28mm Miniatures Special: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror and Other Stories

   From Japan comes three tales of American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft done with 28 miniatures(not sure of the exact size, but they appear to be close). The stories are shot on video with minimal movement and maximum eeriness. I’ve seen plenty of Lovecraftian adaptations over the years and this has to be the most original. This is part of a new direction in Japanese animation called Ga-nime. The DVD is not the easiest one to obtain, but it can be found at various anime sites. I highly recommend it.

From Wikipedia:

Ga-nime (画ニメ^?), a portmanteau of “illustration” (画 ga^?) and “anime“, is a relatively recent trend in Japanese animation to create highly aesthetic short anime films using non-traditional animation techniques, often directed by artists who have limited involvement with the anime industry. Typically, these films will utilize a series of illustrations accompanied by voice acting and music, with the only motion provided by extremely simplified limited animation, computer animation, camera movements such as panning and zooming, or stop-motion animation. They are generally produced by only a handful of staff members, with the director often writing, illustrating, or even scoring the piece themselves.

The end result is to create the video equivalent of a Night Gallery painting. American miniature artists can learn a lot from watching this production. Much of the video concerns the artists who create the set on which it is filmed. One of the extras has the Japanese miniature artists working on building the scenery for the production. It’s also astounding to see how much of a role sound plays in the production: when a figure ruffles through a book, you hear the pages shuffle.

Three stories are adapted: “The Picture in the House”, “The Dunwich Horror”, and “The Festival”. Although the dialogue is in Japanese, it is so limited as not to cause any problems if you don’t understand the language. Furthermore, the plot is easy to follow if you’ve read any of the stories. It helps to be familiar with the stories; I found “Picture” easier to follow than “Festival”. Furthermore, I should mention the miniatures are not animated, they are moved off-screen when the plot requires it. An American 28mm miniature sculptor or artist should follow the Japanese lead.