Guillermo del Toro partners with Netflix and the Gobelins school to save stop motion
“Stop-motion is on the verge of extinction,” explains the Mexican director who wants to train the talents of tomorrow to preserve this discipline.
Visiting Paris to preview his Frankensteinwhich will be released on November 7 on Netflix, Guillermo del Toro took the opportunity to unveil his new project: the creation of a stop-motion studio in partnership with the Gobelins school and with the financial support of the platform.
The Mexican director and Netflix have been collaborating for a long time with Les Gobelins, crowned a few months ago as the world’s leading animation school for the fifth consecutive year. And they continue their work together to bring out new talents in this very specific field of animation which needs fresh blood.
“The idea was to create a stop-motion studio in Europe, named after Mark Gustafson with whom I made Pinocchio (2022). He died at a young age and was a pillar of stop-motion in the United States“, explained Guillermo del Toro alongside Ted Sarandos, CEO of Netflix, and Valérie Moatti, general director of Gobelins Paris (photo below).
“The important names in stop-motion are all over 50 years old. The success of this project will be achieved when we have new names under 30 years old (…) Stop-motion is on the verge of extinction. It is kept alive by dedicated people“.
Guillermo del Toro also pointed out that stop-motion, which consists of making frame-by-frame animation, was “AI-proof“, that is to say resistant to artificial intelligence. And that this technique remained a playing field open to all, at a time when new technologies are becoming more and more important in creation: “These are the kind of films you can make almost on your own. Even without having a lot of support, with a phone and models, we can tell something important in a short or feature film“.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos welcomed the new partnership and immediately accepted Guillermo del Toro’s proposal: “This is probably the quickest “yes” you’ve gotten from me! Netflix supports all forms of animation. In the times we live in, with the resources and tools we have, there should be no lost arts, and I think if not preserved, stop-motion risks becoming one.“.
The current academic year will be dedicated to the planning and development of the studio, and its launch date will be announced later.
