninitiated, stop-motion
is the animation technique which sees a physically-manipulated object appear to move on its own
via small movements between individually-photographed frames.
Of course, stop-motion is nothing new, but its increase in popularity is – and this was plain to see at
the Oscars. Although we can go back more or less to the dawn of cinema, it was really Nick Park’s
1989 classic “Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out” that ushered in the new era that has continued to
this day.
And last week’s Oscars certainly continued and maybe accelerated the trend further still. The event
saw Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie”, Sam Fell and Chris Butler’s “ParaNorman” as well as Peter
Lord’s “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” all using puppeteering to wonderful effect – and all receiving
nominations for best animated feature film.
Of course, Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman’s excellent “Brave” was the overall deserved
category winner, but it was a close-run thing and three out of five is no mean feat for stop-motion.
Whether this signifies the beginning of a new trend or whether we were simply blessed with three
great examples during 2012 remains to be seen.