A List of Stop-Motion Feature-Length Films You Probably Haven't Tried.
If you’re anything like me, stop-motion animation is something that you’re sick of hearing about, because it’s always the same fucking recommendations. I took the time to browse over Wikipedia’s “List of stop-motion films” and do what I could to create a list of stop-motion feature-length films that might be worth a watch and that you haven’t constantly heard animation brats cream themselves over. Obviously, this list is not perfect, it’s mostly based off of the films I was able to find generally high reviews for on Letterboxd, but this list will contain nothing from Aardman, nothing from Laika, nothing from Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, or Henry Selick, but will contain at least a handful of things you haven't heard constant chatter about. These films are also fully stop-motion, so nothing from Ray Harryhausen or Jan Švankmajer either. Oh, and no shorts or television, obviously.
I will go ahead and put the following eight as films that aren't as frequently referenced in "best stop-motion films of all time" articles, but will find their ways into conversations about stop-motion without much difficulty;
René Laloux's "Fantastic Planet" (1973)
Will Vinton's "The Adventures of Mark Twain" (1985)
Adam Elliot's "Mary and Max" (2009)
Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson "Anomalisa" (2015)
Claude Barras's "My Life as a Zucchini" (2016) [French]
Phil Tippett's "Mad God" (2021)
Dean Fleischer Camp's "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" (2021)
Guillermo del Toro's "Pinocchio" (2022)
If you haven't seen those eight, I'd take care of that first. Now, we hit other stuff.
Lotte Reiniger's "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (1926) [German]
Wladyslaw Starewicz & Irene Starewicz "The Tale of the Fox" (1937) [French]
Ivo Caprino's "The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix" (1975) [Norwegian]
Piotr Kamler's "Chronopolis" (1982) [French]
Chris Taylor & Mark Hall's "The Wind in the Willows" (1983)
Dave Borthwick's "The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb" (1993)
Stanislav M. Sokolov & Derek W. Hayes's "The Miracle Maker" (2000)
Christiane Cegavske's "Blood Tea and Red String" (2006)
Jan Balej's "One Night in One City" (2007) [Czech]
Stéphane Aubier & Vincent Patar's "A Town Called Panic" (2009) [French]
Fernando Cortizo's "The Apostle" (2012) [Spanish]
Chris Sullivan's "Consuming Spirits" (2012)
Paul Cowan & Amer Shomali "The Wanted 18" (2014)
Jan Balej's "Little from the Fish Shop" (2015) [Czech]
Takahide Hori's "Junk Head" (2017) [Japanese]
Michael Mort's "Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires" (2018)
Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña's "The Wolf House" (2018) [Spanish]
Paloma Baeza Niki, Lindroth von Bahr, Emma De Swaef, & Marc James Roels's "The House" (2022)
That's what I've got for the time being. If you can recommend a feature-length, majority stop-motion film that's not Aardman, Laika, Wes, Burton, or Selick, I'd be more than happy to look it over and see about adding it to the list. Enjoy.
Girl it's not like I'm holding you at gun point to reply to every ask I send.
Also, House MD sucks my fav show is better than yours keep wasting ur time answering every Tumblr ask ever so you can't watch ur crappy show losssseeeerrrrr
I’m sorry I’m the closest thing to a friend you have.
Wow Ginger, I can't believe your TTRPG is better than a critically acclaimed game loved by millions, I must just be a stupid idiot for not understanding you and your friends fucking genius writing and beloved characters.
Can you give me like a manuscript of the whole story so far so I can marvel and piss myself at your groundbreaking writing that touched the heart of millions? (Eh I was more of a Persona 4 girlie anyway)
I do not believe for a second that you're an adult. You act more like you peaked in middle school and never grew past it girl. I do admit that Mouthwashing is a good game so I guess you aren't completely far gone just yet.
Thanks for having me!
Bro can we start speeding these along can you just like call me a slur and move on with your day I got House to watch Dr. Cameron is sexually harassing the emotionally closed off bisexual with beautiful blue eyes
Dude is being a hater all wrong; you CANNOT establish common ground. That makes you guys, like, almost friends, if you think about it. This has gone from a flamewar to two bros arguing about the wicked witch of the east in, like, one line.
For future reference, either double-down and say that Mouthwashing is irresponsible with its subject matter, overly obscured with its theming, unabashedly pretentious, and a further continuation of TikTok's obsession with turning horror slop into marketable plushies... or just don't bring it up at all.
(Mouthwashing is also MY favorite game of all time. See how easy it is to just come up with bullshit?)
If I my ask how come people are suddenly bringing up the fact you dislike Bendy and the Ink Machine, like I get they'r still mad about It but like If I recall you haven't mentioned It for a long time, did I miss something?
Genuinely, I imagine they saw me post for the first time in a while because this weirdo probably has push notifications on me and decided to air an old grievance because they had nothing better to do.
If I my ask how come people are suddenly bringing up the fact you dislike Bendy and the Ink Machine, like I get they'r still mad about It but like If I recall you haven't mentioned It for a long time, did I miss something?
Genuinely, I imagine they saw me post for the first time in a while because this weirdo probably has push notifications on me and decided to air an old grievance because they had nothing better to do.
I don't know where the compulsion to talk all prosey and shit came from but I really wish i could express myself like a regular person. I just sound fake and pretentious and embarrassing when I'm expressing myself like that, ya know? Trying to force change my linguistic patterns to speak a little more normal is so frustrating.
Nah that's Damien he makes electrical nodes that he can implant in objects to make them fly at targets and he put one in himself so now he can shoot himself like a missile
Yearly art review! Pretty proud of my skill development and I found my first original muse that I have a real passion for this year so big wins all around!
While I have had my issues with "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" (2010-2019) since we restarted the series, and while I have already begun to realize that the show will never be as good as the peak that was achieved in Seasons 2 and 3, as Ginger and I have reached the end of Season 6, I realize that, from this point forward, finishing this show is now something of a chore, or at least a "quest."
There have been issues in the past, no doubt; (1) "bothsidesism" and indigenous peoples stereotyping in a fantasy setting, via the conduit of buffaloes, (2) a portrayal of toxic masculinity as inherent to men, via the conduit of dragons, (3) using autism-coded characters irresponsibly, to make points about "friends who annoy you," via the conduit of both Pinkie Pie and Maud Pie, (4) doing BOTH, via the conduit of Discord, (5) anti-Semitic stereotyping in a fantasy setting, via the conduit of griffins, (6) xenophobic stereotyping in a fantasy setting, via the conduit of yaks, (7) irresponsibly vague and tonally un-sound depictions of self-harm, via the conduit of S05E13 "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?", (8) inserting support of the military-industrial complex into a show for children, via the conduit of The Wonderbolts, and (9) portraying a character with a severe level of anxiety as someone who is not in need of change, via the conduit of Fluttershy. These issues, however, are, by and large, excusable. Many of these issues are contained to individual episodes, and the show's primary demographic, those from ages FOUR to SEVEN, would have to really be paying attention to notice any of these, though some stick out more than others.
Season 6 is where not only do these issues still manage to present themselves, but they also manage to get worse.
The Wonderbolts have gone from a minor annoyance as part of Rainbow Dash's character, to one of the few reasons she appears on-screen, while further and further pushing a pro-military agenda down the throats of children, with one stand-out episode this season going so far as to apologize, if not encourage, military hazing?
The "toxic masculinity as inherent to men" issue evolves into a larger, more racial issue, ironically done by no longer portraying the dragons as all-male. A new fantasy race, originally introduced as little more than hissing bugs in Season 2, is now just as bad as the dragons, though perhaps not as offensive as the buffaloes, yaks, or griffins. This new fantasy race, the "Changlings," bear a striking resemblance to the real-life conspiracies on "draconian shapeshifters," which has been historically used to demonize Jewish peoples, as well as other marginalized communities.
And as if all of that wasn't bad enough, suddenly the show feels the need to comment on real-world xenophobic attitudes toward Indian cuisine? And their idea on how to do this is to make Rarity biased? By making her worship the words of a critic? Offensive stereotyping, with no "fantasy race" excuse to fall back on, and character assassination in the same fell swoop? "Spice Up Your Life" has to be one of the most embarrassing episodes of the series.
All of this in exchange for... what, exactly? A thinly-veiled, if not entertaining for a FAR older demographic, advertisement for parent-company-owned "Dungeons & Dragons?" A cutesy musical rendition of "A Christmas Carol?" A "what if" episode about a griffin who finally answers, definitively, if non-pony characters can receive a cutie mark? Enjoyable? Sure. Worth the problematic elements and ever-decreasing enjoyability of stock plots and subpar characters writing? Not at all.
As Ginger mentioned in one of her prior posts on the subject, we rank the episodes, every season, from best to worst, and then cut that list into three categories; "Good," "Mid," and "Bad." We have an extra column for "Problem" that, as of this season, was more full than ever. This season, we added a fifth section; "Ironic," as the show has gotten so generally terrible that it is becoming hard to decide between which episodes we had a good time with on their terms... or on ours.
"Flutter Brutter," "Stranger Than Fan Fiction," and "The Cart Before the Ponies" are some of the most fun I've had all season, due to how downright, laughably bad they all are. "Hey, seven-year-old! Did you know that Fluttershy's brother is a massive fuck-up who looks and talks like Matthew McConaughey?" "Yo, pre-teen! Do you have a hot take on the Star Wars Prequels?" "What's up, little dude?! Wanna just... watch your favorite characters ignore their siblings for twenty minutes?!" I was truly in stitches, almost as much as I was during Season 5's "Hearthbreakers," where Pinkie Pie's family eats rocks for Christmas, and the Apple family is told that they HAVE to enjoy it! If you've got a craving for watching twenty-minute chunks of horse cartoons that feel far too much like "Freddy Got Fingered" (2001), this is DEFINITELY the season for you.
If you only like, you know, the show that this used to be? Stop earlier than I'm going to, because Ginger and I are in this for the long haul.
There were a lot of positive traits about Benny that William could list no problem. Funny, strong, loyal, talented-he could go on for hours if you let him. One of the things he wasn’t, however, was easy to sleep next to.
Having spent most of their time together braving the elements and sleeping in wooded areas, the two were not used to the comforts of a warm blanket or a safe home. As such, when the weather got frigid or the more dangerous woodland animals seemed to be louder and rowdier than normal, the two had become quite used to sleeping together. William was a light sleeper which kept them safe from anything going bump in the night and Benny was a walking furnace most days.
But lord, did that come with problems.
For starters, Benny muttered and talked in his sleep. Usually nonsense-though occasionally it seemed like he believed he was back with his old traveling companions from all those years ago. That alone made it very difficult for William to get any shut eye and he simply had to pray on a night by night basis that Benny wouldn’t get chatty in his dreams if he wanted a prayer at sleep. Then of course, there was his uncanny ability to suck the air out of him in the most bone breaking vice grip he thought possibly. Even before age had started putting some muscle on his body, the second he fell into deep sleep he’d cling to William like a gangly, too tall teddy bear and all the silver crowbars in the world couldn’t pry him off. He would be rendered sweaty and immobile most of the night, how he managed to get sleep anyway was beyond him.
William himself, as Benny could tell you, was nearly the most flawless person you’d ever meet: Brilliant, hilarious, fiercely brave, unwaveringly kind. The kind of guy you wrote folk songs about. But nearly flawless ain’t flawless and Benny for all the guitar strings and cowboy hats in the world couldn’t spin William’s sleeping habits as anything but obnoxious.
It wasn’t so bad when they were younger and smaller, but now that William was near half a foot taller than him his flailing and maneuvering in bed drove him nuts. A leg draped over his thighs, his bad hand smacked directly over his face, and somehow, without fail, his hair would wind up in Benny’s mouth. That mixed with his freight train snore (seriously, how could such a skinny guy like William be THAT loud), and his frigid cold hands shocking him alert half the time he was about to fall under made William probably the worst sleep partner in history.
So, two after months of building set lots and equipment sheds, a large mess hall, a water tower, and anything else a new film studio might need the duo was pulled aside by the crew and presented with a small token for all they had done. From leading the trek to California to their assistance with writing and directing between all the construction, they had certainly made a good impression on their new coworkers and friends, and those friends wanted to deliver. So, they pulled together while the two were otherwise indisposed and built the two the first place either could call home in a very long time.
It’s a small, humble one room shack just on the outskirts of the lot. Solid wood floor, a brick chimney, and two twin sized beds on either side of the living quarters. To many, it would have been barely passable with the creaky boards and minimal space.
To them it was the kindness gift either had received.
After a day of extensive thank you’s and invitations to come by once they had “made the place theirs”, the two retired for the first night of sleep either had genuinely looked forward to in years.
Both walked to their sides of the room, stripping off their work clothes and changing into what was the first pair of pajamas either had owned, and they laid down on their own beds ready for a comfortable night of rest.
That comfort was enjoyable for 3 and a half minutes. If we’re being generous.
The room was large enough and the curtain hung between them thick enough that noise didn’t penetrate. William had never noticed how eerie total silence was. He had also never noticed just how hard it was to get comfortable in a real bed. He felt like he was sprawling aimlessly , desperate for a warm position that made him feel secure but he just felt…open. Exposed. Uncomfortable. Cold.
After what felt like an eternity (but was probably closer to 15 minutes) of fidgeting, William threw the covers off and staggering over to the front door in a huff, hoping some night air would do him good. He paused when he noticed that Benny’s bed was strangely absent, before opening the door and seeing his best friend already sitting on the front steps.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Benny ventured a guess, staring straight ahead into the wild yonder.
“Nah. Too cozy. You?”
“Ha! Here I was thinkin I was crazy for thinkin things like that.”
William gave him a playful shove as he sat down beside him “You are crazy.”
“Hey!”
The two shared a brief laugh before falling back into silence.
“…It was weird knowin were so close but not hearin ya snore like usual.” Benny said, breaking the silence.
“Excuse me? I do NOT snore.” William protested with a huff.
“Like a boar in a heap a truffles.” Benny responded with his oh too familiar smug grin.
“Well maybe I just never hear it because your sleep talking drowns it out.” William countered. “Though I don’t know how I could make any noise when you’re wringing the life outta me.”
“Oh I’m not that bad!” Benny protested with laugh. “Besides…” his eyes grew soft in that way they did when it was just the two of them “when I hold you like that I know we ain’t gonna be separated…”
William bit his lip, staring straight ahead. The topic of them getting separated wasn’t one either liked to bring up. William knew just how hard Benny was on himself after the first time he had run off, and how dedicated he was to making sure nothing ever tore them apart again.
The prospect of losing his best friend to the wild yonder a second time terrified William more than he could put into words.
“…I missed the warmth. And the security.” William finally admitted.
“I’ve missed your hand on my face. And how cold you are. Makes me feel…helpful, when I can feel your skin getting warmed up.” Benny paused. “Sorry that probably sounded weird.”
“No no! I uh…I like that I’m something you can hold onto. Plus the sleep talking is nice sometimes. I like when I can hear you talking to your old friends…I like hearing you talk about Paula.”
Another sore subject. The woman had been the closest thing to a real mother Benny had ever had and he never got to say a proper goodbye. Benny let his last moment with his old friends cloud a lot of how he talked about them. It made even the funny and sweet stories carry an air of bitterness to them. Those brief moments where he was asleep William could hear the joy in Benny’s voice. It was a comfort Benny wouldn’t allow himself while awake, but one that felt so good to share in any chance he got.
“I guess I never realized that I enjoyed it so much until now.” William finished.
“Yeah. Me neither.”
The stars above them seemed to get dimmer and dimmer, and the last thing William remembered from that night was feeling Benny’s head lull comfortably onto his shoulder.
The next morning the two awoke on their front porch. Benny gripping Willliam’s torso for dear life and William’s hand smack dab in the middle of Benny’s face.
When coworkers and friends came by over the next few weeks, they’d comment on the strange arrangement of decor. The collection of cowboy hats on the dresser, the second hand pen set on the table, the array of silly Knick Knacks and books that littered the shelves. But the strangest thing was that the bookshelf in the center of the room had been pushed into the corner, the curtain stowed away in a box somewhere, and the two twin sized beds pushed together on the far side of the room.
They chose not to comment. It wasn’t their place after all. Besides, the men had both been getting pretty good sleep from what they could tell-why ruin a good thing?
