Footnote #4 - Stop-Motion

The Fantasy/Animation podcast takes listeners on a journey through the intersection between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. Available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many of your favourite podcast hosting platforms!

In Footnote #4, Chris and Alex unpack the uncanny spectacle and affecting effects of stop-motion animation, from understanding the hands-on labour that crafts its illusions of life to the oneiric ‘stopped-motion’ worlds of Ladislas Starevich, Willis O’Brien, Ray Harryhausen, Jan Švankmajer, and the Quay Brothers. Listen as they spend 10 minutes working through the European found object tradition; the use of stop-motion as part of the armoury of Hollywood effects technology; the power of awarding objects and puppets sudden sentience; Aardman’s contemporary ‘claymation’ and the work of the LAIKA Studios; and the broader accessibility of stop-motion as a popular technique of animation.

**Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo**

Suggested Readings

  • Buchan, Suzanne. 2011. The Quay Brothers: Into a Metaphysical Playroom. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

  • Moseley, Rachel. 2016. Hand-Made Television: Stop-Frame Animation for Children in Britain, 1961-1974. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

FOOTNOTE PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantSTOP-MOTION, OBJECT ANIMATION, UNCANNY, MOVEMENTComment