Laika hopes 'Coraline' shows the stop-motion way

"Coraline" follows an impressionable young girl's (voiced by Dakota Fanning) magic passage to a parallel world where her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) are not the indifferent real mom and dad she has in her new home. But like the Brothers Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel," fresh-baked treats unfortunately come with strings attached. Or in the case of "Coraline," it's buttons and thread, which are used to replace the eyes of those who choose to enter the fantasy world.

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Fancy digs can wait

It's an occasionally scary tale -- "I say it's for brave children of all ages," Selick said -- and the stakes are as high for "Coraline's" titular character as they are for Selick and Laika. Nike co-founder Knight launched the studio in 2005 (when it absorbed Vinton's company), with ambitious plans for making an animated feature a year, with its creative hub a gleaming new campus in the Portland suburb of Tualatin.

But the ground has yet to be broken on Laika's new headquarters, and the promised stream of new films is far from reality. While Laika has nine movies in various states of development -- including an adaptation of the book "Here Be Monsters" and a Selick-produced original idea called "Paranorman" among the projects -- it abandoned "Jack and Ben," from "Lion King" and "Cars" writer Jorgen Klubien. Knight (whose son, Travis, is the lead "Coraline" animator) has said he will announce Laika's next movie later this year, but given how long it takes to make animated movies, it's unlikely Laika will have a new feature before 2011.

"I'm in favor of no campus -- let's use our resources to put the movies on the screen," said Selick, who also serves as Laika's supervising director, a post similar to John Lasseter's role within Pixar. "You build a campus after you've had five hit movies. And without a doubt, 'Coraline' will have an impact on the number of films put into production. If we do a little business, it will be a good first film -- because then it will have proven its worth."

Unlike March 27's "Monsters vs. Aliens," which DreamWorks invested $165 million in, stop-motion animation is not wildly expensive, with "Coraline" taking about $60 million and 20-months of filming to produce. But Laika is sharing in Focus' marketing and distribution costs, meaning that its risk (and potential reward) is greater.