Stop Motion: Whimsical or Creepy?

 

My best friend is absolutely terrified of stop motion. Whatever you do, do not show her a Tim Burton stop motion film. Don't suggest that you want to watch Coraline. Do not ask if she wants to watch Paranorman or Isle of Dogs. She will yell at you (trust me). 

I love stop motion. I might be biased because I'm the daughter of an animator, but I find it so whimsical. I even tried to make my own stop motion film as a kid (I used Lego minifigures; this was the first time I ever learned the true meaning of patience, and I failed. It took too long. Somewhere in the vacuum of computer memory is around 30 seconds of a green Lego man moving around. That's as far as I got). 

Based on our different perspectives, I got to thinking--why do some people not enjoy stop motion? My friend couldn't put her finger on why she didn't like it. She just shrugged and said it's creepy, how it's always freaked her out as long as she's been alive. 

Is the stop motion being uncanny? You know it's human--or something semi-human like in Nightmare Before Christmas--but it's not quite. Cartoon characters are easier to identify because they're (usually) smooth-moving, fresh-faced, and established as caricature. But the stop motion human moves with a glitch in its step. Though whimsical, is it tender and soft in terms of its momentum? Sometimes they blink, sometimes it's not in the budget to be so detailed with blinks. 

What do you guys think?