Cartoon Brew linked to an article on Phil Knight (Nike) and his son Travis over at Laika. What an interesting read. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
For those out of the loop. Laika used to be Will Vinton Studios. They did all of those great Claymation/stopmo projects over the years. Travis Knight, Phil's son, had been working at Vinton as an animator. At some point, the company needed additional funding and along came Daddy Warbucks. I don't know if Travis asked for his father's assistance, nor does it really matter. However, that article makes it sound as if Phil really wanted his son to follow in his shoes (ziiing). And since Cheesy Tee didn't want to be in the Nike business, there was nothing left to do but buy the company he did have interest in, fire the founder/president/owner, and groom your son to be in charge.
Maybe the plan all along was to buy the company for his son, who knows. The article sure makes it sound that way.
Look, I don't know either of these people or have any secret inside information. And, I guess you cannot fault Travis (he does seem to love animation and the article doesn't make it sound like he wanted all of this). [jealous rage] But man, this just sets me off. My life would of been so much easier with a rich father that could just buy me whatever I wanted. [/jealous rage]
Props to Phil for putting together a well orchestrated plan. I guess if your son doesn't want to be a part of the company you built, you might as well takeover the company the son does love.
8 comments:
As an "insider" I can tell you that it is very unlikely there would be a Vinton studios around today if not for the Knight investment. And whether you want the control or not, when it's your money or your Dad's money everyone comes to you for approval on the big decisions.
You dont seem to have much perspective on this situation. Without the Knight's involvemnt, 400+ animators would not be working in Portland OR, with ambitions of becoming the next great studio. Why is this a bad thing? They are keeping people employed working on great animation. Our industry *needs* new involvement and new direction right now, and the Knights are doing there best to help accomplish that.
"daddy, buy me a studio please"
Anonymous #2... which blog post did you read? I didnt see anything necesarly negative about what he said.. my feelings---maybe phil just should of started a new studio instad of pushing Vinton out the door..
well probably get alot of laika posters on here defending their little compan y beacuse for some reason they seem really defensive in every other thing ever written about there studio.. get a grip.. step back and see how weird this situation is.. good or bad this is just funny..
Laika is not even close to having 400 employees. We're having quite a bit of trouble getting to 200. My money is on Henry being gone soon after Coraline wraps.
What &@#*&'n stupid name for a studio.
That Laika is the only way to keep animators employed in Portland is bogus. Vinton started the whole thing in Portland. if it wasn't for him there wouldn't be no animation there. And he was 10 times more creative than ted or phil put tohether. All laika did was finance (i wonder where they got their money?) the Moongirl and Caroline. The style of animation is "GAY" in the sense of lame and effete. The script is weak too. I'll have to give it a pass.
You guys are funny!
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