Why is stop-motion animation, and pixilation in particular, a good approach to this subject matter? What does this technique allow for that film/ video might not?
The use of stop motion in "Neighbors" helps allow a level of ridiculousness that is used to compensate for the complete avoidance of speech in the film. The two men in suits display an overwhelming reliance on the flower that is settled in between their houses. This need for the flower is shown through their reality defying explosive joy experienced when smelling it, as they seem to float and fly on their excitement. Something that would not be feasible without the use of stop motion (or intensive editing). But this defying logic is also used in reference to when they start to dispute over who "owns" the flower. They use fence posts that magically line themselves up in accordance to the users preference to block off the flower from the other. The use of the fence helps divide their relationship without having to use verbal cues to show their aggression and anger to one another especially once it escalates into a make shift sword fight using pieces of the fence. During a majority of the physical fight between the two there isn't a large use of pixilation its only at the end where it is most used. Once the two men die as a result of their fighting and the surrounding area is ruined and the flower is destroyed in the process, that is when the rest of the film becomes pixilation. The wall of fences builds itself back up and surrounds them creating their graves and the crosses to lay on top with flowers crawling their way to join them only in death. This choice to use pixilation entirely for the ending is to remove the use of human interaction and continuing the negation of verbal speech. The graves build themselves without someone else's aid, and it is apparent the fate of the Neighbors destroyed by their own actions.
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