A biography for Travis Knighthasn’t been written yet.
“Sometimes the theme of the film is something that comes down to the way you designed the film - that you're saying something about the world. And it's one of the things that I think animation can do, in a way that other forms of filmmaking can't do. Because every single thing you see has got to be designed and created.”
“One of the great many things I love about being a father is sharing my beloved childhood experiences with my kids.”
“A fundamental and unfortunate part of being alive is to suffer loss and to suffer grief.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Stop-motion is filmmaking at the pace of a glacier. In live action, you're moving so quickly.”
“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.”
“Everything I've tried to do at Laika, searching for an artful blend of darkness and light, intensity and warmth, humour and heart, I wanted to bring to the Transformers franchise.”
“My grandfather, my dad's dad, he was a lawyer. He was a state legislator. He was the publisher of Oregon's second largest newspaper. He was a pretty amazing guy.”
“I love 'Princess Mononoke,' 'My Neighbour Totoro.'”
“We live in world that wants to burnish the rough edges and straighten the crooked line, but conformity doesn't beget greatness.”
“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.”
“Portland and Oregon draw a certain kind of person to it. The city has extraordinarily talented people and sometimes it takes an outsider to see that.”
“I fully believe that representation and inclusion matters... and that's why on all of our films, we've featured diverse casts, and that actually is true for 'Kubo' as well.”
“While you're testing out armatures of puppets, you're also trying to find the proper visual vocabulary for the character and to come up with a guidebook of sorts for how a character will move and act.”
“Stop-motion is sort of the redheaded stepchild of animation. But it's incredibly beautiful.”
“I won't say which one, but one shot on 'Kubo' took two months to get the expression right. It's ridiculous on some level.”
“My kids have terrible taste.”
“I take a firm stand against sequels. My industry brethren are a little shocked at how firmly I'm committed to not doing sequels.”
“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.”