LAIKA (Stop-Motion Studio)

Vinton Studios was known for stop-motion films and commercials. Phil Knight, then chairman of Nike, acquired the studio from Will Vinton in September 2003.⁠[1][1][2]

Over the previous three decades Vinton Studios had won honors at festivals around the world. Its innovations included Claymation, a clay animation technique the studio trademarked; television specials starring the California Raisins; and The PJs, produced with Imagine Entertainment and others, the first stop-motion animation series on primetime television.⁠[1][1][1][1]

Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, joined in May 2004 as supervising director.⁠[1]

On July 19, 2005, Phil Knight announced that he had absorbed Vinton Studios into a new entertainment and media company called LAIKA, saying that for the past year he had been building the infrastructure of a new, independent feature animation studio. LAIKA’s first production was Moongirl, a computer-animated short directed by Henry Selick; Vinton Studios’ advertising division moved under LAIKA that fall. The company planned to make animated films with budgets of $50 million to $70 million and had greenlit Coraline, based on Neil Gaiman’s Hugo Award-winning children’s book, to be directed by Selick and produced with Bill Mechanic’s Pandemonium; headquarters remained in Portland, Oregon.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1][1][1]

Explaining the company name, Phil Knight said the studio staff came up with hundreds of names and he simply thought LAIKA sounded right and fit who they were. LAIKA also appointed Fiona Kenshole, formerly publishing director of Oxford University Press Children’s Books, to head worldwide literary scouting. LAIKA counts 2005 as its founding year, with the aim of pushing the boundaries of storytelling and creating a home for talented artists and stop-motion professionals.⁠[1][1][1][3]

In 2009 LAIKA released its first feature, Coraline, written and directed by Henry Selick and based on Neil Gaiman’s novel, with Dakota Fanning voicing the title character; more than 500 people worked on the film, and Travis Knight was one of its lead animators. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was the first stop-motion film conceived and photographed in stereoscopic 3D and to integrate visual effects and 3D-printing (rapid prototype) technology.⁠[4][5][5][5][5][5][3][3]

Also in 2009, Travis Knight took charge of LAIKA.⁠[2]

In September 2011 LAIKA optioned Wildwood, a young-adult fantasy novel written by Colin Meloy, lead singer of The Decemberists, and illustrated by his wife, Carson Ellis; set in an alternate version of Portland, it was the first book in a proposed trilogy. Travis Knight, then president and CEO, called it a story in the tradition of Tolkien, as big as The Lord of the Rings, and unprecedented in stop-motion, and said that although LAIKA had resisted sequels, it hoped to adapt all three parts of the trilogy.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

The second feature, ParaNorman, directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler and written by Chris Butler, was released by Focus on August 17, 2012. It was LAIKA’s first film to use color 3D printers and earned LAIKA’s second Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature; more than 300 people worked on it, building three dozen locations.⁠[6][7][3][7]

The third feature, The Boxtrolls, based on Alan Snow’s novel Here Be Monsters and directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.⁠[4][3][8]

In March 2015 LAIKA announced plans to expand its 150,000-square-foot renovated warehouse studio in Hillsboro, Oregon, by 70 percent, citing storage needs for the puppets, props and replacement faces generated by each film and plans to speed up its release schedule; the studio then had 394 employees.⁠[2][2][2][2]

The fourth feature, Kubo and the Two Strings, directed by Travis Knight and set in ancient Japan, won the BAFTA for Best Animated Film and received two Academy Award nominations, for Best Animated Feature and Best Visual Effects.⁠[4][9][9][3]

The same year LAIKA received a Scientific and Technology Oscar for pioneering the use of rapid prototyping for character animation in stop-motion production, presented to Brian McLean and Martin Meunier; the technique enabled leaps in character expressiveness, facial animation, motion blur and effects animation.⁠[3][3]

The fifth feature, Missing Link, written and directed by Chris Butler, received an Oscar nomination and won the 2020 Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film.⁠[4][10][3]

LAIKA partnered with Bowie State University in Maryland, a historically Black college and university (HBCU), to build the first stop-motion animation studio at an HBCU.⁠[3]

In February 2021 Shout! Factory and LAIKA announced a distribution deal to release LAIKA’s first four features in the United States, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Boxtrolls, ParaNorman and Coraline, with new bonus content, collectible packaging and specialty releases in development.⁠[11][11][11]

In 2023 LAIKA, LLC introduced LAIKA Live Action, a Los Angeles-based subsidiary making original live-action films and series, with Matt Levin as president of live action film and series. Projects in development include adaptations of John Brownlow’s novel Seventeen and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel Atmosphere (the latter to be adapted and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck); Crumble, an original film written and directed by Brian Duffield and produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller; Audition, with Barack Obama’s Higher Ground and directed by Lulu Wang; and a live-action series adapting Emily St. John Mandel’s novel Exit Party.⁠[12][12][12][12][12][12][12][12][12]

From August 12 to October 1, 2024, the exhibition LAIKA: Frame x Frame was held in London; from August 15 to November 30, 2024, Coraline returned to cinemas worldwide in remastered 3D. From March 14 to May 11, 2025, Frame x Frame was shown in Lisbon, Portugal.⁠[13][13][13]

In January 2026 LAIKA announced that Fathom Entertainment would handle U.S. distribution of its sixth feature, Wildwood, and FilmNation Entertainment international sales, with an October 23 U.S. release date; the film is directed by Travis Knight from a script by Chris Butler. Chief marketing and operations officer David Burke said the strategy, built specifically for the film, preserved LAIKA’s independence; Travis Knight called Wildwood the biggest and most personal world LAIKA had ever built, “a celebration of artistry over algorithms.”⁠[14][14][14][14][14][14]

On September 9, 2026, LAIKA launched Made By Humans: Creatives in Conversation, a multi-episode show produced with Sony Music Group and recorded at LAIKA headquarters, pairing LAIKA staff with notable industry storytellers; it stresses that in the age of AI content LAIKA’s films are still made by hand and looks back on the studio’s 20 years. The series is free to watch on LAIKA’s YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel and is also released as a podcast.⁠[15][15][15][15][15]

On October 6, 2026, Rizzoli published the art book The Art of Wildwood, which chronicles the film’s 16-year making and its 132 practical sets and roughly 230 intricately designed puppets, written by film journalist Drew Taylor with a foreword by Colin Meloy (another account puts the production at 15 years).⁠[16][16][16][16][16][16][17]

The same month Wildwood had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, attended by director Travis Knight and voice cast members Carey Mulligan, Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Jacob Tremblay; WILDWOOD: The Exhibition opened at the Design Museum in London on October 15 and runs through January 10, 2027. On October 19 the film had a special screening at the Animation Is Film festival in Los Angeles, at the Academy Museum’s Geffen Theater. The voice cast also includes Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Tom Waits and Richard E. Grant, and the film is scheduled for theatrical release on October 23, 2026.⁠[18][18][18][17][17][17][19]

Hidden Worlds: The Films of LAIKA, a traveling exhibition co-produced by LAIKA and MOPOP, is scheduled to run at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles from December 12, 2026, to September 9, 2027, presenting LAIKA’s creative process through behind-the-scenes photography, video clips and artwork, along with sets, props, puppets and costumes.⁠[4][4][4][4]

LAIKA describes itself as a filmmaker-led studio that combines handcrafted artistry with advanced visual effects to tell bold, original and enduring stories, and as a stop-motion animation studio that is home to a community of storytellers, artists, inventors, technicians and craftspeople from around the world. Some team members have been at the studio since Coraline; long-time collaborators include Brad Schiff, animation supervisor on four earlier LAIKA films and on Wildwood, and Brian McLean, who leads rapid prototyping.⁠[3][20][3][15][15]

LAIKA: Official website: https://www.laika.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[21]

YouTube: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@LAIKAStudios (opens in a new window)⁠[21]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/laika/ (opens in a new window)⁠[21]