Last week I did my post on stop motion pertaining to pictures of drawings. This week I am going to look at stop motion in regards to claymation. The cartoon that I will look at is The PJ’s. This was a short-lived primetime animation that aired on Fox during its Sunday night line up. This was an Eddie Murphy show and featured a black community living in the projects. The show itself often dealt with problems associated with less fortunate minority communities and bordered on racist week to week.
After watching this show I feel that when stop motion is done correctly it can add depth and shadowing that otherwise could not be achieved. When done differently it can afford cheap laughs due to the characters ability to fall apart and interact with the real world, much like Mr. Bill.
After watching The PJ’s it is apparent that this claymation is done well. It is not overly done to the point where you lose the quirkyness of claymation, yet it has fluidity. Having this sort of claymation lends the medium to create its own shadows giving it more personality and realism. It also allows fine wrinkles within faces to be displayed giving faces more personality which is key to letting one relate to the character.
The other use of claymation is Mr. Bill. Although this animation is not anywhere close to the same quality as most other claymation, it still serves a purpose. It is strictly comedic and used for shock value. This allows for a cheap laugh on a cheap budget. Allowing Mr. Bill to interact with the world around him allows him to get injured in zany ways, many of which would be horrifying if it were a real person.
It does not take great technique to make an animation successful. Rather it takes knowing your audience and correct application to bring in the viewers.
I commented on Megan’s Blog and Scott’s Blog
I like claymation for the fact that things can be squished and destroyed like in Mr. Bill and it looks funny not horrific. I agree that claymation adds shadowing and depth, but this can be achived in other types of animation as well, but I agree with your point. There is something about claymation that I really just dont care for, I feel that at some points it can look sloppy. I think that you picked two good videos to demonstrate your point.