Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was one of the best movies of 2022, and while I was hoping that the film’s successes would lead to a resurgence in stop-motion movies, I am still worried about the medium after Netflix’s Oscar winner. I have always been a fan of stop-motion, and while there are still all kinds of stop-motion movie classics that I can go back and watch, new stop-motion movies are incredibly rare. Movies of the quality of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio barely come out, and I’m not sure if things are going to get better.
For a long time, I was worried that Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio wasn’t going to get made. The acclaimed director had been pitching the idea around for over a decade before the film was actually released, with most studios not wanting to fund it. Every time del Toro moved on to a different project, I was worried that it would be the last that we saw of the film. Luckily, when Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio finally got a 2022 release date, I knew I was only a short time away from seeing the film and how it would impact the animation industry.
Netflix’s Pinocchio Was A Major Hit (But It Hasn’t Saved The Stop Motion Industry)
Despite It’s Critical Successes
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Upon the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio on Netflix, it became clear that the film was a massive hit. While the film’s streaming release makes it impossible to know how many views it got, it had more of a cultural impact than most other Netflix original movies. The film was critically acclaimed and it is still talked about today, with it even winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 2023 Oscars. The film’s successes made me hopeful that we would see a resurgence in the popularity of stop-motion movies, but sadly, that hasn’t seemed to be the case.
Related The Wood Sprite’s Introduction & The 9 Other Most Disturbing Moments In Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio The Wood Sprite in Pinnochio is a characteristically disturbing creation by director Guillermo del Toro and one of many creepy moments in his film.
Sadly, in the two years since Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was released, there hasn’t been the resurgence in stop motion that I had hoped for. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is the only high-profile animated film that has been released since, and while there have been some interesting ones like Memoir of a Snail, they are still incredibly rare. Some major studios like Disney haven’t released a major stop-motion movie in years, and while there are a few notable stop-motion movies releasing in the future, it makes me sad to see how rare this style of animation is.
Stop Motion Animators Are Worried About The Future Of The Industry
There Are A Lot Of Artists But Very Little Work
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While at SCAD AnimationFest 2024, the Savannah College of Art and Design’s annual celebration of the art of animation, several animators from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio took the stage to talk about their time working on the film. This was one of the most exciting things I saw at SCAD AnimationFest 2024, with the trio of animators and model makers delving into how they animated the characters and crafted the world of the film. However, when the panel got to its Q&A section, I realized that the stop motion industry may be in trouble.
During these questions, it became clear how little work there is in the stop-motion animation field. It became clear that there were very few options for what to work on after Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, with the artists mentioning projects like Laika’s Wildwood and Nickelodeon’s The Tiny Chef Show. One of the artists advised the stop-motion animators at SCAD to develop a strong, profitable second skill that could lead to more reliable work.
Related Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio Ending Explained (In Detail) Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio takes a different approach to the puppet’s story. We analyze the film’s ending, its biggest points, and what it means.
This was heartbreaking to me, as there are artists who are hungry to make stop-motion animation. However, the expensive art form has led to studios not wanting to invest in it, and this reality is something that the most talented stop-motion animators are having to face.
Could We See A Boom In The Popularity Of Stop-Motion In The Future?
What Is Coming Next From The World Of Stop-Motion Animation?
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I am crossing my fingers that stop-motion animation will become just as popular as computer-animated films someday, and while this is a long way away from happening, there is a possibility that things could be getting slightly better. DC Studios just announced Dynamic Duo, a movie focused on the character of Robin from the Batman franchise. The upcoming film is being animated by New Orleans-based studio Swaybox, and this could be the start of a new era of stop-motion.
Swaybox has developed a new technique of combining stop-motion and CGI animation in order to create a new and unique style of animation, and from the tests that have been released, it looks absolutely gorgeous. The fact that DC Studios is investing in this style of animation with the Batman franchise means that this will be one of the highest-profile stop-motion releases ever, and if it succeeds, it could lead to more in the future. The film could prove that stop-motion doesn’t have to be expensive and that it can be commercially successful, with it hopefully being the savior that I thought Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio would be.