What Are the Possibilities? - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 7

Kounen continued using the pixilation technique with obvious influence
from their predecessor, Norman McLaren. In Kounen's 1989 Gisele Kerozene ,
the use of dramatic facial makeup and costuming remind us of the faces of
McLaren's two neighbors as they start to get deeply into their fight.
Kounen even used classic Warner Brothers cartoon animated motion when
he animated people smashing into walls. Wide-angle lenses are used for
exaggerated effect. Pixilation is starting to mature. The technique is no
longer just a humorous or gimmicky style but a technique that can be
chosen as a cinematic device. Dave Borthwick's 1986 feature film The Secret
Adventures of Tom Thumb is a fascinating and dark film that expands the
pixilation technique with a very distinctive story. Nick Upton is Tom Thumb's
father, and he plays this role with a McLaren sense of exaggeration. This
English actor holds his jaw out to maintain a particular look and refines the
element of acting associated with this physically challenging technique.
Controlling facial and body involuntary actions, often for hours and hours of
shooting time, requires extreme control and awareness; and Upton does this
quite well.
Fig 1.8 Still from The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb , Bolex Brothers, 1986 (Nick Upton with an
exaggerated face). photo by Nick Spollin. Courtesy of Dave Borthwick. © Bolex Brothers, 1989.
Finally, it is worth noting the Peter Gabriel music video Sledgehammer .
This 1986 groundbreaking animated short, produced by Limelight
London and directed by Stephen R. Johnson, features the work of
Aardman Animations, the Brothers Quay, and Peter Gabriel lip syncing