Stop Motion Geek

Nick Park and Aardman have teamed up for their next film, a stop motion comedy employing multi-medium techniques: Early Man . Written by Mark Burton and John O'Farrell with Nick Park directing, Early Man will be set in the early prehistoric world based off an original idea featuring a cast of brand new characters and setting. The film is set for 2018 release dates and will be distributed in five territories by partners StudioCanal (also co-finanacing) and the BFI (the British Film Institute): UK, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. Currently there is no release date or a distributor announced for a US release. The 2015 Shaun the Sheep Movie had Lionsgate distributing in the US and was an overall box office failure, opening to a disappointing $800K in the USA. The release dates for film's releases in the aforementioned territories: UK: January 26th 2018 France: January 31st 2018 Germany: March 29th 2018 Australia/NZ: March 29th 2018 The synopsis for Early M...

Hello fans of Stop Motion and readers of the blog! Firstly, I suppose the inaugural subject I should cover in this post is simply an explanation and then apology, which I most assuredly owe to you, reader. By chance I glanced at the time stamp of the last post that went up on the blog and it just so happens it dates  exactly a year ago  to this day. If you are reading this when this goes up, that means it was a year ago that you were last updated (at least by this blog) to the latest Stop Motion news, reviews, and behinds the scenes featurettes. For that let me apologize. Lately I've been slaving away at a few personal projects. It is yet too early for an announcement of any kind so on the details of those let me stay, at least for the time being, silent. There has been quite a bit of movement in the Stop Motion world that I sadly was not here to inform you about. Most prominently: the Shaun the Sheep Movie  was released into theaters and although it did incredibl...

Link:  http://youtu.be/tQvwiOWpj7o

In the Best Animated Feature category, The Academy nominated: Big Hero 6, How to Train Your Dragon 2, The BoxTrolls, Song of the Sea, and The Tale of Princess Kaguya . Nominated in the Best Short Animated Film category: The Bigger Picture by Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees, The Dam Keeper by Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi, Feast by Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed, Me and My Moulton by Torill Kove, and A Sing Life by Joris Oprins. Boxtroll's directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi said this: “One word — HONORED! We are honored and humbled to accept this nomination in recognition of our amazingly talented cast and crew — the artists, actors, craftspeople, and freaks who brought  The Boxtrolls  to life. We are eternally grateful to them and to our fearless leaders, producers Travis Knight and David Bleiman Ichioka, for making it all possible. Thank you so much, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, for including us in this great list of nominees...

Merry January 11th!!  Okay, I admit, it's almost a month after Christmas and for the first time , I'm blogging about the new (or relatively new Shaun the Sheep Christmas episode (YESSSSS!!).  But you can't get too much of Christmas, now can you?  Yes, you can.  But you can't get too much Shaun the Sheep goodness!! During the Christmas season, Aardman, the award-winning beloved creators of Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run (in partnership with DreamWorks Animation), and Shaun the Sheep released a new Shaun-short via his YouTube channel.  Watch it below! Link:  http://youtu.be/NvVNt-Aq6ew

Three animated films stand in the BAFTA Film Awards Animated Film category and they are: Laika/Focus Features The BoxTrolls , Disney's Big Hero 6 , and Warner Bros. The Lego Movie .  Also, in the best British Short Animation category stand (Stop Motion) The Bigger Picture , Monkey Love Experiments , and My Dad . BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION THE BIGGER PICTURE Chris Hees, Daisy Jacobs, Jennifer Majka MONKEY LOVE EXPERIMENTS Ainslie Henderson, Cam Fraser, Will Anderson MY DAD Marcus Armitage ANIMATED FILM Big Hero 6  Don Hall, Chris Williams The Boxtrolls  Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable The Lego Movie  Phil Lord, Christopher Miller The winners will be announced on February 8th at the Royal Opera House in London.  The awards ceremony will be hosted by Stephen Fry.

Laika, the Golden Globe, Annie, and Academy Award-nominated and winners of Stop Motion masterpieces such as Coraline , ParaNorman , and most recently, The BoxTrolls .  The Oregon-based will open its archives for the first time for a limited auction of more than 250 puppets, models, props, and art in The Art of Laika . A portion of the profits will be donated to The Art of Elysium , a nonprofit arts organization that works to make art a catalyst for social change and to bring creative inspiration to children, artists, and various population in need.  The Heritage Auction site reports: "LAIKA's films aim to promote thought, feeling, and connectivity through art, inspired by our shared humanity," says Travis Knight, President & CEO of the studio and an Annie-Award-winning animator and producer. "We're deeply gratified that the spirit of our work has resonated so strongly with audiences around the world. LAIKA's artists and craftspeople are consummate cr...

Beautifully hand-crafted and delicately made, this is a great commercial made on a tiny, tiny, frame-to-frame scale.  Also beautiful is the 2-minute 'making of' featurette.  Which I would consider the (or close to) best Stop Motion 'making of' for a commercial.  In the briskly paced film (link below) we are taken from idea to final product but what we mostly see is the design process (including animation, set building, lighting, and everything important to us geeks!); also, we get to see the great little details most looks behind the scenes leave out (I give huge credit the Comma Studio, the powerhouse behind this flick). This film is like a display case of great Stop Motion and the possibilities it opens up to a filmmaker on a micro-scale.  Go watch the final product  and you can find out more info about Comma Studios go here . Link:  http://vimeo.com/110231687

Mark Osborne's ( Kung Fu Panda ) has released the first trailer for his next movie The Little Prince.  The trailer is spectacular.  The film is a mix of 2D hand drawn, paper cut-out Stop Motion, puppet Stop Motion, and CGI.  Which is pretty risky in this day and age.  Now, anything with 2D or Stop Motion is an immediate red-flag; needless to say, this film (the Stop Motion side of it) will be beautiful.  Although in the trailer we see a CGI little girl imagine a hand drawn plane, which turns into a paper cut-out plane, and then morphs into a Stop Motion puppet that becomes The Little Prince.  CGI, in my opinion, was not the way to go with this project -- or so I thought.  Now that I see the fusion process in realtime my view has shifted a little.  Although my rule still stands, if you don't have a huge budget for CGI then don't do it !  The Little Prince trailer, though, did still pull it off; yes, it could be tweaked, but I have confidence ...

It feels like such a long time since we've visited our favorite plasticine duo Wallace and Gromit.  Like a good friend we can count on them to be here for us.  I was surfing around for a little while today when I rediscovered the Wallace & Gromit: Holidays at Home making of and watched it rather excitedly to rediscover them again.  I assure you, they are a comfort to us in this rushed and constantly improving CGI and busy world.  The great thing about plasticine and Stop Motion in general is that you can't loose the homemade and real  feeling of it.  It always stays the same: there's an animator, in a room with a set and a few puppets and he's animating.  That's it.  Nothing more to it!   So snuggle up with your tea and crackers and enjoy this making of... Link:  http://youtu.be/qpuGAbdlyYU The final product:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0UliXX-Y7w