Editing Stop motion (section)

===1930s and 1940s===
Starewicz finished the first feature stop-motion film ''[[The Tale of the Fox|Le Roman de Renard (The Tale of the Fox)]]'' in 1930, but problems with its soundtrack delayed its release. In 1937 it was released with a German soundtrack and in 1941 with its French soundtrack.

Hungarian-American filmmaker [[George Pal]] developed his own stop-motion technique of replacing wooden dolls (or parts of them) with similar figures displaying changed poses and/or expressions. He called it Pal-Doll and used it for his [[Puppetoons]] films since 1932. The particular replacement animation method itself also became better known as [[puppetoon]]. In Europe he mainly worked on promotional films for companies such as [[Philips]]. Later Pal gained much success in Hollywood with a string of [[Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film]]s, including ''Rhythm in the Ranks'' (1941), ''[[Tulips Shall Grow]]'' (1942), ''[[Jasper and the Haunted House]]'' (1942), the [[Dr. Seuss]] penned ''[[The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins]]'' (1943) and ''[[And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street]]'' (1944), ''Jasper and the Beanstalk'' (1945), ''[[John Henry and the Inky-Poo]]'' (1946), ''[[Jasper in a Jam]]'' (1946), and ''[[Tubby the Tuba (1947 film)|Tubby the Tuba]]'' (1947). Many of his puppetoon films were selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]].

Willis O' Brien's expressive and emotionally convincing animation of the big ape in ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'' (1933) is widely regarded as a milestone in stop-motion animation and a highlight of Hollywood cinema in general.

A 1940 promotional film for [[Autolite]], an automotive parts supplier, featured stop-motion animation of its products marching past Autolite factories to the tune of [[Franz Schubert]]'s ''[[Three Marches Militaires (Schubert)|Military March]]''. An abbreviated version of this sequence was later used in television ads for Autolite, especially those on the 1950s CBS program ''[[Suspense (U.S. TV series)|Suspense]]'', which Autolite sponsored.

The first British animated feature was the stop-motion instruction film ''[[Handling Ships]]'' (1945) by [[Halas and Batchelor]] for the [[British Admiralty]]. It was not meant for general cinemas, but did become part of the official selection of the 1946 [[Cannes Film Festival]].

The first Belgian animated feature was an [[The Crab with the Golden Claws (film)|adaptation of the Tintin comic ''The Crab with the Golden Claws'']] (1947) with animated puppets.

The first Czech animated feature was the package film ''[[The Czech Year]]'' (1947) with animated puppets by [[Jiří Trnka]]. The film won several awards at the [[Venice Film Festival]] and other international festivals. Trnka would make several more award-winning stop-motion features including ''[[The Emperor's Nightingale]]'' (1949), ''[[Prince Bayaya]]'' (1950), ''[[Old Czech Legends]]'' (1953), or ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959 film)|A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' (1959). He also directed many short films and experimented with other forms of animation.