By Here’s a collection of words I didn’t expect to see assembled in this order today but are nonetheless a pleasant sight: Starburns Industries has launched a Kickstarter for a stop motion animated film titled Anomalisa, written by Charlie Kaufman and produced by Dan Harmon. About a man “crippled by the mundanity of his life,” the film will likely abound with rich and layered visual metaphor for its slightly abhorrently first world premise.
You’ll know Starburns Industries as the castle-based animation studio behind Moral Orel, named after the character Dino Stamatopoulos (whom true enthusiasts remember as the writer behind some particularly inspired Mr. Show sketches), its founder, portrayed on Harmon’s Community. With a number of stop motion titles now on their CV, one should feel reasonably confident in their ability to produce a full length Kaufman film for the surprisingly modest goal price of $200,000.
So, if you’ve become jaded by other recent Kickstarters in which millionaires hold creative properties for ransom or paranoid schizophrenics abscond with thousands of dollars without recourse, perhaps a genuinely compelling project from some demonstrably talented people will reinvigorate your generosity.
Just try not to feel too insulted over the fact that you’ll have to pledge a minimum of $50 to obtain a copy of the film, or that Kickstarter continues to bathe in money as the public remains content to offer industrial sums of capital for a commercial product without sharing equity.