Will Laikas Movie Projects Pop or Fizzle?
With the announcement this week of Laika’s new slate of projects, the Portland area-based movie studio takes another step into the ever-more-crowded world of animated features. Portland has been home to animated filmmaking for decades, going back to Will Vinton Studios — which Nike chieftain Phil Knight took over in 2003 and renamed Laika. But the city’s history of turning out high-quality animated TV, short films and commercials is a far cry from feature filmmaking, where big boys like Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks have established themselves. No doubt animated feature films have become hot commodities at the box-office. But some (“Kung Fu Panda”) are hotter than others (“Surf’s Up”). Laika is deep into production on its first feature project: “Coraline,” adapted from a Neil Gaiman book, directed by Henry Selick (“The Nightmare Before Christmas”) and the first feature done from the outset in stop-motion animation and 3D. Since none of Laika’s features have hit theaters, it’s impossibl
