As part of the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, legendary animation studio LAIKA is exhibiting the puppets used to make all their five iconic stop-motion films: Coraline, The Boxtrolls, ParaNorman, Missing Link, and Kubo and the Two Strings. Our own Steven Weintraub is in the field and has some images from LAIKA’s exhibition to share.
In their Licensing Expo exhibition, LAIKA allows the public to take a closer look at the main characters of all the five films from the studio. That means we have the puppet used to animate the Sasquatch Mr. Link, the sword wielder Kubo, and the alternate-dimension parents of Coraline, who have buttons in place of eyes. In addition, some pieces are modeled after some classic scenes from the movies, such as the zombie attack on a van in ParaNorman and the car chase where the evil pest terminators try to catch the Boxtrolls. It’s funny to see all these puppets standing still, while we know the artists of LAIKA move each piece frame by frame in order to film some of the best animation movies ever made.
Thanks to LAIKA’s commitment to stop-motion art, the studio remains one of the most relevant voices in international cinema. All five films LAIKA developed so far have been nominated for the Academy Award for Outstanding Animated Feature, with Kubo and the Two Strings winning the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film and Missing Link taking the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film.
Besides featuring the stars of the previous LAIKA films, the Licensing Expo exhibition also has the poster for the studio's next movie, Wildwood. Directed by Travis Knight, president and CEO of Laika Studios, Wildwood adapts the novel of the same name by The Decemberists’ lead singer and songwriter Colin Meloy. The story follows a young girl who adventures into the forest to rescue her young brother from a murder of crows, meeting talking animals and mystical creatures along the way.
After Wildwood, Knight is teaming up with Ozark’s creator Bill Dubuque for a new mysterious LAIKA stop-motion feature titled The Night Gardener. The original story by Dubuque will center on a young man in rural Missouri who’s trying to keep his family together in the wake of a tragedy. It’s still unknown if The Night Gardener has any fantastic elements, as the film is being developed in absolute secrecy.
There’s still no release window for Wildwood. Check out below the images from LAIKA’s exhibition at the Licensing Expo.
