Wideo Wednesday: Claymation? There, That's Claymation

The first two shorts here are adaptations from Leo Tolstoy, the first by Will Vinton and the second by Lindsay Van Blerk. The third is by Van Blerk, too, and may be the only directly Christmas related show here. The others are loosely religious and winter based, and that’s close enough to Christmas as needs be for these purposes. These are the kind of films that are run at schools and Sunday schools as 'culturally relevant' or 'morally educational.' And at roughly 30 minutes long they fit easily into a classroom length.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91E_iE97Nc

Martin the Cobbler 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd9eYaMP0i0

Michael the Visitor 1995

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9utrWyJp8fo

The First Christmas 1998

One of My Petty Pet Peeves

Because we are nearing the Christmas season, I am sure to be annoyed by one of my needling pet peeves. Because I am sure to hear the Rankin/Bass specials referred to as Claymation. For the thousandth time:

ALL CLAYMATION IS STOP MOTION. NOT ALL STOP MOTION IS CLAYMATION.

Stop motion has been used since at least the original Willis O’Brien’s King Kong in 1933, really earlier, of course, but most famously. In it, a model with an interior armature (mechanical skeleton) is covered with sponge rubber, latex, and rabbit fur. Ray Harryhausen, who can be seen as O’Brien’s heir, called his similar process Dynamation. Rankin/ Bass dubbed their stop motion puppetry process Animagic. Such branding was typical of the 60’s and 70’s as films and studios produced such labels as Cinemascope and Panavision to make their brand ‘stick out’.

Claymation was popularized mainly by Aardman Animations (Wallace and Gromit) and the works of Will Vinton (who trademarked the name ‘Claymation’ for his process). Vinton is perhaps most famous for the California Raisins. Will Vinton Studios switched from Claymation to Foamation in the early 2000’s. Vinton lost control of the studio and it changed its name to Laika, which makes stop motion (puppets, not clay) movies like Coraline and The Box Trolls.

So, in conclusion:

RANKIN/BASS IS NOT CLAYMATION AND DOES NOT USE CLAY.