Stop-motion animation, in which objects are photographed frame by frame to achieve the illusion of motion, is nearly as old as the movies.
But as recent films by Nick Park ("Chicken Run"), Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas"), Tim Burton ("Frankenweenie") and Wes Anderson ("Fantastic Mr. Fox") have proven, there is still plenty of life — and even innovation — in this venerable format.
Working with a far smaller budget than these Hollywood titans, Yoshihiko Dai and his colleagues at PLUS heads inc. — the studio he founded in 2001 — have made "Present For You," a 3-D film that uses stop-motion in ways fresh and strange. Dai's peers have evidently agreed: "Present For You" was named the Best International Live Action Feature in 2013 by the International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society.