I've Seen That Movie Too

Stop motion animation. Three words which, for decades, staggered the imagination. Who can forget the original version of "King Kong" and the mighty ape climbing the Empire State building? Or the terrifying sword-wielding skeletons of "Jason and the Argonauts", the sea-dwelling Kraken of "Clash of the Titans" and the Cyclops from "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", all three from the creative hands and mind of Ray Harryhausen? Or even "Mad Monster Party", my personal favorite of the many stop motion animated features of Rankin/Bass?

Gumby came alive under the direction of Art Clokey, setting the foundations for a whole claymation film industry that made everything from Davey & Goliath to the California Raisins. Before computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation, stop motion animation allowed the fantasies of decades of film makers to come true.

I was one of those film makers.

My first and favorite movie film camera was a Minolta XL 401 Zoom Super 8 with single-frame animation. Purchased in 1978, my friends and I made many a movie with this camera. Super 8 movie cameras were exceedingly good at warping the fabric of the space time continuum, seamlessly stitching sections together to create animation. I crafted the hand-made remote control for those single-frame stop action animation movies from a toggle switch, five feet of speaker wire and an empty 35 mm film canister.

My favorite was "Desk Race 2000". Think "Death Race 2000" starring David Carradine but substitute school desks for cars. I kid you not. Imagine taking a one-piece metal and wood desk like you may have used in high school and turning it upside-down, then advancing it six inches at a time for many many many feet...it was laborious but produced a fantastic cinematic masterpiece (or at least we thought so).

That camera recently found a new owner who wanted to make stop-action movies. My animation days are now in the past and I was ready to pass the torch to another generation. These days, a rainy Saturday, a bowl of popcorn and anything featuring Wallace & Gromit is enough to satisfy my movie making cravings.