Laika’s CEO, the Studio Behind ‘Wildwood’ Just Explained Why AI Will Never Replace What Makes Stop-Motion Special
Animation has spent the past few years increasingly wrapped up in conversations about artificial intelligence, with studios across the industry experimenting with AI tools to speed up production and cut costs. Against that backdrop, one studio has become something of a defiant holdout, doubling down on a philosophy that’s completely at odds with where much of the industry seems to be heading.
That studio is Laika, the Portland-based animation house behind films like ‘Coraline,’ ‘ParaNorman,’ and ‘Kubo and the Two Strings.’ As the studio prepares to release its most ambitious project yet, ‘Wildwood,’ CEO and director Travis Knight has been increasingly vocal about why handcrafted, frame-by-frame animation still matters in an industry racing toward automation.
That conversation took on new weight after the teaser trailer for ‘Wildwood‘ unexpectedly went viral, racking up more than 90 million views on YouTube. According to Knight, the reaction caught him completely off guard, with even hardened industry colleagues texting him afterward about how emotional the footage made them feel. One popular comment summed up the internet’s reaction succinctly: “AI is the future. Laika: Hold my meticulously handcrafted stop motion beer.”
Knight has leaned into that framing directly when discussing what sets Laika apart. He’s described stop-motion animation as fundamentally different from anything AI could replicate, arguing that the medium’s painstaking, hands-on process is precisely what gives it emotional weight audiences can feel, even if they can’t fully articulate why.
That philosophy isn’t new for Knight, but it’s taken on sharper focus as AI tools have become more prevalent across Hollywood. He’s previously explained that the value of stop-motion comes from its inherently human process, noting during an earlier interview that “the act of creating things by hand imbues them with a humanity you can’t get any other way,” a sentiment that’s carried directly into how he talks about ‘Wildwood.’
Ahead of the film’s release, Knight has also been careful not to frame the conversation as an outright rejection of technology altogether. Speaking about AI’s broader role in entertainment, he’s said studios shouldn’t use it to replace the people who give films their spirit and soul, while acknowledging it could still serve the business in thoughtful, limited ways if studio leaders approach its use carefully rather than as a wholesale replacement for human artists.
‘Wildwood’ itself is being positioned as Laika’s most technically ambitious film to date, adapting Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s fantasy novel series into a 140-minute stop-motion epic starring Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, and Mahershala Ali, among others. The film blends traditional puppet animation with practical effects, miniatures, and select digital tools, continuing Laika’s long-standing approach of embracing selective technology without letting it replace the studio’s handmade core.
That balance has defined Laika’s identity since its founding, with Knight previously describing the studio’s process as combining “art, craft, and technology” rather than treating them as opposing forces. Even so, as generative AI tools grow more sophisticated and more common across animation and visual effects work industry-wide, Laika’s insistence on keeping human hands at the center of its process increasingly reads as a deliberate statement rather than simply a stylistic choice.
With ‘Wildwood’ opening in U.S. theaters on October 23, following an earlier premiere in the UK, the film’s box office and critical reception may end up saying just as much about audience appetite for handcrafted filmmaking as any statement Knight makes in interviews. For a studio that’s built its entire identity around resisting shortcuts, that viral trailer response suggests plenty of viewers are rooting for the human touch to win out.
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