In just about any film class, the first thing the teacher will say is that everything in a movie is there for a reason.
If a scene is shot from eye-level or a bird's-eye view, that's because the director and cinematographer thought that was best (whether they're right is another story). If a cat wanders through the background of a scene, it was either planned that way or the director decided it was interesting enough to keep. Auteurs such as Alfred Hitchcock planned everything in advance but even go-with-the-flow directors get the final say about which parts of the flow we'll see on screen.
I mention that only because the most created-for-our-eyes-only kind of movie is stop-motion animation, which uses a series of static images (usually involving some kind of puppet) to create the illusion of movement. Literally every single thing we see on screen is there for a reason.
Stop-motion movies, which date to the early days of cinema, don't depict reality; they depict something better. By creating a world that resembles ours but clearly isn't, they give us an eye-opening new way to look at the things around us.
Aardman Animation's clay (actually, plasticene) figures may be the best example, since you can often see fingerprints on the characters — evidence of the hands that painstakingly posed the characters between shots to make them "move."
Take the dazzling opening of "Chicken Run." Even before we've met the characters, it blows us away with a shot of a prison camp at night, especially if you take a moment to think about each element. Just the lighting alone includes tiny bulbs suspended over the camp to catch potential escapees, a miniature lantern held by a guard and moonlight that gently blankets the camp. The whole thing is probably a foot tall and 4 feet wide but there must be about 50 different sources of light within it, each lovely in its own right.
The cool thing about the best stop-motion animation (and animation, generally) is that, like a magician who amazes us with a trick and then reveals how they do it, it tells a story while also letting us in on the technique. You can enjoy all of these outstanding movies for their stunning visuals and stories, without worrying about any of that. But if you take a minute to think about how they were put together, these greats get even better.
There are so many reasons to love 2000's hilarious debut feature from England's Aardman Animation. The voice cast is distinctive (Julia Sawalha, Imelda Staunton, Miranda Richardson, Timothy Spall). It's not just funny; it's also exciting and sweet. And it's an unofficial remake of "The Great Escape" that substitutes a factory farm for a Nazi prison camp and plucky chickens for Steve McQueen and James Garner.
