SpinnersLibrarian/moviestillsdb
Stop motion animation is the grueling but creatively fulfilling technique of photographing an inanimate object in sequence, creating the magical illusion of motion. It is hard enough to make a stop-motion short film, let alone a full-length feature. Making a stop-motion animation can take years, but there is something tactical about it. The sets, costumes, and lighting are real and handmade. Stop motion has been around since the dawn of cinema. Stop motion was often used as special effects in live-action films like King Kong, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, and Ghostbusters. Let’s check out the 20 greatest stop-motion films.
20. The House
John Phillips/Getty Images
The House is not your typical kid-friendly stop motion. It is a horror anthology film with a splash of dark comedy. It is broken into three segments: And heard within, a lie is spun, Then lost is the truth that can’t be won, and Listen again and seek the sun. Each segment had a unique style and had a different director. It has a wonderful voice-acting cast, including Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Goth, Jarvis Cocker, and Matthew Goode. It is also rated very high on Rotten Tomatoes with a ninety-seven percent. The film was produced by Nexus Studios but was considered Netflix’s first stop-motion film. The House was loosely inspired by the acclaimed TV series The Twilight Zone.
19. The Boxtrolls
slidemen/moviestillsdb
The Boxtrolls is based on the Alan Snow novel Here Be Monsters! It was co-directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi and was their first large-scale movie. The voice actors in this film include Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Nick Frost, Jared Harris, and Richard Ayoade. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. It has a respectable ninety-seven percent on Rotten Tomatoes. This fun, dark, family-friendly animation was another example of how Laika Studios continues to push the bar in terms of stop motion. Fifty-six sets were built for the film, and over five hundred thousand faces were made to give the characters emotional depth.
18. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
kewin/moviestillsdb
Peter Lord, known for Chicken Run, co-directed The Pirates! Band of Misfits with Jeff Newitt, who made his directorial debut with this film. The film was based on Gideon Defoe’s book series The Pirates! This family-friendly, swashbuckling pirate film is hilarious partially due to the incredible voice actors, including Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, and Jeremy Piven. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Critics loved the film, giving it an eighty-six percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Incredibly, three hundred twenty animators and artists worked on the film over eighteen months. Two hundred fifty puppets were built, each having upwards of fifty heads with different expressions. Lastly, the film had forty-four sets.
17. My Life as a Zucchini
loytopires/moviestillsdb
My Life as a Zucchini is a Swiss film based on the Gilles Paris novel Autobiographie d’une Courgette. Claude Barras made his feature directorial debut with this dramatic stop-motion film. It caught the attention of the Academy Awards and was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. Critics resonated with the film, giving it an immensely high Rotten Tomatoes score of ninety-nine percent. The film originally was produced in French. It took two years to make the film. The artist designed the puppets with exaggerated features like large heads and eyes. It is a poignant film that deals with grief, love, and friendship.
16. Frankenweenie
yodasimpson/moviestillsdb
Tim Burton remade his short live-action film Frankenweenie into a stop-motion feature. It is shot in black-in-white to give it a classic monster film vibe similar to Frankenstein, to which it pays homage. Some of Burton’s usual suspects provide their voice-acting talents, including Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, and Martin Landau. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a solid eighty-seven percent. Over two hundred puppets were made for the film, with around three hundred interchangeable faces. The film perfectly blends macabre tones with dark humor. It is also emotionally touching at times.
15. ParaNorman
moviepics1001/moviestillsdb
ParaNorman is a creepy, family-friendly comedy-horror stop motion. It was directed by Chris Butler, known for Missing Link, and Sam Fell, known for Flushed Away and The Tale of Despereraux. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It received an eighty-nine percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It stars Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. ParaNorman was innovative for stop motion. It was the first stop-motion film to use full-color 3D-printed faces, allowing for over 1.5 million different expressions. It had two hundred seventy-five sets and over eighteen hundred puppets. The titular character, Norman, had over two seventy-five thousand strands in his hair. All this hard work paid off, as the film is gorgeous, and the animation is fluid.
14. Pinocchio
michaella92/moviestillsdb
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a dark reimagination of the classic story of Pinocchio. It is set in Italy in the thirties, during the height of Italian fascism. It is an interesting blend of a whimsical musical and a dark fantasy. The voice-acting includes Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton. The film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It became the second stop-motion animated feature film to win an Oscar, the first being Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Carlo Collodi’s novel inspired del Toro’s visual designs of the character. Sixty sets were used in the productions, as well as one thousand props.
13. Anomalisa
elreviewero/moviestillsdb
Charlie Kaufman, known for writing Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, wrote and co-directed his first animated feature, Anomalisa. Kaufman created a sound play and based the film on that source material. It is a surreal, dramatic romance that is made for more of a mature audience. It explores themes of loneliness and human connection. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. It has an intimate cast of only three voice actors, David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tom Noonan, who plays everyone, excluding the main two characters. Critics praised the film, giving it a ninety-one percent Rotten Tomatoes score. The film took two years to make. What makes the film unique is that the puppets used accurate human portions and looked realistic. It is a rare treat to see something so original.
12. Isle of Dogs
massi/moviestillsdb
Wes Anderson followed up his first stop motion animation, Fantastic Mr. Fox, with Isle of Dogs. Anderson has a distinct quirky style and clever use of symmetry in his films, and Isle of Dogs is no exception. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature. Anderson took inspiration from Kurosawa films, who is known for Seven Samari and Rashomon. Over a thousand puppets were used in the film. Anderson used real fur for the dogs to give them a sense of realism. There were also two hundred forty immaculate sets, which is a feat on its own but even more impressive considering how intricate each set was. Fun fact: if you say the film’s name quickly, it sounds like “I love dogs.”
11. Wendell & Wild
carlito/moviestillsdb
Henry Selick, known for The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, directed and co-wrote Wendell & Wild with Jordan Peele, known for Get Out and Us. Before adapting it into a stop-motion film, Selick wrote a children’s book with the same name. The designs of the characters were inspired by African American folklore. The voice-over cast includes Lyric Ross, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Angela Bassett, and James Hong. It was nominated for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature. It is an underrated film, but critics enjoyed it with eighty percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It is dark, fantastical, and scary but also funny. It is also celebrated for its diversity.
10. Mad God
timothy2/moviestillsdb
It took over thirty years for writer and director Phil Tippett to make his passion project, Mad God. Tippett is a special effects guru, specifically in the stop-motion world. He worked on huge blockbuster films like Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and RoboCop. Mad God is a hellish nightmare, a surreal trip not for the faint of heart. It is artistic, gross, creepy, and completely original. It is a divisive film that critics loved, giving it ninety-one percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience score was only sixty-one percent. The film almost did not happen until a Kickstarter campaign and volunteers made the film a reality.
9. Corpse Bride
spinnerslibrarian/moviestillsdb
Corpse Bride is a creepy, fantastical stop-motion musical directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson. A 19th-century Russian folktale loosely inspired the film. It is highly stylized, with beautiful sets, costumes, and characters from Burton’s mind. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Critics gave it an eighty-four percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a terrific voice-actor cast, including Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, and Albert Finney. Corpse Bride was the first stop-motion animated feature to use digital photography instead of film. The film was shot over fifty-five weeks, animating on average two seconds of footage daily.
8. Chicken Run
spinnerlibrarian/moviestillsdb
Directors Peter Lord and Nick Park were part of the team that brought the world Wallace & Gromit franchise and made their first feature-length stop motion film, Chicken Run. Lord and Park had been working on it for nearly twenty years. World War II escape films inspired the film, like The Great Escape. It is a fun comedy adventure film with voice-actor talent, including Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Miranda Richardson, Tony Haygarth, and Timothy Spall. It was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best British Film. It received a ninety-seven percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It was such a popular film that, at the time, it became the highest-grossing stop-motion animation film, earning $227.8 million worldwide. The film used five hundred chicken puppets.
7. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
spinnerslibrarian/moviestillsdb
Based on Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit short films and TV series, director Nick Park and Steve Box created the stop-motion feature film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The beloved character Wallace was inspired by Park’s father, who had an affinity for cheese. The film was the first stop-motion feature to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It had a high score of ninety-five percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It took five years to make the film. The film holds the Guinness World Record for the largest set built for a stop-motion animation. It was regarded highly for its impressive stop animation techniques. The Wallace character had over seven hundred mouthpieces to give the character a wide range of emotions.
6. James and the Giant Peach
grzegorz77/moviestillsdb
Director Henry Selick followed up his masterpiece The Nightmare Before Christmas with another brilliant stop-motion animation film, James and the Giant Peach. It was based on the beloved Roald Dahl novel of the same name. The transition from live-action to stop motion is reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz’s transition from black and white to color. It is a fun adventure fantasy film, full of eye candy and imagination. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Music or Comedy Score. It scored ninety-one percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Over four hundred puppets were created for the film. It was not a huge hit at the box office, only grossing $28.9 million, compared to the budget of $38 million. However, it has been regarded by critics and audiences as a masterful film full of wonder.
5. Kubo and the Two Strings
japon123/moviestillsdb
Kubo and the Two Strings was directed by Travis Knight, who made his directorial debut. He later went on to direct Bumblebee. The film was inspired by Japanese art and mythology. It stars Art Parkinson, Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Ralph Fiennes, and Rooney Mara. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Critics celebrated the film, giving it a ninety-seven percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The film did many impressive things for a stop-motion film. They used the largest stop-motion puppet ever created. It was the Skeleton Demon, standing at a massive sixteen feet tall. The film also perfected the use of 3D printing, which made it possible to make over forty-eight million different expressions for Kubo, not to mention the other characters. It was a massive undertaking, taking five years to film, with a crew of three hundred fifty people. It is wildly imaginative, with an original story, characters, and world.
4. Fantastic Mr. Fox
SpinnersLibrarian/moviestillsdb
Wes Anderson has a distinct style that combines whimsy, irreverent wit, calculated framing, meticulous sets, props, costumes, and more. Anderson has directed films like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums but ventures into a new medium of animation, specifically stop motion, with his film Fantastic Mr. Fox. The film is based on the cherished Roald Dahl children’s novel of the same name. It has a stacked cast, including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Michael Gambon. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It received a high score on Rotten Tomatoes of ninety-three percent. Anderson’s use of real fur on the puppets gave the film a unique look. Anderson also had a unique approach to recording the voice actors in natural settings instead of a studio, which gave the performances a more authentic feel.
3. Coraline
spinnerslibrarian/moviestillsdb
Coraline is a dark fantasy horror story with the perfect aesthetic for the visionary filmmaker Henry Selick. It is based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name. It stars Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Keith David, and Robert Bailey Jr. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Critics praised the film, giving it a ninety percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Coraline was the first feature film released by the studio Laika. The film was the first stop motion film to be shot entirely in 3D, which brought the dreamlike world to life. Over one hundred thirty intricate sets were built for the film. It took eighteen months to complete the film, involving over five hundred people, to make it come to fruition.
2. Mary and Max
spinnerslibrarian/moviesillsdb
Mary and Max is a sweet, dark dramedy that is made for adults. The extremely underrated film was directed by Adam Elliot, who is known for the Academy Award-winning short stop-motion animation Harvie Krumpet. The use of color in the film juxtaposes New York and Australia and enhances the emotional state of the characters. The film is based on Elliot’s relationship with a pen pal for over two decades. It stars Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana, and Barry Humphries. It received an impressive ninety-five percent on Rotten Tomatoes. There were two hundred and twelve hand-sculpted puppets created for the film. It took over five years to complete the film.
1. The Nightmare Before Christmas
pasakor/moviestillsdb
The Nightmare Before Christmas is the Citizen Kane of stop motion animations. The story, characters, and world came from the acclaimed director Tim Burton, but Henry Selick directed the film and made Burton’s vision a reality. It is a staple Halloween and Christmas movie. It is dark, fantastical, and full of catchy songs. The brilliant voice-over cast includes Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, and Ken Page. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. It is critically acclaimed, with a ninety-five percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The filmmakers achieved such a wide range of emotion in the characters by having up to four hundred interchangeable heads for each character. The epic film took three years to finish, with only twelve frames of footage filmed per day.
