More Bad News For Laika (Mod Edit): Henry Selick Leaves Laika

[unitzer07]

damn youuuu , I was just about to post this haha.

[soulburn3d]

What a quote...

“I’m not sure if he’s a genius, but he brings all the baggage of genius,”

- Neil

[BColbourn]

ahahahaha that quote!

[fahr]

Well, this sucks. Coraline was awesome. Another selick/laika production would have been most welcome.

[Marlonnowe]

What a quote...

“I’m not sure if he’s a genius, but he brings all the baggage of genius,”

- Neil

Neil... your baggage is genius as well

[AJ]

He has a suitcase full of brains.

[soulburn3d]

Neil... your baggage is genius as well

Haha. And you are made of waffles my friend :)

On a more serious note, that really sucks for Laika, I enjoyed Coraline and had/have a number of friends who worked at the studio. Guess we'll see what the future holds for the company in terms of film work.

- Neil

[Artbot]

I finally saw Coraline a few days ago and thought it was brilliant. It's one of the few animated movies I've ever seen that had me thinking days later about the story. And of course the animation and attention to detail was just mind-blowing. This is a huge loss for Laika.

[wwswimming]

"Following the release of “Coraline,” Phil Knight promoted his son Travis to chief executive and named Claire Jennings, a “Coraline” producer, head of Laika’s entertainment division."

so what's the work environment there like ?

an animation company in Portland ! nice location.

[BigPixolin]

"Following the release of “Coraline,” Phil Knight promoted his son Travis to chief executive and named Claire Jennings, a “Coraline” producer, head of Laika’s entertainment division."

so what's the work environment there like ?

an animation company in Portland ! nice location.

When I first read the article i was like "wow a CEO that is only like 28, only animating for four years no manager expirence". Then I read why and it all made sense.

[RavenEye]

When I first read the article i was like "wow a CEO that is only like 28, only animating for four years no manager expirence". Then I read why and it all made sense.

I have personally worked with Travis and he deserves that position. His dad may own the company but he has paid his dues. He has a passion for the business and for animation. From my experience, he was easy to work with and was willing to give out advice. Also had a good sense of humor. I may claim my own ignorance or slowness but I never put Travis Knight and Phil Knight together. Until way later in production of "Moongirl". He came off as a normal Joe that loves what he does for a living.

I'm sad to hear that Henry is leaving.

[BigPixolin]

I have personally worked with Travis and he deserves that position. His dad may own the company but he has paid his dues. He has a passion for the business and for animation. From my experience, he was easy to work with and was willing to give out advice. Also had a good sense of humor. I may claim my own ignorance or slowness but I never put Travis Knight and Phil Knight together. Until way later in production of "Moongirl". He came off as a normal Joe that loves what he does for a living.

I'm sad to hear that Henry is leaving.

I may have to claim my own ignorance for speaking on something I have no clue about.:wavey:

[24-Bit Voxel]

I have personally worked with Travis and he deserves that position. His dad may own the company but he has paid his dues. He has a passion for the business and for animation. From my experience, he was easy to work with and was willing to give out advice. Also had a good sense of humor. I may claim my own ignorance or slowness but I never put Travis Knight and Phil Knight together. Until way later in production of "Moongirl". He came off as a normal Joe that loves what he does for a living.


Indeed. My understanding is that Phil Knight had two sons. One of them was set to take over Nike eventually, but he tragically passed away. His second son was always into animation and Laika was a method for Phil to reach out to his remaining son. Travis never wanted to run Nike from all accounts, and he is very dedicated to the animation business and he deserves his position. This is second hand information from an ex Laika employee, but it seems to make a lot of sense.

Everyone I've ever talked to spoke very highly of Travis Knight in both leadership ability and animation. Personally I loved Coraline and I feel it shows that management and the art team were both top notch.

I've heard that Laika made very little on the film, and the distributor made off with the bulk of the money. Rumor has it they won't be making another motion picture (and I hope that isn't true). It would explain the departure of Mr. Sellick, and they did just have a massive round of layoffs.

The city of Portland has hit 12.1% unemployment. It's terrible news for the local art community that he's decided to leave, but the secret to life is how you deal with plan B. I volunteered at the Portland Siggraph event for the prescreening of Moongirl and was able to meet Mr. Sellick. He has a certain level of calmness and composure about him that would be an asset to any production house. (We all know how crazy things can get in this field.) He will be missed.

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