And the cartoon critters keep on coming. Last month Flushed Away, this month Happy Feet. But just because every other kiddy film is digital animation (albeit not up to the standard set by Toy Story and Shrek) it doesn't mean the old techniques are dead.
Japanese genius Hayao Miyazaki still uses traditional cel animation in enchanting yarns like Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, as did Sylvain Chomet in the quirky, melancholy and virtually dialogue-free Belleville Rendez-Vous.
Another traditional technique is stop motion, in which models are fractionally moved between frames. You can see it in the original King Kong, and in Ray Harryhausen's army of skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts (right), as well as in the work of East European animators such as Wladyslaw Starewicz, whose Tale of the Fox, complete with stuffed
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Animation isn’t just kid’s stuff, according to anne billson. Check out our online festival |
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animals, looks as sharp and witty now as it must have done in 1930, or the brilliant surrealist Jan Svankmajer, whose films include a version of Alice in Wonderland (though I prefer his sinister shorts).
But stop motion is still going strong: modern maestros include Nick Park, of Wallace & Gromit fame, and Henry Sellick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas.
In short, we're living in a golden age of animation. The Simpsons and South Park are proof that cartoon TV series are no longer just for kids, while the internet is now providing budding animators with a venue undreamt-of back in the days when public access was limited to Looney Tunes or the latest Disney.
Check out The First Post's Soho screening room, where the treasures on offer include the demented LP Attack. The spirit of Terry Gilliam's Monty Python cut-outs lives on! 
FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 22, 2006 |
