The best nepo baby out there.
People who have their success due to their parents' wealth and status. Nepo babies have gotten a bad reputation because they are viewed as someone who didn’t work hard to get to where they are. When it comes to the entertainment industry, many nepo babies seem to lack the talent needed for their role. Nepo babies block real, unconnected talent with their mediocrity. My distaste for nepo babies, however, does not apply to one specific person. That person is Travis Knight.
Travis Knight is the CEO of the stop-motion animation studio Laika. You may know Laika from Coraline, ParaNorman, and more recently, Wildwood. Travis Knight’s father happens to be the co-founder of Nike, Phil Knight. When I found out about this little fun fact, I was shocked. Most well-known nepo babies tend to be in the same industry as their parents. Animation and shoes are so unrelated.
This week I hit up the theater once again to catch a screening of Wildwood, and I left feeling grateful that Travis Knight was a nepo baby. Wildwood is a stop-motion fantasy film about a teenage girl, Pru, and her classmate, Curtis, who go into a magical forest in search of Pru’s infant brother after he was kidnapped. In the forest, they meet mysterious women. The first thing I noticed about this film was the beautiful sets. This movie features the largest world production Laika has ever built. They made about 130 different sets, and some of those sets include real landmarks of Portland, where the movie takes place. There is a part of the movie when Pru and her brother are going around the city, and we are able to see so much of the world here. Because we see so much of the world, we, as viewers, feel like part of it. In fact, after watching the movie, I could see myself having a life in Portland and going to Powell’s Books on a random weekday. The thing that makes stop-motion films so incredible is that you can feel the passion radiating from the screen. Stop-motion takes a very long time. In Wildwood specifically, it has 231 puppets, 3,000 figures, and 142,000 replacement faces. It took animators about 24 weeks just to make 1 minute of the film. Everything in the movie was handcrafted and physically manipulated. Behind every part of the movie, there are real human hands, real human talent, and real human passion.
We are now in an era where AI is everywhere. Every other scroll on social media is crap created by AI. On my commute, I am bombarded with AI ads. Restaurants are now using AI to make their menus more appealing. Even just trying to order fast food through a drive-through, I have to fight with the AI so that it gets my order right. Another thing that AI has taken over is creative spaces. It seems like we are constantly hearing about a writer using AI in their latest book, a singer using AI vocals, a movie director allowing AI to be used in editing. It seems instead of AI being used beneficially, it’s being used by people without a creative mind to push those with real passion out of their spaces. Stop-motion is a huge screw you to AI. Everything in the process of creating a stop-motion film requires human hands behind it. In a world where we are constantly being fed AI slop, Wildwood was a breath of fresh air.
Going back to Travis Knight. The reason why he is my favorite nepo baby, and probably the only nepo baby I can get behind, is because of his support in art. It is a known fact in the industry that Laika actually loses money with every movie they make. The studio loses money because of the extreme cost of the labor it takes to create a stop-motion film. Even though the studio doesn’t make money, Travis Knight is still funding new stop-motion films, and with each film, it gives animators and creators a space to use their talent. It seems like every wealthy person is in support of AI, and as much as I preach about eating the rich, I can give some support to a rich person who spends his money supporting art and artists. Travis Knight uses his father’s wealth and influence to fund wonderful pieces of film that were created by people with raw passion for art. Because of him, we were given many beloved films. If it wasn’t for him, I would have never seen my all-time favorite movie, Coraline. (Fun Fact: I named my dog after Coraline.)
I encourage everyone to go see Wildwood. Go support the hands that created this beautiful piece of film. Go support your local theater. Once again, the generational run cinema is having this year has given us another incredible movie. What a great time to be a movie lover.
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