How Netflix’s ’Pinocchio’ Innovated Stop-Motion Animation | Movies Insider | Insider

Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix adaptation of “Pinocchio” breathes new life into the over-century-old art form of stop-motion animation. The film achieved a new level of expressiveness in its animated puppets by marrying traditional stop-motion techniques with newer technologies. We spoke with “Pinocchio” puppet fabrication supervisor Georgina Hayns and animation supervisor Brian Leif Hansen about the labor of love behind the film. Hayns and Leif Hansen are world-renowned stop-motion artists who brought their expertise to the three-year undertaking that was “Pinocchio.” Previously, Hayns supervised character fabrication for “Kubo and the Two Strings” (2016), “The Boxtrolls” (2014), “ParaNorman” (2012), and “Coraline” (2009). Leif Hansen was an animator on “Missing Link” (2019), “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (2009), and “Frankenweenie” (2012). Both artists worked on Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride” (2005), which was pioneering for its use of geared heads to express nuanced emotion in stop-motion characters