It has never been a better time to be a Star Wars fan. Amidst the lead up to a new season of “The Mandalorian” and “Jedi Survivor,” Disney has officially released which studios will be a part of “Star Wars: Visions” season 2.
The series is an anthology of Star Wars shorts that features work from several different animation studios. The first season largely focused on Anime studios and Japanese creative teams. This second season promises to be more global, featuring studios PunkRobot, Studio Mir, Trigger Fish and the subject of this column, Aardman.
Aardman stands out among the studios selected in part due to Aardman’s focus on stop-motion. The studio started out commercials and short films involving its children’s character Morph.
By the late ‘80s and going into the ‘90s Aardman had made its stamp in animation with the creation of the characters “Wallace and Gromit,” the cheese-loving owner and his pantomiming dog who went on various adventures from hunting Were-Rabbits to boarding a dubious penguin that gifts the wrong trousers.
Aardman’s success with “Wallace and Gromit” has existed parallel to other successful projects that audiences may recognize. The pair’s mock animal interviews “Creature Comforts” won an Oscar and spawned a series around the concept of animating over interviews. “Chicken Run” featured a chicken inspired homage to “The Great Escape.” The most recent generation of children have grown up on the mischievous “Shaun the Sheep.”
Over time, Aardman has cemented itself within the zeitgeist with its unique stop-motion animation, anthropomorphic animals and expressive figures. The elastic qualities of Aardman’s characters form a hyper-expression that borders on humor, one example being characters’ mouths stretching to match the stretched speech of their actors.
On paper, the concept of Aardman animation in Star Wars Universe sounds like parody and has been the subject of some memes. However, the choice to include stop-motion in this new batch of Star Wars was not limited to hiring the most talented animation studio today, but also connected back to the stop-motion effects that brought Star Wars to life.
Phil Tippett is the mind behind the animation of the original trilogy. Tippett worked on any effect unachievable through blue screen including, but not limited to: animating board games, the AT-ATs and the occasional animal.
The result is animation that has stood the test of time because of its hours of manipulation. Similar to the Aardman humor being achieved through hours of labor to capture a specific expression, Tippett and his team’s work captures the imagination of a viewer.
By the late ‘90s, stop-motion animation, and to a greater extent stop-motion, had moved to the fringes of media as a throwback to the classic effects of Ray Harryhausen. Tippett’s work on “Jurassic Park” became the models for CGI implemented afterwards. “Chicken Run” was a cross-road of the animation style since the following years saw a proliferation of CGI animated films.
This didn’t mark an end for stop-motion. Aardman continued beyond the inception of CGI to release other stop-motion films that are often described as having a weight compared to CGI. This interest in the tactile has appeared in other animated features like “Isle of Dogs,” “Kubo and the Two Strings” and Tippet’s 30-year-long project “Mad God.”
In this way, the Aardman’s Star Wars short is not only going to be a throwback to the original trilogy effects, but will be a gauge of the modern era of stop-motion. It has the potential to introduce a new generation to a classic style of animation while capturing their imagination and hearts with a new story in a galaxy far, far away.
Benjamin Ervin is a senior studying English literature and writing at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Benjamin know by emailing him be425014@ohio.edu.
