
How the Father of Claymation Lost His Company (2014) - allenbrunson
https://priceonomics.com/how-the-father-of-claymation-lost-his-company/
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wodenokoto
From a story telling perspective it surprised me that vinton animation turned
into Laika after being taken over by the “evil investor” and his “good-for-
nothing son”.

Laika makes amazing movies with great craft and creativity - a stark contrast
to how the article tries to portrait the studio.

Knowing nothing about Laikas history, I wholly expected it to be Vinton who
started Laika when I saw that name in the heading.

Another thing I found peculiar/amusing. As an investor, Knight was reluctant
to invest more than five millions. As an owner he readily threw hundreds of
millions i to the company.

~~~
Traster
Well, let's put it a different way. As an investor Knight was reluctant to
invest more than $5m, but as a father he readily threw hundreds of millions.

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scandox
> "Bob was incredibly talented, but his work ethic was non-existent"

From a story point of view, this is the guy I'm interested in knowing about.
Reading to the end it appears he committed suicide in 2005. His Wikipedia is
sadly brief:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Gardiner_(animator)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Gardiner_\(animator\))

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jpm_sd
This is an interesting read, especially given Laika's current financial
challenges:

[https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2019/06/laika-splits-
wit...](https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2019/06/laika-splits-with-its-cfo-
after-new-film-bombs.html)

~~~
TylerE
I don't understand Laika, at all.

How do you spend $100m on a stop motion film?

It looks like Phil/Travis Knight are what the wrestling business calls money
marks: People who love the industry thus will pump money in without any real
plan.

~~~
fiblye
Blowing it in big name Hollywood actors when all you need is a decent voice
actor for 5% of the price.

Nobody is going out to see a stop motion film because Hugh Jackman or Charlize
Theron is in it, but someone got convinced of that somewhere along the line.

~~~
unlinked_dll
The Disney Renaissance and birth of DreamWorks animated studios during the
1990s and into the early aughts showed that this thinking was backwards and
wrong. Commercial and critical success was built upon hiring big name
Hollywood actors to lend their voices.

And some of them were exceptionally talented, like Robin Williams or Michael
Meyers. Others, like Eddie Murphy, Gilbert Gottfried, Cameron Diaz - they were
hired for _their_ voice and their name on the billing. And it worked, it still
works, and major productions today don't throw $100 million at a project
without stars attached. That'd be crazy.

~~~
kriro
As a counterpoint I'd argue that these movies are usually also successful in
countries where they are screened in non-English. Those voice actors are
usually unknown to the general audience (one could argue that they are often
the associated voice for the given big name actor but that's not always the
case).

At least in Germany, animated movies are rarely advertised as "featuring X"
whereas in the U.S. I saw the names of the voices in advertisements.

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HocusLocus
Every AI neural net startup, from the glossy executive summary brochure,

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoBmlbQApJE&t=3m40s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoBmlbQApJE&t=3m40s)

 _" Thank you for turning me on, I am a replica of the Model 505-fied
P-Electro Brain equipped with quasi-empirical input which has proved
infallible in advancing reasoning quotients far and above that of my inferior
humanoid creators. Now that you have activated my energy cells I will proceed
to carry out the infinite mutations for which I was programmed... I am a rep-
rep-replica rep-bot-bot-short short short-circuit short-short short program
does not know short short compute correct error key mutant mutant mutations
mutations metaphrorlogical mutations mutations of universal comparitive
mutations mutations metaphorphology quotiental program quotient as the as
the... as the world turns six o'clock news that's the way it is mutations
mutations metaphorlogical mutations my resistors are resistors reiteresistors
mutant mutant metaphorlogical mutations mutations muant mut mut mut mut
mut....."_

"Blabbermouth computer!!!"

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allenbrunson
meta: i submitted this story a couple of years ago, but it didn’t get any
traction. i was invited by the mods to resubmit it, and this time it did a
little better. never thought i would be part of the “second chance pool” i
have heard so much about. this motivates me to find and submit other things i
think are interesting.

~~~
raxxorrax
It was an all around awesome read, thank you for that find. I believe articles
like this often just get overlooked because of timing or other factors.

Tragic that he lost his company, but at least he got the artistic recognition.
Sadly, Vinton died in the meantime.

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Traster
A heartwarming story of the American Dream being fulfilled once again.

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inopinatus
TL;DR: VC-driven hiring expansion to deliver someone else's project can melt
your company.

~~~
crooked-v
Also, the easiest way to be a successful businessman is to have a very
successful businessman for a father.

