10 must-see contemporary stop-motion animated movies

It’s no mystery why stop-motion animation is admired by critics and audiences alike. The extensive manual labor every visual composition requires keeps us connected to cinema’s tactile past, to an era when the term “special effects” referred to pyrotechnics and animatronics rather than CGI. Stop-motion features have a texture computers, as of now, are unable to successfully replicate.

CGI is a cheaper and, some feel, increasingly suitable alternative to stop motion—“Rango” and “The Lego Movie” mostly pulled it off, after all—but one artist who clearly understands the inimitable quality of stop motion, the beautifully imperfect aesthetic that’s produced by working with raw materials, is Guillermo del Toro, whose “Pinocchio” was launched on Netflix December 9. It’s hard not to be romantic about handcrafted animation when AI is generating art and big budget films are predominantly assembled out of frame.

That the umpteenth iteration of “Pinocchio” can generate excitement among moviegoers is entirely a testament to del Toro’s status as an event filmmaker. Thankfully, this version—2022’s second—sets itself apart in more ways than the involvement of its official title’s venerated director, giving audiences an experience that, paradoxically, is both old-fashioned and stunningly modern. It’s fitting that stop motion, achieved by manipulating puppets, clay models, and other inanimate materials, would be employed to tell the story of a wooden boy that comes to life. Del Toro uses Carlo Collodi’s 1883 novel, “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” as a vehicle to comment on Benito Mussolini’s Italy, even literalizing Pleasure Island, where mischievous boys are turned into donkeys, as a center for fascist indoctrination.

2022 has been a benchmark year for the artisanal discipline. Three stop-motion films—“GDT’s Pinocchio,” “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,” and “Wendell & Wild”—are projected to be nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar; “GDT’s Pinocchio” stands to become only the second, after “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” to win. The movie could also make history by becoming the first to get a nomination for Best Production Design. The half-hour special Netflix has released alongside the film, “Handcarved Cinema,” makes a compelling FYC ad that doubles as a love letter to the animators, concept illustrators, set and costume designers, engineers, cinematographers, and rig technicians who collaborate on films like the following nine to deliver a seamless cinematic experience.

Exciting Titles Coming Soon:

“Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is being released by Netflix 23 years after the original’s theatrical run, which remains the best ever for a stop-motion feature ($224.8 million worldwide). Also ahead are two features from Laika—“Wildwood,” a fantasy set inside an enchanted forest, and “The Night Gardener,” a neo-noir written by “Ozark” creator Bill Dubuque. Travis Knight, Laika CEO and director of “Kubo and the Two Strings,” is set to helm both. It’s recently been reported that Guillermo del Toro and Phil Tippett have discussed reviving the former’s scrapped adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness” as a stop-motion feature. Should these tentative talks manifest a shared creative effort, 2022 will only be a preview of what the medium has to offer.

Anomalisa (2015)

Charlie Kaufman’s “Anomalisa” is the kind of dry, existentialist comedy only the director of “Synecdoche, New York” and “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” could conceive. The first R-rated nominee for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, “Anomalisa” (co-directed by Duke Johnson) is part of that rare breed of animated film which caters to adults. Plagued by solipsism, a motivational speaker (David Thewlis) is rejuvenated after meeting a single woman (Jennifer Jason-Leigh) at a professional engagement. But this is no love story. Instead, “Anomalisa” questions whether selfless human connection is even possible, and the arrived-at conclusions are pretty dour. Originally written as a play, “Anomalisa” uses stop-motion to retain the source material’s surrealism and visually depict the main character’s neuroses with greater ease. PVOD only




The Wolf House (2018)

This Chilean horror is one of the most peculiar and dazzling stop-motion features you will ever see. The general premise of “The Wolf House” involves a German religious colony in Chile and an escaped dissident who finds herself secluded inside a cabin with her own nightmares. But this dark fairytale’s historical allusions and Kafkaesque pacing render that a superficial description of the experience engineered by Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña, who labored to complete “The Wolf House” for five years. Even in a visually distinct art form, “The Wolf House” stands out. Instead of traditional puppets or figures made of clay, the film brings to life papier-mâché models. The aesthetic sometimes makes for jarring, but never boring, viewing. Available on Tubi

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Isle of Dogs (2018)

Wes Anderson’s second foray into stop-motion is even more visually intricate than 2009’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Set in a futuristic Japanese city that’s as meticulously designed as any of the ornate, panoramic sets that’ve become the director’s trademark, “Isle of Dogs” is about a pandemic-triggered banishment of canines to a floating trash heap. Typical to an Anderson film, the cast is enormous and populated by big names playing small parts. “Isle of Dogs” features Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Liev Schreiber, Tilda Swinton and Jeff Goldblum, to name a few. In addition to its Best Animated Feature nomination, the movie got a nod for Alexandre Desplat’s score. The composer has received 11 nominations (winning twice). Available on Disney+




Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

An epic fantasy set in feudal Japan, “Kubo and the Two Strings” follows a young boy who, armed with a magical string instrument and accompanied by a snow monkey and a beetle, battles mysterious forces while uncovering the secrets of his family’s past. The film’s conceptual art was heavily influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, making stop-motion the ideal format in which to tell the story. The 2016 Laika feature—with voice work by Charlize Theron, Ralph Fiennes, Matthew McConaughey, George Takei and Rooney Mara—was the first animated film since 1993’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” to score an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. Available on the Roku Channel

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The House (2022)

“The House” is about a curious building’s hold over members of three species across three eras. Each act is helmed by different filmmakers—Emma de Swaef, Marc James Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, and Paloma Baeza—but sustains the anthology’s deadpan, offbeat vibe. The first chapter follows an impoverished 19th-century family that is gifted a mansion by a land developer with a sadistic ulterior motive; the second tracks the misfortunes of an anthropomorphic rodent in the present day as his efforts to flip the refurbished house are complicated by a couple prospective buyers; finally, a cat tries to defend her dream home from rising sea levels. Is the movie a comment on materialism? The inevitability of nature? Some combination of both? Whatever your takeaway from this bizarre gem, the animation will endlessly impress you. The first act’s wiry wool puppets lend the film a texture only stop-motion can translate to the screen. It’s a shame “The House” wasn’t listed on the roster, just released, of titles eligible to compete for Best Animated Feature. The movie boasts a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a voice cast that includes Mia Goth, Matthew Goode, Jarvis Cocker and Helena Bonham Carter. Available on Netflix




Mad God (2022)

Phil Tippett is an industry legend known for his special effects work, both practical and computer-generated, on the original “Star Wars” trilogy, “Dragonslayer,” “Robocop,” and “Jurassic Park.” The revered FX engineer—the Dino Supervisor, as he’s known to the internet—had been struggling for 30 years to complete his experimental passion project, “Mad God”, until Shudder finally released the Kickstarter-funded post-apocalyptic horror this year. A mind-bending composite of Cronenbergian body horror, Dante’s “Inferno,” and even “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Mad God” fascinates even when its structureless narrative becomes opaque. The streaming revolution may have its downsides, but Hollywood’s below-the-line legends getting to actualize their cinematic aspirations without the specter of box office revenue hanging overhead certainly isn’t one of them. Available on Shudder

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Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2022)

“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” is based on Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp’s viral series of shorts from the early 2010s. Aided by a friendly human (played by Fleischer-Camp, the film’s director) and his Nana Connie (voiced by Isabella Rossellini), an adorable, one-inch-tall mollusk (voiced by Slate) harnesses the infinite powers of mass media—and Lesley Stahl—to find his dislocated family. After some deliberation, the AMPAS found “Marcel the Shell,” which mixes live-action and stop-motion filmmaking, eligible to compete for Best Animated Feature. Precursor victories (NYFCC and NBR) further legitimized its candidacy. The life-affirming stop-motion dramedy premiered at Telluride ‘21 and topped the festival’s professional’s poll, beating eventual Oscar winners “Belfast” and “King Richard.” PVOD only




Missing Link (2019)

Set during the latter half of the Victorian era, when the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” had reinvigorated the collection of specimens, “Missing Link” is a Western about adventurer Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman), who stakes his reputation on Big Foot’s existence. His efforts to track the mythical beast (Zach Galifianakis) in North America—he believes it to be man’s common ancestor with apes – are thwarted by naturalists who dogmatically oppose Darwin’s writings on gradual selection. The characters’ highly expressive faces were achieved with “replacement animation,” a technique that involves swapping detachable, 3D-printed masks between frames. “Corpse Bride’s” animation team began the transition from replaceable headpieces by manipulating gear shifts with a hex key. The incorporation of 3D printing is one way Laika has kept pace with technological advancement without mitigating hands-on involvement. Over 106,000 facepieces were reportedly produced for “Missing Link.” Available on Tubi

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Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

That the umpteenth iteration of “Pinocchio” can generate excitement among moviegoers is entirely a testament to del Toro’s status as an event filmmaker. Thankfully, this version—2022’s second—sets itself apart in more ways than the involvement of its official title’s venerated director, giving audiences an experience that, paradoxically, is both old-fashioned and stunningly modern. It’s fitting that stop motion, achieved by manipulating puppets, clay models, and other inanimate materials, would be employed to tell the story of a wooden boy that comes to life. Del Toro uses Carlo Collodi’s 1883 novel, “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” as a vehicle to comment on Benito Mussolini’s Italy, even literalizing Pleasure Island, where mischievous boys are turned into donkeys, as a center for fascist indoctrination. Available on Netflix




Wendell and Wild (2022)

From legendary animator Henry Selick, director of “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “James and the Giant Peach,” and “Coraline,” “Wendell & Wild” is about an orphan who summons two demons from the underworld after they deceitfully promise to revivify her parents. The film marks the reunion of sketch-comedy duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. Feeling that stop-motion technology has acquired too smooth an appearance, Selick deliberately antiquated “Wendell & Wild” by leaving visible traces of the film’s engineering—imperfections such as the seams between the detachable pieces that animate the characters’ faces—and slowing the frame rate. Available on Netflix

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