Spirits Dancing

Suzie Templeton’s animated short of Peter and the Wolf has, among other things, the most gorgeous and engaging Indian Runner duck. My pet ducks are Runners, and I just love them. Be warned, though, Peter’s one doesn’t make it…

The other three parts follow at YouTube. The film won an Academy Award in 2008 for Best Animated Short Film and is based on the 1936 composition of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev. I found a little bit info about the puppets at Pollystaffle.

(Via Espaço das Marionet@s)

Tags: animation, duck, indian runner, peter and the wolf, puppetry, puppets, stop motion

Roald Dahl’s great story Fantastic Mr. Fox is being adapted for the big screen using stop-motion animation.  Some early glimpses of the puppets have been released, and the trailer will be out at the end of the month. (Update: here it is).  More details about the production at USA Today.  As usual I am anxious about how it will be interpreted!

Tags: animation, fantastic mr. fox, puppetry, puppets, roald dahl, stop motion

Dragon is a beautiful animation ad made for United Airlines. It’s made using paper cut-out stop-motion puppets, and you can see the process and team, lead by director, Jamie Caliri, in The Making of Dragon. Caliri also directed the ending animation for Lemony Snicket.

(via Lines and Colours)

Tags: animation. video, dragon, make, paper, puppetry, puppets, stop motion

(photo by Glenn Watson)

I really laughed my way through Peter Cornwall’s Ward 13, one of a number of terrific Australian animations screened at the summit. It’s a stop-motion animation – action/horror/comedy – about a guy who has a road accident and wakes up in the hospital from hell, complete with bizarre medicines, a green tentacled blob, experimental puppy surgery, and a doctor and nurse who menace with huge dirty knives, cleavers, shears and sticks. You can download the trailer to get a taste of it, and check out how it was made.

Tags: animation, national puppetry summit, puppetry, puppets, stop motion, tasmania, ward 13

Mrsasta has a photo gallery of an exhibit of the Tim Burton puppets and concept art from The Corpse Bride. I hadn’t been drawn to see the movie until I saw these, but now I think I must.

Here also is an interview with Graham G. Maiden, the head of the puppet department on the Corpse Bride. And Stop Motion Works’ Corpse Bride page has a link showing the inside of a Corpse Bride puppet, and some on-set photos.

Tags: corpse bride, puppetry, puppets, stop motion, tim burton

In 2004, Mr Bill, a playdough character who regularly gets squished, was in a public service announcement which was part of an America’s Wetland campaign to teach how Louisiana is losing its coastal marshes and to warn about the dangers of hurricanes in New Orleans.

Tags: animation, mr bill, stop motion