Stop motion as an animation technique has found mainstream popularity with feature-length films like The Nightmare Before Christmas. However, even in the realm of short films, stop motion is a mainstay. Shorts like Fresh Guacamole and Negative Space have also earned nominations for Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars.
Aardman Animations and the legendary animator/director Nick Park have similarly helmed a revolution in stop motion after A Close Shave, an Oscar-winning comedy that introduced the characters of Wallace and Gromit (who would later go on to appear in more shorts and feature films).
The Sand Castle (1977): 7
The French short Le château de sable aka The Sand Castle is known for its usage of sand animation. The characters appeared to look like 'sand people', a feat that was achieved via sand-covered rubber puppets.
The premise is pretty philosophical as the sand is used as a metaphor for the cycle of time. A sand person builds other sand people from scratch. Together, they build a majestic sandcastle only for their creations to get wiped away by the wind. Once the dust has settled, they try restarting their construction signifying a constant chain of the same events over and over.
Madame Tutli-Putli (2007): 7.2
Madame Tutli-Putli offers no straight answers in its narrative, ending with a third act that's left open to interpretation. Overall, the film is a great study in building realistic characters in a stop-motion film. Madame Tutli-Putli boards a night train and encounters all sorts of strange and weary travelers.
As the journey doesn't seem to end, one wonders if the melancholic protagonist is running away from her past. The film definitely offers a lot of food for thought given its 17-minute duration. An interesting aspect of the animation is the use of actual human expressions when it came to the character's eyes and eyebrows. To achieve this, human eyes were composited on the stop motion puppets.
TIE: Fresh Guacamole (2012): 7.4
Clocking at just over two minutes, Fresh Guacamole is an amusing short that boasts surreal concepts and memorable visual design. Director PES (Adam Pesapane) relies on pixelation to recreate the anatomy of seemingly normal objects. The common element between all these objects is that they would ultimately help in making 'fresh guacamole'. A pair of human hands cut open a grenade, a baseball, a light bulb, and so on.
In some way or the other, these unconventional ingredients do resemble actual foodstuffs like avocado, onion, and lime. The end result is simultaneously bizarre and aesthetic.
TIE: Negative Space (2017): 7.4
Negative Space explores the human practice of associating a particular activity with a certain someone. In this case, the protagonist re his father every time he packs his suitcase. Back in his childhood, his father was often out of town but connected with his son through the 'art of packing'.
The seemingly mundane act of packing a suitcase had turned out to be an acquired skill for the son who now misses his old man while transitioning to adulthood. In its exploration of the father-son relationship, Negative Space offers no easy answers but echoes with a universally relatable experience throughout its duration.
Peter & The Wolf (2006): 7.6
Peter & The Wolf is actually a children's symphonic fairytale by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev that has been adapted many a time in the animated format. A 2006 stop-motion rendition similarly makes use of Prokofiev's original musical compositions. However, while the original often relies on a narrator, the short film decides to convey the story without any words.
With a gritty look and realistic actions, this Oscar-winning short sets itself apart from its predecessors (including a Disney adaptation of the source material). The titular hero is a boy who's shunned by most of his village but when a wolf terrorizes all the animals in the vicinity, Peter takes it upon himself to tame the beast and win over the villagers.
Harvie Krumpet (2003): 8
Australian animator and director Adam Elliott is perhaps best known for his bittersweet claymation drama-comedy Mary & Max. In of understanding old-age troubles, there are many similarities between this film and his Oscar-winning short Harvie Krumpet. The titular hero is an aging man with Tourette Syndrome who is still willing to experience the bright side of life.
His health issues and bizarre tendencies often put him in trouble but Krumpet's optimism doesn't seem to waver. Further bolstered by Geoffrey Rush's narration, Harvie Krumpet brims with hilarity and sadness.
TIE: More (1998): 8.1
Mark Osborne has a diverse animated filmography ranging from the latter was more philosophical and seemed to resemble his debut film, a 1998 short called More.
More was set in a grim, colorless dystopia where an inventor toils every day to come up with a gadget that can restore the world to what it once was. But in this process, the unnamed scientist must give a part of himself. A heartfelt tale of a hopeless man, More was nominated at the Oscars but it eventually lost to Bunny (a computer-animated short that was later featured in Ice Age).
TIE: A Close Shave (1995): 8.1
The third short film based around eccentric inventor Wallace and his smart dog Gromit, A Close Shave is considered to be a landmark work of stop motion till today. The plot revolves around a murder mystery in which Gromit is accused of killing sheep while Wallace tries to clear his name.
Apart from an Oscar win, the short is known for building on the popularity of its two leads who would later appear in the feature-length film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Further, A Close Shave also gave the world its first glimpse at Shaun the Sheep who shares a brief role in the film. Shaun would, of course, have his own titular franchise in the future.
TIE: The Wrong Tros (1993): 8.3
Marking the second appearance of Wallace and Gromit, The Wrong Tros finds the iconic duo encountering a sly penguin who lives in a rented room in their house. Unknown to them, the penguin orchestrates a diamond robbery by using one of Wallace's strange inventions, a pair of mechanical tros.
As Wallace dons the pair, the penguin rewires them and controls the scientist to attain his own sinister goals. Outrightly hilarious, the short is also filled with creative action sequences in showing Wallace's misadventures with the tros.
TIE: Vincent (1982): 8.3
Vincent makes for essential viewing for Frankeneweenie.
The Disney-produced short is a character study of the young boy Vincent who sees himself as a 'troubled man' and a 'mad scientist' after an obsession with author Edgar Allan Poe and horror actor Vincent Price (who also serves as the narrator). All in all, the film is Burton at his most earnest, serving as a love letter to his horror icon. Price would go on to appear in Burton's Edward Scissorhands in the future.
