Puppets - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 21

DS - I played with marionettes but animation didn't hit me until later. I saw myself going into live-action
camera work but got stuck in the stop motion world.
AC - I had a Sindy Doll and several Barbies - they were always being dressed up in fl ower petals or being
draped in leaves. My brother was very fond of his Action Men!!
Response to stop motion
My gut response to stop motion isn't of trying to keep a sentimental childlike imagination
in a harsh adult world, or about creating characters to make up for the lack of children or
relationships of my own, or because I can't draw (I can't very well), and it isn't about having
monstrous egos massaged by playing God on a i lm set. It's not even about trying to escape
from the day-to-day world. One animator said that he does it because otherwise he would
have to get a real job and what on earth could he do? We live in fear of being found out like
this, and exposed for having no concrete skills. There are elements of all this, and the desire
to leave some mark, but I do it because of the satisfaction coming from the storytelling and
performance aspect of animation (however removed it might be). Though, I am aware that in
what we do, however trivially, there is something primitive and basic, and that's probably no
more than pure storytelling, with a bit of mythmaking thrown in. A young student wrote on my
website that what we do, in a complimentary way, is witchcraft! I'm happy with that, and the
choice of word is not irrelevant, bearing in mind witches and dolls with spirits.
It is a strange profession, but it's that peculiarity I love. It's almost a private world where those
with a slightly distorted or eccentric imagination can function so well. I am pleased that I make
my living doing something totally bizarre and dif erent. I get paid for being sublimely silly
and that can't be bad. Stop motion, in spite of so much information, still has a mystery and
mystique about it. There is still an element of an animator being a shaman and conjurer and,
shamelessly, I'm sure we're happy to play up to that image.
Sayoko Kinoshita, organiser of Hiroshima animation festival, Japan
Puppet animation is fascinating - it makes me feel something special, which cannot be found in other
various animation techniques. The images constructed within the mind of an animator are brought to life
with the warmth of his or her hands, frame by frame, and I always feel as if such embodiments start talking
to my heart directly like the real living things in our world. It is also one of my pleasures to see that the
fi lm-maker's creativity and personality are clearly expressed as the original style aesthetics. We can say
this characteristic differs signifi cantly from that of 3D computer animation. At times, the animated puppets
show devilish enchantment more than real human beings, and at times, the animated puppets invite the
audience to a world of comfort, which is often beyond words. Moreover, I believe it is not only myself who
feel the theatrical attractiveness in puppet animation. Because we not only sense the roots of puppet show
represented by the Czech marionette, but also the unique 'timing' or 'breathing' which reminds me of
Japanese Bunraku, Noh or Kyogen, and also, we fi nd dance-like expressions as well as dramatic expressions
of William Shakespeare. We can see these aspects within various kinds of puppet animation - from those