[Image above] A still from the clay-based animated movie “Coraline.” The almost two-hour movie took four years to make. Credit: Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers, YouTube
As the crisp chill of fall begins creeping into the early morning air, I see one of two things happen with my friends on social media. The first group embraces all the tropes associated with colder autumn weather, including comfy sweaters, leaf-themed décor, and anything pumpkin spice. On the other hand, some of my friends have decided that the whole month of September is “Halloween Eve” and go all in on fake cobwebs, black candles, and monster-themed desserts.
The latter group also uses this time as an excuse to rewatch some classic spooky children’s movies, including “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Corpse Bride,” “ParaNorman,” and “Coraline” (though that last one’s classification as “child friendly” is highly debatable). Yet spookiness is not the only thing these movies have in common—they also are all examples of clay animation.
Clay animation is a type of stop-motion animation, which involves photographing and then physically manipulating objects within your frame. As each frame is played in sequence, the technique creates the effect of an object moving itself.
In clay animation, the objects being manipulated consist mainly of wire frames wrapped in modeling clay. This combination provides animators with extreme versatility in shaping the features and movements of the characters.
The history of stop motion and clay animation go hand in hand. The first stop-motion film, “The Humpty Dumpty Circus,” was produced in 1898 and used dolls with jointed limbs to simulate the movements of circus acrobats. But the year before, in 1897, a revolutionary clay-like material called plasticine was invented, which is softer and more malleable than traditional clays and, most importantly, does not dry out in air.
English art teacher William Harbutt originally invented plasticine for his students, but in 1900, he established the Plasticine Manufacturing Company in Bath to start commercial production. Clay animation started to appear as short sequences within larger films, and the first fully clay-based animated film, “Long Live the Bull,” was produced in 1926.
The invention of 2D celluloid (“cel”) animation in 1914 pushed clay animation to the background of stop-motion techniques. But in the 1970s, the pioneering work of Oregon-born animator Will Vinton revitalized this method.
In an interview, Vinton says he did not originally have an interest in filmmaking. But after studying architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, his experience working with clay piqued his interest in clay animation.
After graduating and moving back to Oregon, he and Berkeley classmate Bob Gardiner began working on a short film called “Closed Mondays,” which used clay-based stop-motion animation to tell the story of an inebriated patron in an art gallery. The eight-minute film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1975, beating out Disney and other established studios.
The success of “Closed Mondays” led Vinton to found the film studio Will Vinton Production in Portland, which focused on using clay animation for both commercial and artistic projects. Within two years, the studio supported six full-time employees with a steady production schedule that included promotional material for actress and comedian Bette Midler and an adaptation of “The Little Prince.” In 1978, Vinton received the trademark for the term “Claymation,” which remains an active registered trademark today.
During the 1980s, Vinton and his team created several iconic commercial mascots, including the California Raisins and Domino’s Pizza Noid. In the 1990s, the team expanded its focus to include computer-generated animation, which led to work on M&M’s famous spokescandies.
Credit: The Claymation Kid, YouTube
During this expansion in the 1990s, Vinton brought in several outside investors. These investors ultimately gained control of the company and ousted Vinton by 2003. Despite several lawsuits, Vinton was unable to regain control of the rebranded Laika Studios.
After this loss in court, Vinton taught animation at the Portland Institute of Art. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2006, and he died in 2018 after a 12-year battle with the disease.
Though Vinton was unsuccessful in regaining control of his studio, his impact on the world of clay animation remains strong in both obvious and less obvious ways. For example, Charles Henry Selick Jr., who directed the movies “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Coraline,” worked in collaboration with Vinton on the 1985 film “Return to Oz” as a storyboarder. This experience with storyboarding “was how I learned to direct,” Selick says in interview.
Learn more about Vinton’s work and legacy in the two-part video below. Then kick back, relax, and enjoy the spooky films that grew out of this renewed interest in clay animation!
Credit: Homer Thompson, YouTube
