New Featurette Explores the Stop-Motion World of ‘Anomalisa’

Taking three years to produce, the crew at Starburns Industries crafted 1,261 faces and 1,000 props for the Charlie Kaufman feature; the final cut has 118,089 frames of handmade animation.

Anomalisa, the stop-motion animated feature from directors Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, tells the story of a man who struggles with his inability to connect with other people.

Paramount Pictures has released a new featurette, “Crafting Anomalisa,” that delves into the painstaking creation of the film. The crew at Starburns Industries made 1,261 faces and 1,000 props for the movie, and the final cut has 118,089 frames of handmade animation, which took three years to produce. Each animator working on the project had a goal of two seconds (48 frames) of animation per day:

Centered on an inspirational speaker who checks into a bizarre hotel, Anomalisa has a voice cast including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan and David Thewlis. The film is produced by Starburns Industries and Snoot Entertainment, and was partially funded by a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign launched in 2012 that raised $406,237 from 5,770 backers.

Source: Paramount Pictures

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.