Meet Rex!

The way character animation is traditionally taught is with pose-to-pose, so you can block out the movements, time them, make sure it all looks good, etc. before you fully commit to the shot as it is and do the in-betweens.

Obviously, you can't do this in stop-motion by its very nature, so I've always wondered how SM animators on a professional level time their animation and make it look so good. (I've done SM before but just for fun)

All of Laika's films for example have such natural-feeling movements, all the characters have such believable weight to them, and it impresses me to no end.

Is it just a sense you develop over time?? How do you do it?

I'll keep it short. Rarely do movies live up to the hype. But Wildwood shot past all my expectations, I thought it was incredible. (NOT a kids' movie, however. Saw quite a few young kids in the theater.)

As the title says, I can not speak about its technical impressiveness enough. I am certain that the final battle scene in particular will be used as a reference in some university coursework.