In the old days, people made animation frame by frame. They have to draw all the actions one by one on the frames so that they can show them on screen. Nowadays it is much easier to create animation with all the help from software. While it does not seems to be old fashioned anymore, stop motion animation is still being created.
Stop motion animation has been around for centuries because it is one of the first generation of how an animation can be created. Making puppets and props are a extra process of the creation. Not only the one single character puppet has to be made, the expressions of characters, a LOT of props, the environment, a lot more to be considered based on how the story goes, will something break through the story, will someone transform, the process of transformation. In 2D and 3D animation, you can copy and paste on the next scenes, editing from there, saving time but in stop motion, you have to make everything that are needed for the production.
I am here to share my favourite stop motion movie so far – Kubo and The Two Strings. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch this movie in the cinema, I watched it from a website, I regret it so much. I love this movie no matter what but the feeling of watching it on the big screen will be epic.
The story is talking about a boy named Kubo. Kubo is a boy who has magical power. Everyday, he will go to the village and tell stories of his father, the almighty samurai, Hanzo with his shamisen(a Japanese instrument) and magical origami figures. He has a mother who has a deteriorating mental state. He was told not to stay out at night for the moon king will find him. However, one day he failed to reach home before the moon rises. He got attacked by a pair of sisters who introduced as his mother’s siblings. His mother saved him and sent him away, left alone to face her sisters.
Kubo woke up with a new ally, Monkey. Not long after he met Beetle with no memory. The three of them have to go on a journey to find the 3 legendary items, Sword Unbreakable, Breastplate and Helmet Invulnerable Impenetrable, in order to defeat the Moon King. Throughout this long journey, Kubo also discovered that Monkey was the reincarnated spirit of his mother and Beetle was his father who got cursed from falling in love with Kubo’s mother. Kubo was protected once again by his parents, his father and mother were killed in the end.
The Moon King appeared in front of Kubo and offered to give him immortality. Kugo refused so he started the epic fight with the Moon King who later transformed into a Moon Beast. In the end, he used the ultimate magic, Love and Memories to defeat the Moon King.
I highly recommend to watch this movie, it is still the best one I have watched so far. I adore the style of designing and the whole concept, they are very unique. The process of production is incredible too!
ANIM223 - HISTORY OF ANIMATION - FALL 2019 