Animation studio Laika, of Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link fame, has announced that its Portland, Oregon-area studio will be closed till 1 May, while “all employees are being paid in full with all benefits in place” during this crisis situation.
Commented Laika president and CEO Travis Knight to The Hollywood Reporter, “When this ends, and it will end, the world will need storytellers more than ever. The world will need hope and inspiration and empathy and high-spirited joy. The world will need beauty and poetry and restorative works of art. The world will need you. Telling stories is one of the prime functions of the human mind and spirit. Good stories open us up to new possibilities, to new ways of thinking, to recognize the shared humanity in which we all participate. That has always been Laika’s reason for being. And it will remain so. And we will do it as we always have. Together.”
Laika, best known for its hybrid stop-motion and CG approach to animation, doesn’t have a 2020 release. It is owned by Nike co-founder Phil Knight, Travis Knight’s father.
Laika had two divisions: Laika Entertainment for feature films and Laika/house for commercial content. The studio spun off the commercial division in July 2014 to focus exclusively on feature film production. The new independent commercial division is now called HouseSpecial.
