The type of animation that has always been my favorite is stop-motion. As a kid, one of my favorite movies was The Nightmare Before Christmas. Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit were also favorites. I was Coraline for Halloween, the one after the movie’s release. I read the ParaNorman novel, written for the movie prior to its release, several times before I saw it in theaters. As a big fan of stop-motion, I believe 2026 is a very good year for it, and I have four reasons to support this.
- LAIKA studio is releasing Wildwoods in theaters on October 23rd. LAIKA is known for their hand-crafted puppets and sets, and this film boasts the same. As well as “cutting-edge technology” to incorporate computer graphics to help bring the world alive. Personally, as a long-time fan of LAIKA, I am really excited about this film. Despite my personal bias, this still looks like it’s going to be another great film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POneS8h1jyU
- I Am Frankelda, which is currently available on Netflix. This one was technically released in 2025, but since it came to Netflix in 2026, I am counting it for this list. It is good to see stop-motion animation coming from a studio that is not one of the big stop-motion studios, Cinema Fantasma. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgQunhb-MAg
- LAIKA studio is celebrating its 20th anniversary! It is a little hard for me to believe this one because I remember when they were making their debut with Coraline, but LAIKA has indeed been around for 20 years. It is wonderful to see how the studio has grown since its first film.
- Aardman celebrates its 50th anniversary! That’s right: the studio that brought us not only Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run but also Shaun the Sheep is about to turn 50. The studio is celebrating its anniversary with an exhibition of its work in its home city of Bristol.
This is all good news for fans of animation, as they get not only two new movies in the same year, but also the chance to celebrate two of the studios that have brought us the movies we love. This makes 2026 a good year for stop-motion animation.
REFERENCES
https://www.cinemafantasma.com/i-am-frankelda
https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/laika-20-years-of-stop-motion-animation-partnership-200326
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