Laika Animation: 2016, Their Big Break?

[CelestialFairyIX]

To introduce the company, Laika Entertainment is a company based in Oregon and specializes in animation, especially stop motion, whom all of their feature films have been created through.  Their company was founded in 2005 and have released, to this point, three feature films: Coraline, ParaNorman, and the Box Trolls.  Unlike the animation giants such as Disney and Pixar, Laika does not produce large budgeted feature films, rather moderate ones in which profit is guaranteed.  However, recently, Laika has announced that they will be exclusively working with producing feature films, churning out a feature film per year beginning with Kubo and the Two Strings coming this August, 2016.  Keeping in mind the box office track of their previous offerings, one may wonder, how will Laika expand its current audience to reach a broader appeal and commercial value compared to the other animation giants out there in the playing field to enable success?  One may say that this plan will fail due to several factors: with so many animation departments and animation films getting released each year, competition has increased and adding in Laika's marketing, appeal, etc... it's inevitable this plan is more likely to fail than succeed.  However, my question is, will Laika become another animation powerhouse? I believe that Kubo and the Two Strings, their next offer has the potential to beak out given its universally understandable  premise of becoming a hero to save others and add in gods, magical items and weapons, etc.. it seems poised to becpke a $100+ million success.  Early online activity for Kubo and the Two Strings have been positive, with many pointing out the exquisite detail of the animation (The Youtube trailer is almost at 500.000 views).  However, others have criticized the marketing tactic used to employ the spotlight onto the voice actors and actresses as opposed to selling the story and animators.  Coraline may have gotten their name on the map but Laika has yet to reach that level of appeal and success again as their most recent films have done poorly in the overseas market and domestic performance is somewhat staggered and barely profitable.  Will Kubo and the Two Strings enable Laika to play with the big leagues or will it not break out?  Cast your votes and tell me what you think!

[AniNate]

Their movies have always felt oddly flat to me. Like, they strive for quirky, creepy fun but they get too caught up in their world-building to really get swept up in them. I'm hoping Kubo has a much better sense of narrative pacing and isn't as concerned about trying to be "deep". And with Laika's CEO directing it it's likely being treated as a very big deal over there.