Anomalisa

Stop motion animation is a technique that can be found in motion pictures going all the way back to the early 20^th century. This unique approach to visual storytelling has been utilized in some of the most beloved animated movies of all time.

 The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) filled us with dark and twisted imagination, James and the Giant Peach (1996) is an imaginative retelling of a classic children’s novel, and Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) is a great example of how stop motion animation can appeal to people of all ages.

 There is something unique about how these movies look because of the incremental way the characters and objects are moved within a single frame to give an illusion that they are moving fluidly when the frames are played continuously. Rarely do stop motion films actually transcend the medium and make the audience unaware of what they are watching, that is until ANOMALISA, a groundbreaking and monumental achievement in the stop motion genre.

ANOMALISA at its core is an introspective examination of what it is like to be human, all while featuring no actual live human actors. The film was made with 3D printed puppets that have a super realistic and natural feel to them.

 The screenplay is by Charlie Kaufman who also co-directed the film with Duke Johnson. If the name Charlie Kaufman sounds familiar to you, it should, he is responsible for some of the most innovative and equally absurd scripts of the last few years. Being John Malkovich (1999) brought his name into the mainstream; Adaptation (2002) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) firmly planted him as one of the most distinctive voices of our generation.

The road to getting his newest screenplay from page to screen was a long and complicated one. The script started as a one-off play that was put on as part of American composer Carter Burwell’s Theater of the New Ear series. Kaufman later turned the play into a longer form screenplay and tried to raise a budget for the film through Kickstarter.  When all was said and done they had the proper financing to turn Kaufman’s surreal romantic comedy-drama into a 90-minute stop motion animation feature film.

            The plot of ANOMALISA is very simple. In fact the film features only 3 different voice actors. Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) is a middle-aged author of customer service related books. When he travels to Cincinnati, Ohio to speak at a convention of customer service professionals he meets a sales rep named Lisa (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh).

 Seems pretty uncomplicated on the surface, but then you start to realize that all of the other voices that Michael hears both male and female are the same. The third voice actor is Tom Noonan and he voices every other character that appears in the film from Michael’s point of view. I wont go too far into the details but this is something that is essential to the story and really makes you think deeper about who Michael is and what he is going through.

What occurs within these very specific constraints is nothing short of mind-blowing. The fact that these inanimate objects can be used to conjure up such deep and personal emotion through the amazing illusion of animation is a testament to the vision and passionate execution from everyone involved in the production.

When you watch what is happening between Michael, Lisa, and the rest of the characters you forget they are puppets and it really does play with your mind.  

            This film has the opportunity to resonate with people in a very intimate way. Not only does it deal with every persons desire to fall in love and what that feels like but it touches on the mundanity of everyday life such as, checking into a hotel, talking with strangers on an airplane, awkward conversations with taxi drivers, and how these situations can affect each person differently.

            Based on recent releases, stop motion animated films can either be huge successes or massive box office failures. ANOMALISA isn’t going to reach a typical large audience because of its adult oriented subject matter but it is sure to make waves throughout the industry that I believe will be felt for years to come.