Stop-motion takes something on the page that’s really dark and adds a little sweetness to it, a living toys realm.”īeing part of the Pixar umbrella also meant access to the infamous Brain Trust, a collection of Pixar creative bigwigs (among them Selick’s Cal Arts classmates Brad Bird and John Lasseter) who analyze the movie and give specific notes and suggestions on how to strengthen the film. “”What I personally gravitate toward tends to be fantasy, medium dark - not too dark - fairy tales and sci fi. “It’s an original story of mine,” Selick told the Times. The LA Times report illuminates things further, if only slightly. The 55 Best Animated Movies of the 21st Century Besides that, details on the project had been scarce, although we’d heard that this new movie was, at least at one point, called “ Shademaker.” But Selick has control over an entirely separate studio ( Cinderbiter) in San Francisco (Pixar is in nearby Marin County) with, according to a Los Angeles Times report, a crew of “about 150 craftspersons and animators.” One of Selick’s supervising animators is Lou Romano, the amazing Pixar artist and illustrator (look up his New Yorker covers) who also, in the mad crush to finish “ Ratatouille” on time, gave voice to human puppet Linguini. Things have been quiet for a little while but some details have started to emerge about his Pixar project, while Disney has signed him on to a highly coveted property.įirst, the Pixar stuff – when Selick was hired by Pixar, many thought it would simply be the studio’s stop-motion animation division, housed on the same sprawling campus as Pixar proper.

Selick’s first animated feature, the gorgeous “ Coraline,” was released in 2009, but just a year later Disney and Pixar came courting and Selick packed his bags. Knight had hired Selick back in 2002 to help transition the studio from Will Vinton Studios (home of the California Raisins, among others) into a 21 st century powerhouse.

In 2010 it was announced that Henry Selick, the beloved director of “ The Nightmare Before Christmas,” had left Laika Studios, the Portland, Oregon-based animation studio run by Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight.

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