A night of spooky stop-motion films, followed by a panel discussion hosted by Aurelio Voltaire, is a treat in store for those attending the Museum of Comic and Cartoon art in New York City tonight, April 29 at 7pm. Complete details can be read here:

Stop-motion animation has been around since the very beginning of film and is still around today. The art of manipulating rubber puppets and bringing them to life by posing them one frame at a time on film has seen something of a renaissance in recent history with the release of such films as Coraline, The Fantastic Mr. Fox and A Town Called Panic.  Unlike it’s shiny and new cousin, computer animation, stop-motion has always had a home-made and somewhat surreal quality to it.  Perhaps it is for that reason that it is often the technique of choice for filmmakers like Tim Burton and Henry Selick, looking to  create a strange and spooky world (Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, James and the Giant Peach).

Aurelio Voltaire, a filmmaker firmly entrenched in the world of dark, puppet animation takes us on a little tour of the  genre on April 29th during Puppet Masters of the Macabre: A Night of Spooky Stop-Motion Animation.  Voltaire will screen excerpts from his reel (including station IDs created in the early days of MTV and The SyFy channel and a few of his award-winning shorts) as well as the work of  other colleagues and luminaries of macabre animation.  The screening will be immediately followed by a panel discussion lead by Voltaire.  On the panel will be several stop-motion animators and industry professionals.

This presentation will take place at MoCCA – The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – and is in association with Small and Creepy Films, a destination for whimsically dark shorts on the internet, and the website of Caroline Thompson (screenwriter of Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Adams Family and others) and producer Steve Nicolaides (producer of The Princess Bride, A Few Good Men, School of Rock, Nacho Libre).

Puppet Masters of the Macabre: A Night of Spooky Stop-Motion Animation
Admission: $5 | Free for MoCCA Members | NYC — Thursday, April 29, 7pm