The Tale of the Fox (Le Roman de Renard) Review

Director: Ladislas & Irene Starevich

Company: UFA

Year: 1937

Country: France, Germany

Obscure but historically important, this movie is like no other.

Although Disney's Snow White is often misidentified as the first full length animated film, there were actually eight other movies released before it. The Tale of the Fox was the sixth animated feature to be released. It was also the second to utilize stop-motion after the 1935 Soviet film, The New Gulliver. (Le Roman de Renard's animation was actually completed by 1930.) and the third to utilize sound. (However, the film did obtain a soundtrack until several years later due to funding issues.) The film was originally released in German (as funding was given by the National Socialist Regime) and later in French in 1941, which is the version currently available for home viewing. The movie is rather obscure outside of France today, likely because distribution was cut off due to WWII. This is truly a shame as director Ladislas Starevich was a true pioneer in his field, and Le Roman de Renard was his only full length feature.

Le Roman de Renard is based upon the medieval beast fable, Reynard the Fox. The story has been adapted into animated form several times. It was written as a political satire of aristocratic society which made the Reynard character popular among European peasants. Unlike many other 'modern' adaptations of the tale, Le Roman de Reynard remains very loyal to the original story and is aimed more at older audiences then at young children.

The original theatrical poster for the film.

The film begins with a narrator monkey operating a film camera. He tells the audience that he has a tale to share with them that is "the oldest and most beautiful story known to us animals." He opens a book introducing some of the film's main characters: the vain Monsieur Raven, Sir Cock and his wife Lady Hen, the fearful Hare, the king's guard dogs, Isengrim the Wolf, and finally Reynard himself. Reynard is very smart. Within the first five minutes of the film, he manages to steal a piece of cheese from Raven by flattering him. Isengrim is introduced as Reynard's rival. The wolf is larger and stronger than the fox, but not nearly as bright. One night, Isengrim plans to steal some fish off of Reynard for his family's dinner. Reynard then tricks the wolf into 'fishing' by claiming that by sticking his tail into a hole in the ice he can catch a large amount of fish to eat. In the end, Isengrim returns home with no dinner (and no tail) only to discover Reynard has stolen his food instead! (It should be noted that both of these episodes are also featured in Aesop's Fables.)

Reynard's pranks on Raven, Isengrim and several other animals eventually result in several complaints to the King Lion and his wife. Reynard's cousin, Badger, defends him in court, stating that the fox is not guilty. He weaves tales of Reynard's 'good deeds' and frames Isengrim and the other animals as being lazy, dishonest, cowardly or greedy (which aside from the 'good deeds' part is, ironically, true to some extent). The King is unable to prove Reynard's crimes, so he decrees that no animal can no longer eat one another so that 'love can reign the land.'

The movie is unusual because its protagonist is not the kind of ideal hero that we are commonly accustomed to seeing in animated films. As with many of the other characters in this film, Reynard is a self-centered survivalist. Not all of Reynard's actions are entirely harmless. The fox is far from being enthusiastic about the King's new law. (In fact, he refuses to go vegetarian despite the risk of being hung because he finds the taste of flowers disgusting.) Badger is unable to defend his cousin when Reynard kills and eats Lady Hen. The rooster calls for revenge and the king sends several of his members of court to capture Reynard and his family. In the end, however, the cunning fox manages to outwit everyone including the King himself. Because the King's army is unable to successfully siege Reynard's home, the fox is selected as the king's new minister. Such is politics.

While it's easy to admire Reynard's quick wits, he's also somewhat of a selfish jerk.

Narrative structure aside, The Tale of the Fox is probably most noted for being a technical marvel. Despite that the movie is almost eighty years old the stop-motion holds up remarkably well, even rivaling what is put out by today's studios. This is especially notable because Le Roman de Renard premiered only three years after King Kong, which special effects look very dated by comparison. The film features many cutting techniques and a use of motion blur largely unseen at the time. Below, is a clip from the film involving the Queen being wooed by Tybalt, the minstrel cat. (Their doomed relationship is an interesting subplot present throughout most of the movie.) It demonstrates this movie's mastery of its medium.

The iconic scene where the peasant cat woes the queen.

This movie is one of the most unique and unusual films I have ever seen. It is an absolute must watch for not only lovers of animation, but for any film enthusiast period. Reynard and the other animals in this movie are not always the most admirable characters, but they are relatable due to their remarkably human flaws and impulses. Although this film is old and is different from much of what is produced today, it is very memorable for exactly that reason. If you are feeling adventurous, Le Roman de Reynard is more than worth your time. (The entire film is currently available on Youtube with English subtitles and can be watched here.)

Ladilas and his wife, Irene, posing with large scale versions of the puppets used in this film.

Rating: 4.5

The Oscar Nominated Shorts of 2014 (Who Will Probably Win & Who Should Win)

Why is the statue called Oscar anyway?

The Oscars are fast approaching with a live screening set for March 2nd. While the Oscars are and have always been biased towards certain films (specifically English speaking ones usually produced by major Hollywood studios or well known directors), they have become increasingly popular and prestigious. The movies nominated for best picture always get lots of fanfare, but films in other categories are sometimes overlooked.

The short film categories often suffer from this. This is shame because they are a great way to showcase talents from across the globe. Because they cost significantly less to produce they can vary greatly in their subject matter and style. While some of them are made by larger studios, many of them are not and are very personal films made by small independent creators/companies passionate about the medium.

The Oscar nominated animated shorts from last year.

For those of you who have yet to see them, the Oscar nominated animated shorts this year, are overall, a pretty solid bunch. The nominees include a Disney short, three entries from Europe, an anime, and an independently produced short. If you happen to attend the screening of the nominees at your local theater, you will probably notice that the program also includes three honorable mentions which were not nominated for the Oscars. Fortunately, they are also fairly enjoyable as well. (Unfortunately, the animated shorts are 'hosted' between each segment by two obnoxiously unfunny CGI animals. But, hey, at least the awards aren't being hosted by Seth MacFarlane again this year.) So without a further ado, here are some brief reviews (and winner predictions) for the nominees and honorable mentions for the Best Animated Short of 2014.

The Nominees

Get a Horse!

Director: Lauren Macmullan
Company: Walt Disney Animation Studios
Country: USA

Get a Horse is a throwback to Disney's original rubber-hose Mickey Mouse shorts from the early 1930s with a twist. When Peg Leg Pete attempts to run a hay wagon off the road, Mickey and Horace are forced out of the movie screen and into the theater, becoming CGI colored versions of themselves. Horace and Mickey then battle Pete, who has kidnapped Minnie, by finding ways to interfere with movie playing on screen. While the premise is a bit gimmicky and not entirely original, (Tex Avery loved inserting self aware sight gags into his cartoons, and Get a Horse bears some resemblance to Osamu Tezuka's 1985 short, Broken Down Film) the film has been made with so much love and passion it is hard not to smile at the character's antics.

Get a Horse is not necessarily the best nominee, but it has already become an audience favorite, having won the Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject and being nominated for Best Animated Film at the San Diego Film Critics Society. More than likely it will probably win the Academy Award. Get a Horse also features original voice recordings from the 1930s, marks the first appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in a Disney cartoon in over 84 years, and is the first Disney production to be directed solely by a female animator.

Rating: 3.5

Mr. Hublot

Directors: Laurent Witz & Alexandre Espigares
Company: ZEILT Productions, WATT Frame
Country: France

Mr. Hublot moves at a far more leisurely pace than Get a Horse and has no dialogue. However, this largely aids the film rather than hindering it. The short follows a little mechanical man who lives in a Victorian era steampunk-like society. But Mr. Hublot largely chooses to ignore the beautifully rendered CGI/ stop-motion animated landscapes around him. Instead, he focuses intently on his work, preferring the company of his typewriter indoors rather than socializing with others. One day, his work is disrupted after he discovers a small robotic puppy abandoned outside his apartment. Mr. Hublot takes pity on the creature and adopts it. Eventually the puppy grows into a huge dog, and Mr. Hublot is faced with a difficult decision: Should he keep his pet / only friend and allow it to disrupt his work? Or should he get rid off it?

Mr. Hublot is a charming short. Although the story is a bit familiar, the short's animation is very distinctive and Mr. Hublot's apparent OCD is very relatable in our day and age. While not as likely to win the AA as Get a Horse, this film has a bit more substance to it. I would love to see what the short's creators do next.

Rating: 4/5

Feral 

Director: Daniel Sousa
Company: SousaAnimation
Country: USA

Feral greatly contrasts from the other contestants mentioned so far. It is not cute, funny, or heartfelt, but it is a rather mature, gloomy piece. The short tackles a difficult, yet intriguing subject with no clear answers: How would a feral child react if suddenly he or she were suddenly placed back into society? The huntsman who discovers the lost boy in the film certainly thinks that he is helping the child by reintroducing him to his 'proper place' in society. But the audience is left unsure, especially after they see the boy alienated by his strange new environment. The boy tries to adjust by using the same methods that kept him safe in the woods, but is teased by his peers and misunderstood by others. Feral ends openly with the boy running back towards the forest.

The short is quite ambitious and manages to tell its story with little to no dialogue, but, unfortunately, it can be difficult to understand at times due to its level of abstraction. Feral is indeed beautiful to look at, but feels a bit unevenly paced and may leave its audience cold. Still, one has to admire the efforts of Daniel Sousa's creation as he created almost entirely by himself.

Rating: 3/5

Possessions

Director: Shuhei Morita
Company: Sunrise
Country: Japan

Possessions is perhaps the most unique of all of the nominees and bears a couple of distinctions. It is the first anime film to be nominated that has not been directed by Hayao Miyazaki and its animation is blend of both cel shaded characters and traditional background art. The film's director, Shuhei Morita, is perhaps best known for his half-an-hour ghost story film, Kakurenbo ['Hide and Seek']. (It should also be noted that Possessions was originally part of an anime anthology film, Short Peace, which contained three other shorts including the award winning Combustible.)

In Possessions, a traveler comes across a shrine when he tries to find shelter from pouring rain. He decides to spend the night there, but notices that the shrine is full of neglected items. According to Japanese legend, abandoned items will come to life after one hundred years have passed. The umbrellas, kimonos, and other objects attempt to scare off their unwanted guest. However, the man decides to mend all of the tarnished objects instead and is rewarded for his efforts. Possessions may be more unusual then some of the other candidates, but there is still a small chance it could win. After all, Miyazaki's Spirited Away won Best Animated feature back in 2002 (making it the only anime film to do so so far).

Rating: 4/5

Room on the Broom

Directors: Jan Lachauer & Max Lang
Company: Magic Light Pictures
Country: UK

Easily the cutest entry on the list, Room on the Broom is based on a picture book by Julia Donaldson. The short also sports a well known cast, featuring the voices of Gillian Anderson, Rob Brydon, and Martin Clunes among others. Like Mr. Hublot, Room on the Broom blends several animation mediums (specifically models for the sets, CGI for the characters, and traditional animation for fire and water effects). This gives the film its own unique look, which is refreshing in this age where everybody seems to try and copy Pixar's style.

The short itself, is of course, aimed primarily at children, but is actually the longest nominee running at about half an hour. It manages to keep audiences of all ages alike amused with its gentle humor and rhyme filled narration. Room on the Broom is about a kindly witch who flies around with her grumpy cat in tow. The witch keeps dropping things, but the objects are always found by a forest animal. The witch always invites them to ride on the broom with her, despite her cat's protests. However, the broom eventually becomes to heavy to float and the witch runs into trouble with a hungry dragon. While nothing complex is offered in this short, it is quite enjoyable and certainly will please young ones and their families.

Rating: 4/5

The Honorable Mentions

A La Francaise 

Directors: Morrigane Boyer, Julien Hazebroucq, Ren-Hsien Hsu, Emmanuelle Leleu, William Lorton
Company: Supinfocom Arles Animation Film School
Country: France

A la Francaise is sort of a one trick pony. The short is about a bunch of pompous 18th century aristocrats attending a party at Louis XIV's palace…except that they all happen to be chickens. That's about it. Most of the gags actually tend to be pretty funny though and occasionally even a little risqué. The plot becomes increasingly chaotic and disorganized after a hen writing down all of the details about the party loses her papers, which fly throughout the ballroom and start offending all of the guests.

The biggest letdown of this short, however, is its very unsatisfying ending. The audience doesn't even get to see Louis XIV's full reaction to the disasters occurring around him. Still, there is much to be admired about this short on a technical level, given that it is CGI student film that was worked on by only handful of people over the course of three years. It's apparent why A la Francaise wasn't nominated, but it was rightfully given an honorable mention.

Rating: 3/5

The Missing Scarf

Director: Eoin Duffy
Company: Belly Creative Inc.
Country: Ireland

The Missing Scarf is one of those films that takes all of your expectations then completely subverts them in the best possible way. The short begins like a typical children's story. Narrated calmly by George Takei, it tells the tale of Albert, an optimistic squirrel, who has lost his scarf. Albert goes to the woods to search for it, but meets several other animals who have problems of their own (such as an owl who is afraid of the dark and a fox who fears being disliked by others). Albert gives each of them advice about how to deal with their problems, however the short becomes subtly darker as time goes on. So much so that even the bear's troubling existentialist question may not seem as impractical as it sounds.

The Missing Scarf's animation, done in a combination of Adobe Flash and Blender, suits the style of the film well. It is simple and to the point. The cute character designs also greatly contrast with the black humor at The Missing Scarf's ending. Personally, I think this short should have also been nominated, but The Missing Scarf was probably too unorthodox for the Academy's tastes. Their loss.

Rating: 4/5

The Blue Umbrella 

Director: Saschka Unsled
Company: Pixar
Country: USA

Many people where surprised when they discovered that Pixar received no nominations this year, not just for their main feature, Monsters University, but also for for their short, The Blue Umbrella. In the case of The Blue Umbrella, however, it is pretty apparent to see why it wasn't nominated. There is nothing wrong with the film, in fact it contains some beautiful CGI effects and utilizes some really creative animation on various inanimate street objects. However, The Blue Umbrella fails to offer its audience anything that they haven't already seen before.

The story is cute (involving a male blue umbrella who gets separated from his love interest, a red female umbrella), but it bares an uncanny resemblance to the 1954 Disney short, Jonny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet, and is rather predictable. The animation on the umbrellas is also somewhat disappointing. The drawn on cartoon faces simply don't blend very well with the short's otherwise photorealistic style.

Rating: 3/5

10 Notable Female Animators

Outside of acting, relatively few women get recognized for their efforts in the film industry. This is particularly noticeable in the animation field. While things have certainly improved since the earlier half of the 20th century (where a women had little hope of doing anything but inking, painting, or in-betweening), it is still far more common for female animators and directors to work independently, rather than within the studio system. Female comic book artists are also more common, perhaps for the same reason. Many of them (such as Kaja Foglio [Girl Genius], Kate Beaton [Hark! A Vagrant], and Tracy J. Butler [Lackadaisy]) have met great success 'publishing' on the internet. While women still aren't nearly as common as male cartoonists, they have began to appear in larger numbers in recent years. Below is a list of the ten notable female animators that helped pave way for other artists in the field.

1. Lotte Reiniger

Reiniger's complex stop-motion technique is based on Chinese shadow puppets.

Lotte Reiniger is commonly acknowledged not only as the first significant female animator, but also as a pioneering stop-motion animator. Lotte grew up in Berlin and first became fascinated with film after seeing the works of Georges Melies. In 1918, she was assigned her first major job, animating the wooden rats created for the intertitles for Paul Wegener's The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Shortly after, Reiniger began directing her own short films in her trademark silhouette cutout fashion. She directed seven shorts between 1919 and 1922, which were produced and photographed by her husband, Carl Koch.

After three years of hard work, her feature length film The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) was finally released, beating out Snow White by over a decade. The film was loosely based on One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, and met enough success to allow Lotte to direct a second feature, Doctor Dolittle and his Animals, in 1928. Unfortunately, Lotte and her family were forced to flee Germany after the Nazi regime took control. She lived out the rest of her years in Paris and in London, were she continued to make short fairytale films for advertising companies, BBC, and Telecasting America.

Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated film.

2. Lillian Friedman Astor

Friedman was one the first women to work at a major animation studio.

When Lillian Friedman Astor was rejected by Disney, she was not deterred. Instead, she applied to rival studio Fleisher Brothers in 1930 at the age of 19. Within three years, she was 'secretly' promoted from the lowly rank of inker to head animator by Shamus Culhane. She was responsible for animating many key scenes in the popular Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons, as well as several Comicolor titles. Her work includes: "Can You Take It?" (1934), "Betty Boop's Prize Show" (1934), "Be Human" (1936), "Hawaiian Birds" (1936), "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor" (1936) and "Pudgy and the Lost Kitten" (1938).

Although she didn't always receive screen credit and was paid considerably less than her male counterparts, Friedman was apparently very pleased to have a job at Fleisher. So much so in fact, she was rumored to have named her dog Popeye! In 1939, Freedman retired from animating in order to raise her family. Despite her short career, she inspired several others to follow her footsteps and not to be afraid to showcase their talents in a traditionally male run profession.

The classic cartoon "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor".

3. Mary Blair

While technically not an animator, Mary Blair hugely influenced the look of many classic Disney films. 

Perhaps no other women at Disney was as well recognized as Mary Blair. She first began working at Disney in 1940 alongside her husband Lee Blair, after previously working at Ub Iwerks Studio and Harman-Ising Studios. Unlike other female employees at Disney at the time (such as Retta Scott and Retta Davidson), Mary Blair was a concept artist and a scenery designer. Blair's art is characterized by her bold use of colors, angular forms, patterns, and simplified shapes. Her style was heavily influenced by her 1941 trip to various South American countries with other Disney artists, as part of Roosevelt's 'Good Neighbor Policy.'

Her designs and storyboards were crucial in the process of creating several animated features including: The Three Caballeros (1944), Song of the South (1946), Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). After briefly resigning from Disney after Peter Pan and working as a childern's book illustrator, Mary Blair helped create the It's a Small World attraction for Disneyland in 1964. Additionally, she created several murals for the theme park up until 1971. For those interested, much of Blair's artwork can be viewed here.

A sampling of Blair's unique concept art.

4. Faith Hubley

Faith and her husband, John, reviving an oscar in 1966. 

Faith Hubley began working in the film industry at only 15, when she left home to work in a theater. She made her way to Hollywood three years later. Her first job was as a messenger for Columbia Pictures. Later, Faith worked at Republic Pictures, where she became a music editor and scripts clerk. In 1955, she married animator John Hubley, who had previously worked for Disney and UPA. Soon after, they founded their own independent company, Storyboard Studios. The goal of the studio was to produce one film per year. Both Faith and John made a total of 20 shorts together, between 1957 to 1977.

These films met much acclaim due to their free-form visuals and use of dialogue from actual childern (usually their own), as opposed to using adult actors. Indeed, much of the dialogue in their shorts is nonlinear in nature, and often focuses on relishing things in life that some might consider mundane. The best known shorts the two made are arguably "Moonbird" (1959), "The Hole" (1962), "A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature" (1966), and "Windy Day", all of which won or received Oscar nominations. When John died in 1977, Faith continued to make films on her own up until her own death in 2001. (It should also be noted that Tissa David [who was the second female animator to direct a feature film, and animated the female lead in Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure] frequently worked with the Hubleys.)

A still from "Windy Day" (1967) demonstrating the Hubleys' minimalist style. 

5. Sally Cruikshank

Quite possibly the most abstract animator on this list, Cruikshank's films are like no other.

Sally Cruikshank's work is undeniably weird, but extremely creative and mesmerizing. She was drawn to animation at a young age, citing the surreal 1930s shorts of the Fleisher Brothers, Bob Clampett, and Carl Barks's comics as influences. After completing her education at Smith College and thoroughly studying an animation book by Preston Blair, Cruikshank released her first piece in 1971, the three minute "Ducky". Encouraged by feedback from her peers, Cruikshank enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute. After graduating, she produced her most well known short, "Quasi at the Quackadero" (1975), which features two of Cruikshank's reoccurring characters, the infantile Quasi and the temperamental Anita. In 2009, "Quasi" was added to the National Film Registry, and it was voted #46 in the 1994 book, The Fifty Greatest Cartoons.

Cruikshank produced several other surreal short films during the 1970s and 1980s, including "Make Me Psychic" (1978) and "Face Like A Frog" (1988). In 1980, she proposed an animated feature about her duck-like character entitled Quasi's Cabaret, but the project was ultimately abandoned due to funding issues. However, Cruikshank is fondly remembered by many Gen X'ers for an entirely different reason: she animated several segments for the program Sesame Street.

Cruikshank explains her animation process.

6. Ellen Woodbury

Woodbury working at Disney Studios.

Ellen Woodbury made history in 1994, when she became the first woman animator at Disney to supervise a major character. When Woodbury first entered the field of animation, things looked pretty grim. In the early 1980s, very few studios produced films or television series beyond simplistic children's entertainment. Thus, Woodbury was stuck at the uninspiring Filmation. In 1985, her talent was noticed, and Woodbury moved to Disney. She started as a cleanup artist on The Great Mouse Detective, and eventually was promoted to animator on Oliver and Company and The Little Mermaid. Soon after, she animated several iconic Disney characters including Abu (Aladdin, 1992), Zazu (The Lion King, 1994), and Pegasus (Hercules, 1998). In 2005, Woodbury left Disney and became a full time sculptor. She currently teaches character animation at the Art Institute of Colorado. (Anyone who would like to read more about Woodbury can visit the blog, The 50 Most Influential Disney animators, here.)

A model sheet of Abu for Aladdin. 

7. Suzie Templeton

Never heard of her? She's one of the most talented stop-motion artists around.

Perhaps no other career is as time consuming as being a stop-motion animator. Up until a few years ago (thanks to the invention of 3D printers), the average stop-motion film took around five years to make. For this very reason, the technique is less commonly used than other forms of animation. Yet a handful of artists have perfected the craft. One of them is Suzie Templeton.

Interestingly enough, Templeton was not originally inserted in becoming an animator. Although she helped her brothers make several homemade movies during her childhood, Templeton graduated in sciences and held odd jobs in different countries for several years. Dissatisfied, she went back to school and switched to humanities. It was only after seeing Wallace and Gromit, that Templeton entered the realm of animation.

Although she originally planned to work for commercial studios like Aardman, Templeton found the studio model incompatible with her style. So she decided to work independently on more personal projects, than to appeal to the masses. (Perhaps this is because her films tend to deal with dense subjects, such as unhappy marriage, loneliness, and death.) Templeton completed two short films at her university, the Royal College of Art, "Stanley" (1999) and "Dog" (2001), which met much acclaim. In 2006, Templeton released her take on "Peter and the Wolf", a half an hour testament of her skill. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Currently, Templeton is working on an undisclosed feature film.

All of Templeton's puppets are extremely detailed.

8. Nina Paley

Independent animator, cartoonist, and free culture activist.

Nina Paley is one of the most active female animators today. She made several short films starting at the age of 13, but did not really begin experimenting with animation until 1998, after she published two moderately successful comic strips, Nina's Adventures and Fluff. Some of her shorts made during this period include: "Pandorama" (1999), the world's first camera-less IMAX film, "Fetch!" (2001), a humorous take on optical illusions, and "The Stork" (2002), a commentary about overpopulation and consumerism.

In 2008, Paley generated much attention for her first feature film, Sita Sings the Blues, which interprets the Indian epic The Ramayana from Sita's perspective and compares it to Paley's own marriage struggles. Due to issues with clearing rights for the film's soundtrack, Paley has often criticized the inefficiency of copyright laws. (Perhaps this best demonstrated by her short, "Copying is Not Theft" [2009]). Currently, Paley writes the comic-strip Mimi and Eunice, and is working on a second film entitled Seder Masochism.

In order to fiancee her projects, Paley works as freelance artist. Notably, she designed the Cruzio Wireless cat logo. Paley is entirely self taught. Although she studied art at the University of Illinois, she never took any formal animation classes. Her work may seem simplistic from a technical standpoint, but her attention to detail and sense of composition makes up for it. Paley boldly tackles many controversial topics that many other animators and directors tend to gloss over or avoid, but she does so without being overly mean spirited and with a good dosage of humor.  

Sita Sings the Blues proves that even Flash animation can be used creatively.

9. Brenda Chapman

Chapman is likely the best known female animator today, thanks to Brave (and the controversy surrounding it).

Brenda Chapman has certainly been in the news a lot lately, but her career in film stretches back to 1989, when she worked as a story trainee on Disney's The Little Mermaid after graduating from CalArts with BFA in character animation. Chapman served as a writer and storyboard artist for many renaissance films, such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Lion King (1994), and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). She also worked on several DreamWorks films and co-diercted The Prince of Egypt (1997), making her the first woman to direct an animated feature at a major studio.

In 2003, Brenda moved to Pixar. Five years later, it was announced that she was to direct the company's first fairytale film, The Bear and the Bow, which eventually was renamed Brave. However, Chapman was removed as director due to creative disagreements, and replaced by Mark Andrews. Despite her dissatisfaction with her removal (and move to LucasArts), Brenda was happy with the film's results, and how it remained loyal to the mother-daughter relationship she wanted to portray.

Some impressive concept art for Brave.

10. Lauren MacMullan

Lauren Macmullan (right) with producer Dorothy McKim (left) at the D23 expo. 

Macmullan has directed and storyboarded for several companies over the years. Her speciality seems to be writing for television shows, as she has worked on The Critic, The Simpsons, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, which are some of the most widely acclaimed animated series ever made. Her first venture into film was The Simpsons Movie (2007), where she served as the feature's sequence director.

In 2009, Lauren began creating storyboards for the proposed Pixar film, Newt. Unfortunately, Newt never saw the light of day, due to concerns about its plot being too similar to two other animated films coming out the same year. Lauren Macmullan now seems to be content working at Disney for the time being. She storyboarded Wreck it Ralph (2012), and recently directed a short film starring Mickey Mouse, "Get a Horse!"

Macmullan is known for her use of dramatic lighting and complex facial expressions, two aspects which can often get overlooked in TV animation. Coincidentally, there are two other recent female animators of note that go by the name of Lauren: Lauren Montgomery (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Wonder Woman) and Lauren Faust (The Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic).

This Mickey Mouse short will screen alongside Frozen in November.

Stop-Motion Animation: A Brief History Part 2

By the second half of the 20th century, stop-motion animated films had become well established in the minds of movie enthusiasts and television audiences. This is primarily due to several talented individuals: Peter Lord and Nick Park of Aardman Animation, Tim Burton, and Henry Selick. Even current filmmakers continue to utilize stop-motion as an alternate to traditional animation and CGI, be they at the recently established studio, Laika, or independent filmmakers at home or abroad.

Aardman Popularizes the Medium

If you haven't heard of them, you have been living under a rock for twenty years.

Aardman is one of the oldest and most prolific stop-motion studios around today. Established in 1972 by Peter Lord and Nick Park, the company first attracted attention when it produced animated segments for the childern's programs Take Hart (1977-1983) and the Hartbeat (1984-1993). These segments featured a small Plasticine figure called Morph who would interact other inanimate objects and human actors on screen. Nick Park's "Creature Comforts" (1989) became the first Aardman production to win an oscar. The short was humorous take on the interviewing process, involving various animals complaining about their living conditions at a zoo. "Creature Comforts" later spawned a 27 episode series which ran on ITV from 2003 to 2006. "Stage Fright" (1997), a darker short about the relationship between the stage performer, Tiny, and Arnold, a arrogant, unpleasant movie actor, likewise met acclaim despite its more serious subject matter.

Aardman, however, is by far the most famous for creating its Wallace and Gromit series. Beginning in 1989 with "A Grand Day Out", the cheese loving inventor and his silent, stoic dog have gone on to appear in a total of four shorts (as of 2008) and starred in the feature film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). Shaun the Sheep, who first appeared in the short, "A Close Shave" (1995), got his own TV series beginning in 2007 and is also scheduled to get his own movie in 2015.

Although Aardman has recently produced two computer animated films, Flushed Away (2006, with Dreamworks Animation) and Arthur Christmas (2011, with Sony Pictures), the studio continues to use Plasticine as their main medium. Chicken Run (2000), an action comedy flick about a group of chickens attempting to escape a farm with the help of an American rooster, was the first of Aardman's stop-motion films. More recently, Peter Lord directed The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012) which was a modest success at the box office. Two other stop-motion films are currently in development, The Cat Burglars (director: Steve Box) and an untitled Nick Park project.

It's a POW flick starring chickens!

Tim Burton, Henry Selick, and Laika

Tim Burton making weird faces behind two characters you may recognize.

Even if his more recent films have not met as much critical praise as some of his earlier work, there is no denying the popularity of Tim Burton's uniquely gothic and often quirky productions. Burton began his career while working as an animator at Disney. The company was impressed with his work, particularly the stop-motion short, "Vincent" (1982), even though Tim Burton's style was in stark contrast to that of Disney. Thus, Burton was given more freedom to create larger projects. The result was the half hour live action Frankenweenie (1984), a black and white adaptation of the famous horror novel featuring a dog as the Frankenstein 'monster.' Unfortunately, Disney found the film too unorthodox for its standards and fired Tim Burton, fearing that the film would scare small childern. (This is extremely ironic since Disney would later commission Burton to remake Frankenweenie as a stop-motion film in 2012, after Burton had become quite famous.)

Burton's live action film, Beetlejuice (1989) utilized stop-motion special effects, although his more recent productions opted for CGI. Of course, Tim Burton remains famous for writing and producing The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Burton did not direct the film due to being preoccupied with Batman Returns (1992). Instead, the cult classic was directed by Tim Burton's long time friend and collaborator, Henry Selick. (Nightmare was also originally released under Touchstone Pictures because Disney was still fearful about offending sensitive parents.)  Selick also directed the live action stop-motion combo, James and the Giant Peach (1996), while at Disney. Although the film was not a runaway hit, it has received more recognition in recent years.

In 2005, the Oregon based stop-motion production company, Laika, was established. Its first major production was Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005), which met moderate success and was the studio's first Oscar nominated production. Henry Selick's Coraline (2009), which was based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name, managed to rank third at the box office during its opening week. Coraline boasted a mastery of stop-motion special effects and CGI unseen in any animated film before. The movie spent over three years in production and was made with over 450 animators, 250 technical designers, and nearly 150 different sets.

Laika's most recent production, Paranorman (2012), was also shot in 3D and utilized 3D printers to speed up the animation process. Paranorman is a comedy horror film about a misfit boy. Norman's ability to talk with the dead allows him to save his town from the curse of a witch and some rampaging (but likewise misunderstood) zombies. Laika is currently working on The Boxtrolls, which is due to release next year on September 26th. Meanwhile, Henry Selick has returned to Disney and is set to direct an adaptation of The Graveyard Book and, possibly, an original project entitled The Shadow King. (Outside of Burton, Selick, and Laika, other recent American stop-motion productions include Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox [2009] and... the upcoming CGI and pop reference filled The Lego Movie [2014].)

If you haven't already, watch this movie!

 Stop-motion Overseas

Be it at at home or abroad, stop-motion animation doesn't show signs of disappearing anytime soon.

As with hand drawn animation, stop-motion is still commonly used by foreign and freelance animators, despite that major Hollywood players prefer to exclusively use CGI. Winter Days (2003) is perhaps the most ambitious and overlooked production made in the past ten years. The film was a collaboration between 35 animators living in several countries including Japan, Russia, Belgium, Canada, and the Netherlands. Winter Days utilized several animation techniques alongside stop-motion and featured various shorts based upon different Japanese poems. Another Japanese film, The Book of the Dead (2005) was set in during the Nara period, when Buddhism was being introduced from China to Japan. It follows the life of Iratsume, a noblewoman, and her relationship with the religion.

Several productions have also been made throughout Europe and in other countries in recent years. The Legend of the Sky Kingdom (2003) was Zimbabwe's (and Africa's) first animated feature. Although having a somewhat cliche plot, the animation itself was fairly unique. Each puppet was made from trash that the creators happened to find lying around their facility. Peter and the Wolf (2006) was produced by a British-Polish-Norwegian team and, despite having a run time of only 33 minutes, has caught the attention of several movie festivals. Peter and the Wolf is a true classic, not only because it manages to adapt a timeless tale for modern audiences successfully, but also because it manages to convey so much emotion without using any dialogue. Also of note is $9.99 (2008) an Australian / Israeli collaboration about an unemployed man searching for the meaning of life. In 2009 alone, three foreign stop-motion were released. Toys in the Attic was a Czech attempt at recapturing the spirit of earlier Eastern European animation, whereas A Town Called Panic (Belgium / Luxemburg) was a more slapstick, carefree film about small plastic toys. Mary and Max's (Australia) subject matter, involving a shy man with Aspergers and his young pen-pal, shows just how diverse the animated medium can be.

This short film won an Academy Award (and, in my humble opinion, is superior to the Disney version).

Stop-Motion Animation: A Brief History Part 1

To follow up my previous post on stop-motion special effects, I have put together a 'brief' (two part) article about  the usage of stop-motion in purely animated productions. Although stop-motion may be deemed 'primitive' or may be seen as less refined when compared to computer animation, the technique has a very rich and complex history and is still utilized today. Stop-motion's scope ranges from the cheery Christmas specials of Rankin-Bass to the strange, twisted films of Henry Selick and Tim Burton. It is popular not only with big producers, but also with filmmakers using shoestring budgets on Youtube. Perhaps the medium's appeal lies in building real-life worlds or creating tangible characters. Which ever the case, there is no denying the huge amount of labor and creativity that goes into creating a stop-motion film.

Ladislas Starevich: The Overlooked Innovator

Amazingly enough, these detailed figures were made over made over 75 years ago.

If you were to mention the name 'Ladislas Starevich' to one of your friends, you probably would be met with a confused look, even if they happened to be knowledgeable about animation. Despite this, however, Ladislas Starevich is a crucial figure in the history of stop-motion. He was one of the first filmmakers to perfect the technique, his earliest work dating back to the, now lost, short film "The Beautiful Lukanida" (1910). Starevich had an intense fascination with the natural world and many of his early films utilized dead insects and small animals as puppets (Starevich first chose to do so because he found live insects incredibly difficult to film). Within a year, Starevich had garnered attention throughout all of Poland. His 1911 film, "The Ant and the Grasshopper", was even honored by the tsar. Starevich also produced several other successful films up until 1920, when he and his family were forced to emigrate to France due to The Russian Revolution.

Starevich's later work became increasingly more sophisticated and surreal. He and his family made all of their film's sets themselves and began to construct their own handmade puppets (no longer from dead insects). His quirky and sometimes dark sense of humor, attention to detail, and portrayal of emotion transcended across demographics. Much of Starevich's work was not simply 'childern's stuff.' Indeed in the moral story, "Frogland" (1922), the foolish and greedy protagonists wish for a better king. But the king ends up being a stork, who proceeds to eat all of the frogs. Although American producers became interested in his work, Starevich was fiercely independent. He chose to make films completely within his own control, despite being offered large sums of money.

By the beginning of 1930s, Starevich had started transitioning to sound and his daughter, Irene, began to increasingly help him make (and appear in) his films. "The Old Lion" (1932) was the impressive result. The film encouraged Starevich and his small crew to start working on a feature length  production. At the same time, he made several successful shorts about the misadventures of Duffy, a small stuffed dog, beginning with "The Mascot" (1933), which remains, perhaps, his most famous piece. Starevich's 65 minute epic, The Tale of the Fox, was finally completed after ten years in 1937. Although it proved to be quite successful in its homeland, The Tale of the Fox remains rather obscure in many Western countries due to France being under German control at the time. Starevich continued to make films up until his death in 1965, although none of them meet the same acclaim his previous efforts met. His final film, Like Dog and Cat, remains unfinished.      

Yes, he used dead bugs. But they made good puppets!

Other European Pioneers

Lotte Reiniger produced the oldest surviving animated film and was one of the first female animators.

Several other people living throughout Europe made stop-motion films during the first half of the 20th century. Lotte Reingier's intricate use of silhouette cutouts made her productions quite unique and beautiful to behold. Today, her best known work is the 1926 animated feature, The Adventures of Prince Achmed. Reingier lived in Germany until 1933, when she and her husband fled the country due to their involvement with left winged politics. Reingier kept herself busy throughout the 1950s by making short adaptations of Grim's Fairytales for BBC and Telecasting America. Another notable film from Germany was The Seven Ravens (1937), an adaption of the folktale of the same name.

 The Crab with the Golden Claws (Belgium, 1947) was notable for being one of the earliest movie adaptations based upon a popular comic character. Although made on a tight budget, the film was fairly loyal to the original Tintin strip. Unfortunately, The Crab with the Golden Claws was only screened twice before its producer went bankrupt. Czechoslovakia director, Jiri Trnka, made several stop-motion shorts and features throughout his life in addition to illustrating childern's books. The Emperor's Nightingale (1949) an adaptation of the Han Christian Anderson story, his version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959), and the anti-totalitarianism short, "The Hand"(1965), have all met great acclaim throughout Eastern Europe and at film festivals.  

Tintin's film debute was far less elaborate than the recent Spielberg production.  

Popular Russian Shorts and the 'Golden Snail'

Meet Cheburashka, Russia's most popular whatchamacallit.

Soyuzmultfilm of the Soviet Union made several notable stop-motion puppet films throughout the 1960s and into the 1980s. Roman Kachanov's movies remain widely watched by Russian audiences today. His wordless short, "The Mitten" (1967), centers around a young girl with a bookish mother and a large imagination. The girl fantasizes that a mitten she finds on the ground becomes the pet puppy that she always wanted and she enters it in a dog fetching contest. Kachanov meet even greater success with his film series (made between 1969 to 1982) centering around the childern's book character, Cheburashka. Cheburashka is small imaginary teddybear-like creature with a childlike innocence and youthful personality who turns up one day in a box of oranges at a grocery store. His neighborhood adventures with his friend Gina the Crocodile and the cranky old lady, Shapoklyak, are quite popular in many countries outside of Russia as well, particularly in Japan. 

Another notable filmmaker is Yuri Norstein. Norstein is one of the world's most renowned animators. After working many years at Soyuzmultfilm, he began producing films on his own. Although he has only made seven films in total, each one his lovingly crafted with extreme attention to small details. Yuri's small but impressive output earned him the nickname the 'Golden Snail'. His work stands out not only due to his unique use of cutouts and glass layering, but also due to their wide range of subjects. Norstein's "The Fox and the Hare" (1973) and "The Heron and the Crane" (1974) were based on well known Russian folktales and aimed at a general audience. Likewise, his best known short, "The Hegehog in the Fog" (1975) was about a small hedgehog overcoming his fear of getting lost in the woods in order to meet with his friend, Bear. Norstein's other shorts, "The Battle of the Kerzhenets" (1971) and the acclaimed "The Tale of Tales"(1979), were more complex dramas adressing historical and contemporary events and issues in the Soviet Union.

"The Fox and the Hare" is a fable story in the finest tradition.

Although the heyday of Russian animation is long bygone and many artists have had a hard time finding sufficient funding since the fall of the Soviet Union, stop-motion films are occasionally still made. Yuri Norstein has kept busy on his feature length picture, The Overcoat, which has been in troubled production since 1981. "An Autumn Moon" (1993) recalled the wordless shorts of Roman Kachanov and The Ugly Duckling (2011), adapted the famous fairytale of the same name for a theatrical release. Another upcoming feature of note is Gofmaniada. Set to be released in 2014 by Soyuzmultfilm, Gofmaniada was initially planned to premiere in 2008. However, the ambitious project has proved to be very expensive and time consuming for the once successful studio.      

Entry into the USA

 Gumby, everyone's favorite...piece of living celery?

Up until fairly recently, stop-motion animation (outside of special effects) was less prominent in the United States than it was in European countries. Hungarian-born George Pal is often credited for introducing stop-motion shorts to the USA. He created several of his Puppetoons films from 1934 to 1947 before moving on to produce several live-action features. Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy (1954) was an another early effort. Although it remains a little known curiosity today, the 72 minute movie was notable for being one of the few non-Disney features made at the time.

Arguably, the Gumby series (1955-1969) and Rankin-Bass's various Holiday specials (i.e. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer [1964] and A Year Without Santa Claus [1974]) really helped cement the presence of stop-motion animation in America. They were often played over television airwaves and became a staple part of many people's childhoods, even if they were lacking in budget and limited in their resources. Will Vinton also met some success with his short films (including the Oscar winning "Closed Mondays" [1974]) and the various TV spots he made for California Raisins. He also directed the ill fated The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985) which is chiefly remembered for its overwhelming bizarreness and the many liberties it took from its source material.

Because of Rankin/Bass, everyone associated stop-motion with Christmas specials.