Evolving into Stop Motion - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 12

it indicates direction and implies weight and resistance. Animation is about not the duplication
of life, but the suggestion and illusion of it, and especially imposing that illusion onto things
that would not otherwise have life.
Physicality
Bambi was the i rst i lm and animation to register with me, and what an impact. For so many,
the death of Bambi's mother was traumatic. Even today that scene can devastate a viewer.
I cried with Dumbo , hissed Cruella, felt confused at The Three Caballeros , felt queasy at Fantasia ,
but I cannot think of the i rst model animation i lm I saw. It must have been on children's TV,
or the title of I Love Lucy , although Kong on television and Jason in the cinema made the most
signii cant impact. All manner of possibilities started to appear about puppets, storytelling and
imagination.
Different stop motion puppets (Saemi Takahashi).
Apart from Ray Harryhausen's great creations, I saw glimpses of stop motion in B-movies on
TV, used mainly as a last resort. A horrendous, tentacled, brain-sucking creature animating
badly with no performance or skill across the l oor in some black-and-white British movie did
not impress. Hammer Horror i lms used elements of stop motion, time lapse and frame-by-
frame adjustments to disintegrate or resurrect various vampires, mummies and other beasties.
They were pretty poor after Harryhausen's work, but whetted the appetite and interest, even
if, arrogantly, it made me think that I could do better. Clangers , The Herbs and The
Wombles had quirky charm but little actual performance. Something about stop
motion appealed to me, but the i lms and programmes disappointed. I love stop
motion more each day, but only a few i lms arouse any interest in my 52-year-old
head. We haven't scratched the surface of stop motion's potential. There are ground-
breaking, challenging, provocative, meaningful, inspiring, sexual, tragic, intelligent,
witty, honest i lms screaming to be made, and darn, I want to be part of them.