Henry Selick - Animator Extraordinaire

Pondering again on yesterday's post, Neil Gaiman and "Coraline", I decided that I hadn't given sufficient mention to the movie's stop motion animation director, Henry Selick (on right of photograph).
His earlier work on previous animated movies, including "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach" is discussed at Wikipedia HERE, also in an article at Digital Media FX: "Layers: A Look at Henry Selick"

Henry Selick was born on 30 November 1952 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. I've included a 12 noon chart for that date in the absence of time of birth. His natal chart describes quite clearly what Wikipedia has to say about his "Style and Creative Temperament".
A quote from Wikipedia follows, with my notes in red as to how the comments relate so well to Selick's natal chart.

"Joe Ranft, a friend and collaborator of Selick's, once stated in an interview that Selick had a "rock 'n' roll-meets-Da Vinci temperament" -Venus opposite Uranus or vice-versa! In Ranft's words "He'll still go off to his office to play guitar or electric piano to ease off and think", but at the same time Selick operates scientifically. "He gets an outrageous premise-something that comes from a real dream place - Neptune- then approaches the aesthetics of it like a mechanical engineer Saturn. (= Neptune conjunct Saturn). What can we build on this foundation, how do we buttress it? If we have a mechanical shark, how does it kill? Will it shoot things from its snout?" Ranft thinks Selick has an uncanny gift: "He can articulate things through animation that people couldn't say otherwise." Sun conjunct Mercury sextile Mars in Aquarius.

Selick's natal Moon would have been in Taurus before 3pm, Gemini if he was born after that. I'd go for early Gemini, in trine with Mars in Aquarius. A Gemini /Aquarius trine would reflect the high level of mental acuity needed for the skills he so obviously possesses.

The magic in this chart lies in the way the key planets and signs are so closely linked harmoniously or dynamically: Neptune (imagination, creativity); Uranus (innovation); Sun/Mercury (self & communication); Venus (art); Saturn (the mechanics of it all); Aquarius and possibly Gemini (mental acuity); Cancer (the sensitivity to understand how put it all together in an appealing way); Capricorn (the common sense and business sense to be successful in what he does); Sagittarius - the expansive and risk-taking element needed in many of his ideas which have ventured further into the realms of animation than most others in the field.

The process of stop-motion animation is as follows:
Position a model by hand, take a picture and reposition it — repeating, ad infinitum, in tiny increments, to create the illusion of motion. Selick says the process combines all of his favorite things —sculpture, drawing, photography, music and physics. With the help of 30 animators, Selick produced about two minutes of finished footage a week over the course of almost two years. One technique, called "replacement animation," called for thousands of heads, each with different expressions, and the services of both a "face librarian" and an "assistant face librarian" to help keep track. (Information from NPR).

A couple of coincidences in the charts of Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick are worthy of note: Gaiman's Mars and Selick's Uranus are at the same degree of Cancer (17). Gaiman's Saturn and Selick's Venus are just 3 degrees apart at 14 and 17 Capricorn respectively. Perhaps these similarities help towards the good working relationship they seem to share

It's not really relevant but I may as well throw it in: I noticed that Selick's Mars in Aquarius is spot on my Sun, to the minute, so was also hit by the January solar eclipse this year.

Neil Gaiman and "Coraline"

We took ourselves off to the cinema on Sunday evening to see the wonders of 3D, brought up to date in "Coraline". My last, and only, previous experience of 3D at the cinema was way back in the genre's eariest days in the 1950s: "House of Wax" with Vincent Price. With a pair of cardboard spectacles on my nose, one lens red t'other green, I felt I was going cross-eyed and didn't enjoy the experience one little bit.

We felt that technology having sped ahead as it has in the last 50-odd years, things 3D-wise must have improved in leaps and bounds. We decided to find out.

Things have improved, for sure!

Plastic spectacles now replace the cardboard and red/green lens of the old days, they are to be left for re-cycling after the show. 3D effects in "Coraline" were truly special. The most dramatic effects were used sparingly - items seem fly right off the screen and settle somewhere just beyond the seat in front of you. For most of the time, the 3D effect was kept subtle, simply adding depth to the scenes, not detracting attention from the storyline.

"Coraline" is an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's graphic book of the same name. The movie has received very positive reviews, so far.
I admire Neil Gaiman, his work, and his style. My post from August 2007, "Stardust" and Neil Gaiman investigates his natal chart. He has Sun/Mercury/Neptune all within a 9 degree spread of Scorpio. That's a condensed version of who he is : Scorpio reflects the darkish flavour of his storytelling, even when it's in the form of a tale for children. Mercury, the writer's planet is close to his Sun (self). Neptune, planet of creativity, dreams, imagination lay close to Sun and Mercury. That Scorpio trio provides a thumbnail sketch of this talented writer. (More at the earlier post, linked above.)

I notice that transiting Pluto is currently conjunct Neil's natal Jupiter at 2 Capricorn. Robert Hand in his book "Planets in Transit" says that this conjunction can denote great success in any endeavour or it can mean that people in power will strongly oppose efforts.....depending on what the native is trying to accomplish and how. It would seem that the first option fits best, in view of "Coraline's box office success. Most commonly the transit works out well with a rebirth of optimism and hope, especially if working on something beyond personal glory, which will benefit society at large. The transit can also mean a re-birth of faith and spirit in the life of the native.
(Chart shown is set for 12 noon in the absence of time of birth).


I was amazed by the technology and amount of work involved in the production of this stop motion animated movie. Animation director, Henry Selick did a wonderful job. I enjoyed the premise of the fairytale plot with an embedded message. Yet, I still feel unable to say the movie was as excellent as it could have been. Parts of it dragged a little. The husband agreed on this. For my taste, the film would have been very much better at around an hour or an hour and 10 minutes, cutting around half an hour from current length. I understand that Neil Gaiman's book is short enough to read at one sitting, which indicates to me that trying for 1 hour 40 mins of run- time might have been a bit of a stretch. A shorter movie with an accompanying mini-cartoon might have filled the bill better, at least for our tastes.

Children will love the movie, though I think parts of it might be a tad scary for the very young ones, especially those of sensitive nature.

One other tiny complaint - there was no credit roll of the cast members at the end of the movie. We had to go home to the computer to find out which voice belonged to which of the stars listed at the beginning of the film. I'm still not certain which of the two eccentric ladies was Miss Spink and which was Miss Forcible (voices by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders). Perhaps a second viewing of the movie, in DVD form, is needed to straighten out remaining doubts and queries.

Neil's blog/journal is HERE. He mentioned the other day that he's also on Twitter. How does he do it all?

I think the best of Neil Gaiman in film form is still to come. He's brilliant, prolific and young enough to have many more movies in him.