Can Laika Survive Without Travis Knight?

With the news that founder and animator/director Travis Knight will be taking the reigns for the next installment of the Transformers franchise, one can’t help but speculate about the future of Laika and whether it will continue to exist. Kubo and The Two Strings failed to win an Oscar, but it did receive plenty of […]

New “Kubo” Featurette Details The Film’s Five Year Journey To The Screen

I’m a fan of all five of the films up for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. There’s no question that Kubo and The Two Strings pushed the medium of stop motion to new levels. This new featurette details the film’s five-year journey to the big screen. “Kubo,” which was an underdog Best […]

There’s One Award that Kubo Does Deserve to Win

Not withstanding Variety’s opinion that Kubo and the Two Strings is the film that justifies giving an Oscar to Laika, there’s another award that the film is nominated for that would produce a large boost for the studio in a unique way. Very very few animated films earn a nomination for the Costume Designers Guild […]

COMMENTARY: Children or Adults? Can “Kubo” Find It’s Audience?

From Pinocchio and Fantasia to The Iron Giant, the history of animation is littered with good, sometimes great, films that failed to reach the audiences they deserved on their initial release. Sadly, Kubo and the Two Strings seems to be the latest addition to that list. Its hard to say why the film hasn’t done […]

Interview with Travis Knight on Directing “Kubo”

Travis Knight is the President and CEO of Laika, the stop-motion animation studio behind Oscar-nominated hits Coraline, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls. Their latest feature, Kubo and the Two Strings, opening this weekend, marks Knight’s directorial debut. He told me about some of the decade-long efforts of the studio, bringing Kubo to life, and a “mind-blowing” […]