Rank 'Em: Laika Studios

The Laika animation studio has been around for well over a decade now, and been responsible for some excellent animated films. It's good to see the tradition of stop-motion animation still being kept alive, though the Laika films have always been a little under the radar. Here are the five films they've released so far, ranked from best to most mediocre. I don't think there's a bad one in the bunch.

"Coraline" - The first, and still the best of Laika's films is this spooky horror tale, directed by Henry Selick and based on a book by Neil Gaiman. It's such a fantastically unsettling piece of work, with these nightmarish images and ideas - all beautifully handcrafted, of course. I also like that it pushes the boundaries of children's media a little, with a genuinely frightening villainess straight out of old school fairy tales, and just a touch of bawdy humor. "Coraline" was also instrumental in launching the recent 3D wave, a year before James Cameron's "Avatar," using the technology as a storytelling tool. When Coraline travels into the world of the Other Mother, the film suddenly gains entirely new dimensions of depth and volume that the stop-motion animation takes full advantage of.

"Paranorman" - This is an oddball film, a boys' adventure movie about a kid who can see and interact with the paranormal. The character designs are odd, the story is a little offbeat, and the whole look and tone of the production is weird. For most of its running time, "Paranorman" is very much a comedic zombie romp on roughly the same wavelength as "Scooby Doo," but then the final act swerves into much darker and melodramatic territory to great effect. The "Angry Aggie" sequence is technically amazing, and so emotionally charged in a way that rivals any feature made for adults. It's one of my favorite scenes from any animated media of that era. Also, I love that the reveal that one of the characters is gay is treated like such a non-issue, it's literally the punchline to a running gag.

"Missing Link" - I don't really understand why this is the most highly lauded Laika film to date. It's a perfectly good one, about a lonely Sasquatch who decides to go looking for his Yeti relatives after meeting a British explorer. The voice acting performances are very strong, and the story is a very charming one, but it doesn't stick out to me as one of Laika's better films. It's a perfectly safe sort of children's adventure film, with a great message, and fantastic production values, and there's nothing wrong with that. It reminds me an awful lot of the Aardman "Pirates!" movie because of the similar main characters, and because both films are much better than they seem at first glance. And of the three bigfoot-themed animated films that came out in 2018-2019, "Missing Link" is definitely the best.

"Kubo and the Two Strings" - It's not that I don't like "Kubo" or think that it's a terrible film, but I have a couple of major issues with it. The first is that it uses a Japanese fantasy context and doesn't really do the work of actually engaging with that culture except on the most superficial level. Second, the plotting is pretty slapdash, with a bungled ending. There's the potential for the film to hit the emotional highs of "Coraline" and "Paranorman," and it certainly tries to reach that, but I don't think it ever got there. On a technical and aesthetic level, however, the film is an animated marvel. There are so many gorgeous visuals here, from the origami figures to the giant puppet foe. And I love the Regina Spektor cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" that plays over the end credits sequence.

"Boxtrolls" - Here's another case of a film that has all the right elements in place, but never quite figures out how to make the best use of them. I like the idea of the boxtrolls, and their funny little community where you're named after whatever kind of box you adopt - resulting in a main character named "Eggs" - but the plotting is a mess, and the villain often comes across as more sympathetic than the lead. My favorite part of the film is the credits sequence, where two minor characters are having an existential discussion while also showing off the Laika animation process.
---