Charlie Kaufman’s ‘Anomalisa’ Trailer Promises A Unique Stop Motion Experience

Paramount Pictures has released the trailer for Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s stop-motion feature Anomalisa, which looks and feels like nothing else currently in the feature animation marketplace.

Based on a play written by Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and adapted for the screen by Kaufman and Johnson, the story revolves around a despairing motivational speaker who strikes up a relationship with a woman he meets at a speaking engagement.

The producers of Anomalisa have kept a tight wrap on the film’s promotion, releasing only an engimatic image or two since the film debuted on the festival circuit earlier this fall. After premiering to raves at the Telluride Film Festival, the much-praised film has gone on to win the grand jury prize at the Venice Film Festival and the audience award at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

It’s hard to imagine any major studio taking a risk on a non-family animated feature even just a few short years ago, so it’s quite remarkable that Paramount has picked up the film for distribution. Anomalisa is one of the clearest signs yet that animation is finally maturing as a commercial art form in the United States.

Anomalisa was produced by Burbank, California-based Starburns Industries (producers of Rick and Morty), and stars the voices of David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tom Noonan. It will open on December 30 in New York and Los Angeles, before rolling out nationwide.