Stop Motion Puppets

I'm sure that many kids growing up in the late 80's and early 90's remember watching animated movies such as Disney's The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and so on.  Other kids probably remember Tim Burton's movies, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.  Growing up, I was fascinated by both the traditional 2-D animation used in the Disney films and the stop motion puppetry found in Tim Burton's movies.  Being able to make a picture or puppet essentially 'come to life' and move and talk on screen seemed like magic to me. Both types of animation have always fascinated me and were something my ten year old self tried, and failed, to do with crude homemade flip books and polymer clay creations.  To this day I'm still awed by the sheer amount of effort and talent that goes into creating these movies.

Last week I happened to re-watch Tim Burton's most recent stop motion film The Corpse Bride, and, coincidently,  my KI Animation project class watched the behind the scenes features of the movie as a sort of casual introduction to stop motion.  After watching how the puppets were made and seeing the production process my curiosity was peaked and I decided to do my own research into the creation of The Corpse Bride puppets.  

I was able to find some articles and videos that describe in depth how the extremely detailed puppets were made and the concept art that influenced their designs.  I hope these links and videos are able to fascinate you as much as I was, and if not maybe you can gain a greater appreciation for how much effort and artistry goes into creating "children's" movies.

Here is a link to an official interview with Graham G. Maiden, the head of the Puppet Department on Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.  In this interview, you can see the process from concept art to completed puppet and all the many steps in between:

http://www.animationartconservation.com/corpse_bride.html 

Here is a video clip from the behind the scenes feature on the DVD that gives a brief glimpse into the puppet creation process.  The key feature of this video is the mechanical head that allows the characters to have either very subtle or very drastic facial expressions.

Corpse Bride - Making Puppets | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

This is another video clip that shows how some of the rigs used to make the puppets and their clothing move realistically:

http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=12525

This video clip shows a short demonstration of how the puppets facial expressions are changed and how the animators can move them

into different positions:

http://g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/videos/9496/Corpse-Brides-Mike-Johnson-Part-2.html

Finally, this link shows various pictures, videos, and interviews regarding a Corpse Bride Exhibition:

http://www.ilux.es/en/node/22