Damien Presents: The Trouble With Stop Motion

By Damien.

Foreword

Before I write this post, I want to make it clear that I love stop motion, and the same goes for the films I'll talk about here. I wouldn't want those movies to be even slightly different, because I love them just the way they are, and they're all perfect in their own way; their imperfections make them even more perfect. I'm aware that last sentence made absolutely zero sense, but that doesn't mean it's any less true.

Henry Selick's The Shadow King Happening After All

Months ago, we heard the sad news that Disney had halted production on the next stop-motion animated film from Coraline director Henry Selick. The film apparently wasn't on track to meet its release date - although deeper problems were thought to exist within the Mouse House - and Disney pulled the plug on the film, previously called Shademaker, now going by The Shadow King. Selick then tried to court Laika into taking on the project, but nothing came of that, and it seemed it was time to fear the worst. But life's a happy song, and it seems things are back on track after all.

Happy Halloween from A113Animation!

Boo! Happy Halloween! Yes, All Hallows' Eve is upon us again, and we here at A113Animation hope you have a spooktacular day. Fortunately for us animation fans, there's plenty of animated Halloween stimulus, so enjoy two quintessential pieces of Halloween animation, from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and from the charming and endearing Peanuts special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Frankenweenie European Premiere Coverage

Frankenweenie is out in the US, and the countdown is now on to its UK release this coming Wednesday. So, a couple of days ago, the film had its European premiere at the 56th BFI London Film Festival, a star-studded event featuring appearances from director Tim Burton, wife Helena Bonham-Carter, producer Allison Abbate and more!

Disney Cuts Henry Selick's Next Film

We've heard the exciting news for a while now, that The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick had entered into a collaboration with Disney and Pixar. The studio formed as a result of this was then called Cinderbiter Productions.

We didn't hear anything much for a while, before recently hearing that Cinderbiter - now retitled ShadeMaker Productions - and Selick's first film for Disney would be called, tentatively, Shademaker, after the studio. The stop-motion film - which is supposedly, following in the vein of Selick's other films, like Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, a scary one - was due for a 4th October, 2013 release date. However, Variety reports that Disney had concerns that the film wouldn't meet its release date, so the Mouse House pulled the plug.

Selick is expected to continue the film elsewhere (Laika maybe? After the success of their previous collaboration with Selick, Coraline), and still expected to progress with another film for Disney, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. However, the fact that Disney wouldn't postpone the release date (something they frequently do for Pixar films) suggests they weren't happy with Shademaker, so it's up in the air at the moment where Selick stands on The Graveyard Book - although Gaiman, having previously worked with Selick in adapting his original book of Coraline for Laika, would likely want to collaborate with him again.

Sad news, definitely, Henry Selick's a very talented film-maker, and here's hoping Shademaker finds a home and this doesn't spoil his relationship with Disney.

Via Bleeding Cool.

The Corner - Week 4 - Halloween Special - Sean Reviews The Nightmare Before Christmas

An Animated Film Review: The Nightmare Before Christmas

By Sean Taylor

Muahahahahaha... good morning, day and evening readers. Kicking off my third animated film review, I bring an analysis of a film which is (I feel) appropriate considering the time of year; Halloween. This means that, in celebration of the holiday, I will be ranting to you more and taking up more of your time than usual. Yay! I hear you exclaim.

Yes, this is the night when everyone dresses up in mostly silly costumes that cost less than a pound/dollar/rouble and knock on doors, begging for moneys and sweeties. As I write this on the 31st October 2011 there are Halloweeners at my door even now, and I have decided to ignore them.

But why, I hear you cry in dismay. I'll tell you why. Although I do like Halloween very much, I don't like it enough to give strangers things for free, especially in a time of recession. Also when I was younger, what passed for a cape was actually a bin-bag – and the Halloween masks were always from last year, meaning they were never comfortable, I suffocated and they often smelled of the attic. Last year I dressed up as the Grim Reaper, and guess what? I didn't dress up the same this year. I actually intended to go over to the old folks' home and whisper in a Granny's ear “Your time has come,” but I concluded it was almost too harsh... almost. -evil smile-

Unfortunately this is also the time where the suited general-store loonies start waving the Christmas flags, and suddenly -whoa- everything is fake snow, Santa Clauses and pine trees. I believe -like so many others- that shops bring out Christmas decorations WAY too early. Perhaps this was the reason for the film I am reviewing tonight. Maybe it is now time to even get on topic. So turn off the lights, close the curtains and light a coal fire – it's time to review, Halloween style.

Tonight it is everyone's favourite Halloween/Christmas crossover, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Steering away from my usual spiel of Japanese anime, THIS epic by Tim Burton really captures the spirit of Halloween and Christmas in one fantastic movie.

As anyone will know who follows Tim Burton's work, he always likes to put a bizarre, gothic twist in his films. I have watched his rendition of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and I enjoyed it thoroughly. There could have been less singing in it though. Huh. That's maybe because it was a musical. Anyway...

The Nightmare Before Christmas goes back to when Halloween was real; that there really were monsters under your bed and witches roamed the sky on a moonlit night. The film sets this scene beautifully with all of Halloween's most prominent characters making an appearance. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a musical, and is a good one at that.

The film follows Jack Skellington, the 'Pumpkin King' of Halloween Town (Danny Elfman/Chris Sarandon) who leads a parade every year on Halloween night. But this year, Jack is tired of it, and seeks something new and exciting. He finds this in an old tree with a tree-shaped door on it, which leads him and his faithful ghost-dog Zero into a completely new world – Christmas Town. After being inspired by the sights and sounds he finds there, he attempts to recreate Christmas in Halloween Town by becoming his very own 'Sandy Claws'.

However trying to stop him is Sally (Catherine O'Hara) which, after receiving a dreadful portent of Jack's failure, believes she is doing it for Jack's own good. While all this is going on Santa is kidnapped, and the toys, the citizens of Halloween Town aren't... well, they're just not Christmassy.

My favourite character by far is Jack Skellington. He just enters the plot in such style! He is constructed in a complex and wonderful way; being torn between Halloween and a Christmas vision only he can see. Also the relationship between Doctor Finklestein (William Hickey) and Sally is fraught with emotional difficulties; if the good Doctor made Sally, does that REALLY make him her father? Sally is discontent with this, and longs to be with Jack. Jack Skellington's evil laugh is amazing. But not as good as mine. Hehehe...

Yes, ok, Jack Skellington was amazingly put together as a character (and literally) but I couldn't help thinking that Death should have been made more of a character. He seems so prominent in Halloween custom. Also the joy of Christmas simply doesn't fit with Halloween, which doesn't sit right with me but I still believe Burton pulled this off with aplomb.

The little musical number with which the film opens, 'This Is Halloween' introduces most of the characters which I thought was brilliant and the storyboard was seamless. Also, I write with great satisfaction that Marilyn Manson covered the song to celebrate the movie's 13th anniversary from its humble beginnings in 1993 (I couldn't believe it was 18 years old!). It is much heavier and less jaunty than the original, but I prefer it. This being a musical, the other songs were great, too but it was really this one which caught my eye (or ear).

To cut the head off the body of this review, The Nightmare Before Christmas was truly a wonder to behold. Stop-start motion films usually creep me out big-style (I don't know why) but this really hit the spot.

Haaaappppy Halllooowweeeennnn...

A Look at Tim Burton's Frankenweenie

Thanks to Entertainment Weekly (and via Blue Sky Disney), we get our first real look at Tim Burton's next animated feature film, Frankenweenie.

The re-telling of the short film that he created for Disney way back in the 80s, that led to him being kicked out of the company - with the film being viewed as too weird and too scary - is set to be, as you can see about this post, released in black and white, hearkening back to a simpler time in cinema; and with the very classically Burton character designs the film looks set to be a great return to animation for the man who helped bring us The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The plot of the film follows a young boy, Victor, whose love for his pet dog, Sparky, reaches new heights when the canine companion is killed in an accident and Vincent uses his science kit to bring him back to life.

So, obviously, the stop-motion film is set to be wonderfully weird, and quite dark, even down the actual colouring of the film, but Disney obviously have more faith in the project than they did back in 1984 and for more details on the background of the film and Burton's inspiration for it, be sure to check out the full Entertainment Weekly article.

Frankenweenie is set to be released by Disney on October 5, 2012.