A to Z of Animation Studios: L Is for Laika
The stop-motion studio that takes years to make one movie, and makes every frame count.
L is for Laika
Founded: 2005, in Oregon, near Portland. But Laika's story starts with someone else's studio.
The takeover
REAL: Laika was built on top of Will Vinton Studios, the claymation company behind the California Raisins.
REAL: in the late 1990s, Vinton's studio needed money. Phil Knight, the billionaire co-founder of Nike, invested, and he soon became the majority owner.
REAL: Knight's son, Travis, joined the studio as an animator.
REAL: by 2002, Will Vinton had been forced out of the company he founded and that carried his name. He sued Knight over it.
REAL: in 2005, the studio was relaunched as Laika, with Travis Knight in charge. He still runs it, and he directed Kubo and the Two Strings.
REAL: Vinton said publicly for the rest of his life that his studio had been taken from him.
The man who trademarked the word "Claymation" lost his own studio to its biggest investor. Laika makes beautiful films. It's also a reminder: when you take someone's money, read the fine print about who owns your dream.
The approach: Stop-motion, frame by frame, with real puppets on real sets, plus cutting-edge technology to push the art form forward.
Greatest hits
Coraline (2009). A girl finds a door to a "better" version of her life, where everyone has buttons for eyes. Spooky, beautiful and Oscar-nominated.
ParaNorman (2012). A boy who can talk to ghosts has to save his town.
The Boxtrolls (2014). Underground creatures who wear cardboard boxes, and the boy they raised.
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). An epic about a boy with a magical instrument. It includes one of the largest stop-motion puppets ever built, a giant skeleton about 16 feet tall.
Missing Link (2019). REAL: it won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, beating several big-studio films.
The Laika formula
Patience. A Laika feature can take years. A good week might produce a few minutes of finished film.
Invention. REAL: Laika pioneered 3D-printed replacement faces for its puppets, thousands of tiny expressions swapped frame by frame. The technique earned a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award.
Brave stories. Laika films are a little dark, very heartfelt and never talk down to kids.
The struggle
Stop-motion is slow and expensive, and Laika's films usually earn critical love more than blockbuster money. Competing with fast CGI movies is hard when one shot can take weeks.
Honorable mention: Will Vinton Studios
The studio that came before Laika. REAL: Will Vinton trademarked the word "Claymation." His studio made The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985), A Claymation Christmas Celebration (1987) and the singing California Raisins.
The lesson
Laika proves that craft is visible. Audiences may not know how a scene was made, but they can feel when someone cared about every frame.
Up next
M is for Marvel Animation.
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