Stop Motion: A Short History of the Timeless Art Form

by Bridgette Macatangay

One of the most successful and thriving industries at present is the entertainment industry, and a big part of this is dedicated to movie productions. Everyone has gone to the cinema to watch the current blockbuster film or tuned in to Netflix to enjoy their favorite show. However, not all have watched and appreciated a timeless art form in movie productions that paved the way for the evolution of modern-day movies – stop-motion films.

Stop-motion films are the oldest style of animation in film. They originated and were popularized in Eastern Europe before making their way to the United States. Eadweard Muybridge discovered that by moving characters or puppets in small increments and taking individual photographic frames, connecting each frame one by one would show the subjects in a series of smooth movements. This introduced the concept of the first moving picture technique. The first stop-motion film was The Humpty Dumpty Circus, produced by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith and released in 1898. The jointed limbs of acrobats and animal dolls were used to stimulate the movement of the characters.

Art by Fontanilla

This form further evolved in the 19th century. The Enchanted Drawing (1900), Fun in a Bakery Shop (1902), and A Trip to the Moon (1902) were the first films that developed the stop-motion technique by manipulating drawings and clay figurines. By the 1970s, the technique was claimed as one of the most widely utilized forms of visual effect techniques used by movie producers, and by its peak in the 1980s, was greatly included in television series, commercials, and music videos.

The peak of the art form came to its quick downfall in the late 1990s as the technique was replaced by technology, the new preferred medium in the movie industry. With the success of films like Jurassic Park and Pixar’s Toy Story, which made use of motion animated CGI rendering, such feature films quickly abandoned the handmade art form.

Nevertheless, the modern era has shown movie producers reliving and giving new meaning to this ancient and unique art form by incorporating this with the industry’s advanced technology. Corpse Bride (2005), Coraline (2009), and Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) went a long way before becoming the stop-motion flicks we all love and enjoy today. Stop-motion gives a new vision and experience for every generation, which sets it apart as a timeless, underappreciated craft.