Producer

I just love what art can do and what it means for us; that it can cross barriers. It can speak to us across space and time and culture.

Very few people view stop motion the way we do. We really try to use it - and animation generally - as a powerful visual medium by which you can tell virtually any kind of story in any genre.

My kids have terrible taste.

If you go back and look at those films, movies like 'Bambi' and 'Pinocchio,' there are elements that are incredibly dark. Yet no one batted an eye, thinking that kind of entertainment was inappropriate for children.

I'm a huge fan of what Marvel did, it's no surprise for anyone to know that as a child I was a huge fan of comics.

When your focus is franchises and brands, that limits the kinds of stories you can tell. That kind of thing can be good for the bottom line but they're not particularly good for showcasing the diversity of human experience.

Portland doesn't have the same kind of infrastructure that the national film hubs have. We struggle with that a little bit.

Stop-motion is filmmaking at the pace of a glacier. In live action, you're moving so quickly.

We had so many firsts on 'Coraline' that I couldn't quite see where we'd go from there, but for 'ParaNorman' we developed this 'skewed naturalism' that marries a lot of intricate detail with a more cinematic approach, then just built on all that and pushed those techniques even further, so we can tell our stories that much more effectively.

There is an inherent creative restlessness at Laika where we always want to challenge ourselves.

One of the things that gives stop-motion its inherent magic is that you're seeing something imperfect and thus undeniably human - because it's made by human hands.

This medium of stop-motion, it can be much more than it's been kind of defined as - it's not just a creaky and anachronistic way of making films, it actually is a very vital art form that can do wonderful things if put in the right hands.

Historically, for a stop-motion film, you gathered the crew together, you made the movie, and then everyone ran screaming to the next project.

At LAIKA, we try to find an artful balance of darkness and light, intensity and warmth, and humor and heart. The idea of being able to bring that philosophy to 'Bumblebee' was really exciting.

If any single human being is responsible for all this nonsense I've done with my life, it's Ray Harryhausen... In 'Kubo,' you can see some of his influence throughout.

The film industry is run by multinational media conglomerates and they have their perspective on what they need from their product. That's why we live in an era where you see reboots and sequels and remakes and prequels, all these old presents are re-wrapped and offered up as new gifts.

We respect that children are smart, sophisticated and can handle things that adults typically don't think they can.

I love Oregon and want to see the state continue to thrive and evolve.

I was athletic growing up and that was, of course, a big part of my household, but it wasn't something that I was necessarily passionate about.

Phil is my father. He's a part of who I am. But I don't want to be defined by that.