Jan 2, 2016

That's why Charlie Kaufman thinks stop motion animators are great artists.

The most surprising American animated film of 2015, Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson's poignant Anomalisa, opened last Wednesday in New York and Los Angeles, and will follow with a nationwide expansion beginning next weekend.

To coincide with the film's release, Kaufman penned a “filmmaker's letter” that was first published on the Landmark Theatres website. It's an elegantly written tribute to the job of the stop motion animator as well as a succinct explanation of what makes stop motion such a unique animation technique.

In the essay, Kaufman points out the inherent imperfections of the stop motion process and the observant nature of animators. Though neither are particularly revelatory, it's always a special occasion when a non-animator offers up this type of praise, and even moreso when it's expressed so beautifully. Very often, live-action directors who shift to animation, like James Cameron and Ang Lee, end up insulting their animation crews due to their miscomprehension of the process. It's heartening to see Kaufman understands and appreciates everything that animators brought to his film. You can read Kaufman's essay below:

Top: Charlie Kaufman (left) with co-director Duke Johnson.