Handcrafted films are having a moment. Stop-motion and traditional puppetry techniques are no longer taking a back seat to CGI. The UK studio Aardman continues to push traditional clay-based stop-motion animation forward with its latest release, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. Laika’s Wildwood is coming to theaters in October, continuing that studio’s dedication to larger-than-life stories only their brand of stop-motion can tell. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was a triumph for practical filmmaking, not the least of which was the giant puppet created for the cyclops. The 60-foot-tall creature was real and tangible. Now, James Gunn’s DCU is creating a film on the cutting edge of puppetry and stop-motion animation. Dynamic Duo is an upcoming Bat-family hybrid animated movie from Warner Bros. and Swaybox Studios. Before the creative studio started crafting the adventures of Batman’s Robin and Red Hood, they tested their tech on another WB animated classic.
Swaybox Studios, whose credits include John Krasinski’s IF, developed a unique prototype while building their tink system for what they describe as Practical Puppetry. In 2017, taking inspiration from The Iron Giant, the studio’s Damon Bard designed a Hogarth-like animatronic puppet that could give real-time facial expressions while filming. The Brad Bird-inspired character is quite something to behold in the clips below, as the puppet recreates a scene from the film while demonstrating the range of Swaybox’s system. A second test used a pivotal moment from The Rescuers Down Under to further showcase its capabilities under variable conditions.
A Giant Legacy
The Iron Giant bombed on its initial release after executives were spooked by the failure of Quest for Camelot and failed to properly market the film. It would be redeemed on home video and DVD as countless critics and pundits made it clear the film was worth the watch. The movie not only found its audience, but it was quickly reclaimed as one of the best animated films ever made. At this point, remaking The Iron Giant in total would be sacrilege. But it’s fascinating to watch the hand-drawn property be used by animators and puppeteers to push the limits of tech in film, much like ILM had before it. Steven Spielberg raided the toybox to bring a version of the Iron Giant into Ready Player One for the pivotal final battle scenes.
Animatronics are not stuck in an It’s a Small World anymore. In fact, they’re out in a much bigger world now. The technology has moved beyond figures repeating a few mechanical motions on a fixed track. Disney Parks recently introduced an animatronic of Frozen‘s Olaf that can walk, talk, emote, and engage with guests. Animatronics are no longer doing a rhythmic task; they’re performing. Swaybox represents that same technological evolution but for filmmaking. In a call for puppeteers for Dynamic Duo, the studio showed a range of methodologies they use to capture the unique shots they aim for. Adding nuanced performances in the puppets’ facial expressions gives the filmmakers not just another tool for the toolbox, but a new center to build other tools around.
The Next Swaybox Adventure
In addition to showing some footage of the DCU’s Dynamic Duo at the Warner Bros. Animation presentation at Annecy, Swaybox was reported to also be working on an “equally beloved property.” Speculation about which property could work in the unique animation style included the Harry Potter franchise, Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes, or perhaps even the Animaniacs. There’s one project in the works that would be an incredible fit for Swaybox’s visual style. Connoisseur Tolkienite Stephen Colbert is currently developing Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. The film will reportedly revisit Middle-earth during the events of The Fellowship of the Ring, with Sam, Merry, and Pippin retracing their journey from the Shire, using chapters Peter Jackson left out of the film as inspiration. The above test clip of Hogarth falling off the Eagle, combined with the film’s planned structure, location, and perspective of shared memory, could make for an interesting use case for the unique animatronic technology. But then again, WB also owns The Flintstones.
Regardless of what else is in the pipeline, Swaybox has already turned heads with their unique approach to puppetry and stop-motion animation. When the studio put out a call for puppeteer auditions, they showed a brief clip of how they combine miniatures, puppets, stop-motion, guy-in-suit performances, and animatronics. It demonstrates how they’re creating novel solutions to tell stories in unique ways. By adding incredibly expressive animatronics to the mix, they could be the next Laika, without the nepotism.
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