Stop-motion animation is an exciting and challenging medium, but I bet mainstream audiences associate it most closely with either Gumby: The Movie or that Rudolph flick.

Maybe that?s about to change.  Because Edison and Leo, the first stop-motion feature in Canadian history, should satisfy even the snootiest of animation buffs with it?s jaw-dropping photography, but it?s also a macabre comic masterpiece filled with precise touches of dark humour that will delight just about anyone.

It?s the story of lecherous inventor George T. Edison, a Napoleon-inspired megalomaniac whose drive to succeed kills his wife and turns his son into a walking electrical charge with weird robot buddies.

Like an ideal Simpsons episode the animated facial expressions are nuanced to perfection.  Unlike a bad Family Guy episode Edison and Leo avoids hamming it up with excessive, easy irony.  The comedy here is subtly clever and well earned.

The narrative motors along with plenty of amusing points (the deliciously unattractive jealous son Faraday ? the ugliest sibling rival in recent memory) augmented by bursts of brutal comic violence and unexpected touches of real beauty. (The gold statue Edison erects of his dead wife).

You?re a savvy TIFF08 reader so I won?t bore you with the impressive and often groundbreaking history of Canadian animation, but suffice it to say The Log Driver?s Waltz isn?t found on as many freshman girls? DVD shelves as say ? The Nightmare Before Christmas.  I think that?s too bad because The Log Driver?s Waltz is obviously very awesome.

Perhaps this too is about to change.  Because while Tim Burton?s dark efforts are certainly charming, they may have worn out their kitschy welcome a few years back.  This film - ten years in the making - will satisfy Burton fans, but it also throbs with a more intense brand of Guy Maddin-like weirdness.  (Long-time Maddin collaborator George Toles penned the screenplay).

Edison and Leo?s next screening is this Saturday at 1pm at the AMC theatre.

Above:  The gorgeous Carly Pope, voice of Zella. (I thought she deserved top pictorial billing.)

Below:  Director Neil Burns.  (A handsome gentleman in his own right.)