Den of Geek: Every project that you do is obviously a huge investment of years and time.

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Travis Knight: There are a couple of criteria that come into play.

In the simplest terms we make family films.

We make films geared toward family.

But thats kind of a key threshold that something has to cross.

So that draws a certain shape around it all.

It isnt like a little pop culture confection, a little bit of ephemera.

And all those films had an artful blend, a balance of darkness and light, intensity and warmth.

And that is kind of the core approach.

That is our philosophy in how we approach our films.

Its really about dynamic storytelling.

It wont mean anything.

And so when I talk about dynamic storytelling thats it.

Its the up and the downs.

And this one had all that for you.

When I read Alan Snows book nearly ten years ago it was such an unusual story.

And it was really interesting.

But it was also 550 pages and thats not a 90 minute film.

Youve got to find a way to distill the essence of that down to a film.

That was the trickiest bit.

The Boxtrolls are just one small part of the book, but you focused on that part.

All these different weird creatures.

We thought that the most interesting of all of Alan Snows inventions was the Boxtrolls.

There was something that was really compelling about that group of characters.

In the first iterations of the script we hued very faithfully to the book.

It didnt really have anything underneath it.

It didnt really have anything to say.

And there was definitely no personal connection on the part of the filmmakers.

It wasnt like, This is something that matters to me.

It was just a fun little lark.

I think thats probably true.

Its just a different kind of a story for us.

We want to tell different kinds of stories in different ways.

I meanCoralinewas a kind of a dark modern fairytale and there are things that come with that.

There are ingredients that come along with a story like that.

Its more kind of an absurdist coming of age fable.

I certainly dont see it as scary.

Thats not the kind of film that it is.

But I do believe that there is a nice balance of intensity and lightness within the film.

Theres a theme running through it that nothing is what it is acting like on the surface.

Was that in the original story or is that something that came out as you developed the movie?

You see that throughout the different characters and what you think they are is not really what they are.

I feel tremendous sympathy for Snatcher on some level even though hes as awful as you could imagine.

He has dimension, he has texture.

And I think thats a necessary element to showcase.

Even the worst villain has some humanity.

Ive loved stop-motion my entire life.

Its just been a huge part of my whole life.

OrJason and the ArgonautsorThe 7th Voyage of Sinbad, things like that.

I absolutely loved those films.

Stop-motions been around since the dawn of cinema.

Its as old as film itself.

Its been around for over a hundred years.

Its the same kind of stuff.

Thats still kind of the core of what we do.

Stop-motion can be so much more vital, so much more interesting, so much more sophisticated.

We havent even begun to scratch the surface of what you’re free to do within this medium.

Its not about just settling and being complacent.

Its about trying to actively push on the edges of what can be done within the medium.

And so we integrate technology in a way thats never been done before.

We bring in laser cutting and digital photography and stereoscopic photography and all these different things.

And I think that you could see that evolution dramatically when you look atCoralineand when you look atBoxtrolls.

Youre the CEO of Laika.

Theres 22,000 props in this movie.

Do you get to take any of them home?

At some point well divvy up the spoils.

But I cant even think about that now.

If you were a Boxtroll what would your box be?

Thats a really good question.

I wish I had a witty response but I dont.

We always have things that were working on.

We have actually started production on our next film right now.

We have about a minute of footage in the can.

So, you know, were nearly done.

Only 89 minutes of film to go.

But one of the things Im most excited about is where its taking us as a company.

Its a totally different kind of story and a totally different kind of genre.

Visually its a different kind of thing than anything that weve done before.

Can you reveal the genre or title for the first of those?

The Boxtrollsis in theaters now.

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