Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back. Any kind of object can thus be animated, but puppets with movable joints or plasticine figures are most commonly used. Puppets, models or clay figures built around an armature are used in model animation. Stop motion with live actors is often referred to as pixilation. Stop motion of flat materials such as paper, fabrics or photographs is usually called cutout animation.
Aardman Animations Limited is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films and television series made using stop-motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring its plasticine characters from Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, and Morph. After some experimental computer-animated short films during the late 1990s, beginning with Owzat (1997), Aardman entered the computer animation market with Flushed Away (2006). As of February 2020, it had earned $1.1 billion worldwide, with an average $135.6 million per film.
The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for the best animated film. An animated feature is defined by the academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, a significant number of the major characters are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75 percent of the running time. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first awarded in 2002 for films released in 2001.
Guillermo del Toro Gómez is a Mexican filmmaker. A recipient of three Academy Awards and three BAFTA Awards, his work has been characterized by a strong connection to fairy tales and horror, with an effort to infuse visual or poetic beauty in the grotesque. He has had a lifelong fascination with monsters, which he considers symbols of great power. He is also known for his use of insectile and religious imagery, his themes of Catholicism, anti-fascism, and celebrating imperfection, underworld motifs, practical special effects, and dominant amber lighting.
Pacific Data Images (PDI) was an American visual effects and computer animation production company based in Redwood City, California, that was bought by DreamWorks SKG in 2000. It was renamed PDI/DreamWorks and was owned by DreamWorks Animation.
Curious Pictures was an American animation studio and multi-media company that was primarily based in New York City that produced television programs, commercials, animation and video games. The company is known for its flagship work such as the preschool television series A Little Curious for HBO, Little Einsteins for Disney Junior and Team Umizoomi for Nick Jr. Other well-known works include Sheep in the Big City and Codename: Kids Next Door for Cartoon Network.
Mary Parent is an American film producer, and former studio executive.
The discography of Weezer, an American rock band, consists of 15 studio albums, two compilation albums, one video album, nine extended plays, 37 singles and 40 music videos. Weezer's self-titled debut studio album, often referred to as The Blue Album, was released in May 1994 through DGC Records. The album was a commercial success, peaking at number 16 on the US Billboard 200 and spawning the singles "Undone – The Sweater Song" and "Buddy Holly", both of which were responsible for launching Weezer into mainstream success with the aid of music videos directed by Spike Jonze. It has sold 3.3 million copies in the United States and has been certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), becoming the band's best selling album to date. Following the success of their debut album, Weezer took a break from touring for the Christmas holidays. Lead singer Rivers Cuomo began piecing together demo material for Weezer's second studio album. Cuomo's original concept for the album was a space-themed rock opera, Songs from the Black Hole. Ultimately, the Songs from the Black Hole album concept was dropped; the band, however, continued to utilize songs from these sessions into work for their second studio album. Pinkerton was released as the band's second studio album in September 1996. Peaking at number 19 on the Billboard 200, it was considered a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release, selling far less than its triple platinum predecessor. However, in the years following its release, it has seen much critical and commercial championing.
"Pork and Beans" is a song by the American alternative rock band Weezer, released on the group's 2008 self-titled album Weezer, also known as the Red Album. It was released to radio on April 22, 2008 and released in digital form on April 24. The track debuted at number 19 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, and spent eleven weeks at number one. The song charted in many countries such as Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The Hobbit is a series of three epic high fantasy adventure films directed by Peter Jackson. The films are subtitled An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Desolation of Smaug (2013), and The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). The films are based on the 1937 novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, with large portions of the trilogy inspired by the appendices to The Return of the King, which expand on the story told in The Hobbit, as well as new material and characters written especially for the films. Together they act as a prequel to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
CafeFX was an award-winning feature film visual effects facility offering visual effects production and supervision, CG character creation, and 3D animation. Founded in 1993 by Jeff Barnes and David Ebner, CafeFX was located in a 36,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) studio on an eight-acre campus in Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County. Its commercial and music video division, Santa Monica-based The Syndicate, was a creative design, branding services, and digital production studio, specializing in live action direction, visual effects, animation, motion graphics, and telecine. CafeFX and The Syndicate were held by umbrella corporation ComputerCafe Group, which has also established Sententia Entertainment, a long form production company.
Carlos Lascano is an Argentine director, writer and producer mainly known for his works in animation and illustration.
Telecinco Cinema, S.A.U. is the film production division of Mediaset España. It produces both feature films and television films.
Mathew Cullen is an American music video, commercial, and film director. He is co-founder of Mirada Studios with Guillermo del Toro and co-founder of the production company Motion Theory.
Mirada Studios is an American multiplatform storytelling company in Los Angeles, California, formed by directors Guillermo del Toro and Mathew Cullen, cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, and executive producer Javier Jimenez, to spearhead a new creative production model that integrates classic narrative tradition, and the art of storytelling, with emerging technologies.
Grady Hall is an American director of commercials and music videos, as well as a screenwriter, producer, and director of one-hour television series.
Patrick Nolen McHale is an American animator, artist, screenwriter, director, and musician.
The following is a list of unproduced Guillermo del Toro projects in roughly chronological order. During his decades-long career, Mexican filmmaker and author Guillermo del Toro has worked on a number of projects that never progressed beyond the pre-production stage. Some of these projects fell into development hell and are presumably canceled, while some were taken over and completed by other filmmakers.
BlackBoxTV is a commercial YouTube channel and production studio founded by director Tony E. Valenzuela. It was launched on August 17, 2010 and relaunched on April 13, 2012 as part of YouTube's $150 million original channel initiative. The channel, which has collaborated with Wes Craven, Guillermo del Toro and Anthony E. Zuiker, is home to BlackBoxTV Presents, which Variety called "the longest-running scripted drama online" in March 2016.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is a 2022 stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, with a screenplay by del Toro and Patrick McHale. Matthew Robbins and del Toro's modified Pinocchio story, drawing from the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi and was strongly influenced by Gris Grimly's illustrations for a 2002 edition of the book. The film reimagines the adventures of Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who comes to life as the son of his carver Geppetto. Set in Fascist Italy during the interwar period, the film stars the voice of Gregory Mann as Pinocchio and David Bradley as Geppetto, alongside Ewan McGregor, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton. Pinocchio was the final film credited to Gustafson before his death in 2024.
