Monday 15 March 2010

Animator: Ladislaw Starewicz ( 1882- 1965)

Ladislaw Starewicz was a Russian/ Polish animator, who used 3d stop-motion in his works. Being one of the 1st animators in this area of animation, he was a pioneer that not only in story telling, but also in giving life to 3d objects.

We were presented to this Animator, accompanied with his 1934 The Mascot Animation.
The Mascot is a short film, in stop-motion, starring toys, which have a mind of their own. It tells a story of a poor family ( mother and daughter), who have to sell some toys because they are having economic difficulties. And so it starts the fight of the toys to not being sold. In this animation, we have a puppy, a cat, a tough guy, a monkey, a clown, lots of vegetable head characters and even a devil.





Being part of our project animate a everyday object, it was good to see how Starewicz actually created such different characters and incorporate them with their own distinct personality. Not to mention the beautifully technique in Stop- Motion, where is not visible any bump of any kind.
Although the story is good from the beginning the hint of dark humour so many times perceived in Eastern European Stories, actually elevated it to be one of my favourite stop-motion animations.
Starewicz dark humour pioneering works in this field, influenced many other animators to come, such as Jan Svankmajer, Brothers Quay and Tim Burton.

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