By: Hayley Strahs

Graphics Editor

Stop-motion animation is a dying art. When was the last time you heard about a stop-motion film hitting theaters? There’s only so much that the Chicken Run franchise can do to carry this shrinking industry. As a long-time lover of art, both digital and analog, I am terrified for the future of stop-motion animation.

There’s no way to get around the fact that stop-motion animation takes a long time to produce. For example, the popular sub-2-hour stop-motion film Kubo and the Two Strings took its crew a combination of 1,149,015 hours to create over the course of 94 weeks. When artists and producers spend such a long time on a film, it becomes a labor of love rather than simply working to meet a certain quota of movies.

Stop-motion animation is so much more than just studio-produced movies. Any kid with access to a camera and toys can create stop-motion videos themselves. Stop-motion animation is much easier for beginners to get involved with than computer animation, which often requires expensive programs and extensive knowledge of highly specialized technology. Seeing stop-motion animation more often in theaters could inspire a generation of animators who otherwise would have never seen the potential in their cartoon films.

In recent years, the number of stop motion films in theaters has declined. Believe it or not, animators haven’t stopped making animated movies because they hate kids, or because they want their films to age like moldy cheese. Sadly, a lot of people don’t watch stop-motion films, causing the specialized form of animation to decline. With stop-motion animation requiring both a large budget and time, the perceived return on investment can be unpredictable. Now, the stop-motion animation industry is on the brink of extinction, and without a new generation of viewers, stop-motion animation will become a thing of the past. Time is ticking to introduce generation alpha to the art of stop-motion animation. With children having greater access to technology and social media, stop-motion animation has the potential to grow exponentially.

So, how can you save stop-motion animation? Well, you can start by patronizing stop-motion movies when they do come out, as well as watching them on legit streaming services. While you’re at it, introduce your younger siblings or the kids you babysit to Wallace and Gromit, Coraline, The Boxtrolls, or any other stop-motion animation that will get them hooked. The future of animation isn’t just in your hands; it’s also in the hands of the next generation.

 (Sources: IMDb, Post Magazine, Rotten Tomatoes, Stop Motion Magazine)