WTF Is This Stop Motion Sorcery And Why Hasn't Hollywood Done It?

There’s really no way to prep you for what you’re about to see. A Girl Named Elastica, in literal terms, is a stop motion short video made with a rubber bands, thumb tacks, and a cork board. It’s so much more than that though. I’ve seen a lot of stop motion in my day, but this one, it’s just on another level. Really when you sit down and analyze it, the work and creativity shown in this short time rivals some of the big things we see rolling out of Hollywood today.

On paper, we've seen a lot that should trump this video. For crying out loud, I saw The Raid reenacted with claymation cats. I still think this beats that and I can’t fully explain why! I’m watching this video and the whole time I feel as though I’m experiencing something I saw in a dream. As I’m writing this, I’m on my third watch and I’m still having trouble really finding the words to what I’m feeling. You may be sitting there thinking “pshhh whatever” but please hear me out.

So who comes up with an idea that showcases a rubberband girl who, seconds after exiting an elevator, bounces off a wall and catapults through what I’m guessing is a brick wall and then is like “ROAD TRIP” and she’s a car. She then drives from Egypt, to Paris, to San Francisco, to Las Vegas to gamble and wins a lot of money to buy a boat. Somehow the boat’s maiden voyage takes place on the Atlantic Ocean and capsizes as she’s trying to convince her mother she’s at a friend's house. Of course she ends up on an island after a shark attack and immediately hops from a Jaws reference to a Castaway reference.

Not even Tom Hanks, however, can escape a deserted island through the use of a palm tree that projects him into space. Elastika does and then gets to space where there’s a fireworks show, only to jump on a rocket that turns into balloons and fly through more space, land on the moon, and then hop off like it’s no big deal.

Can we agree that stop motion artists are some of the most creative minds working in the industry today? I just imagine Guillame Blanchet (the creator of the short) looking up from his freshly written script and saying “yes I think I’ve done it, but let’s throw in some blooper reels with a pervy director.” Hat’s off to him for this video. I’d like to think I’m creative, but in no way do I imagine I’m creative enough to do what he did with what he had in three in a half minutes time. So what does it all mean?

Nothing. It’s just a movie, within a movie, and Elastika is an elastic actress just reading the script and doing her part. TRIPPY RIGHT?! Also watching those legs move gives me the creeps, but the level of detail to make it look legitimate is impressive.

Hollywood, make a movie like this for my future children to cry in confusion over.