Hillsboro's Laika Snares Two Oscar Nods for Kubo

Coraline. ParaNorman. The Boxtrolls. And now Kubo and the Two Strings.

Hillsboro-based Laika Studios has made four movies and each one has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Kubo received its nomination Tuesday morning.

The movie tells the story of the son of a Samurai on a quest to save his family and find his place in the world.

Like Laika's previous films, it mixes stop-motion animation with computer animation, resulting in richly layered images. The movie was the directorial debut of the company's president and CEO, Travis Knight.

"A film is a slice of a hundred souls," says Knight. "In this case many more. An incredible, immense community of artists gave ceaselessly and selflessly to breathe life into this story.

"I’m so thankful for their talents and efforts and so proud of what we've done together."

Knight, the son of Nike founder Phil Knight, started as an animator in the storied Will Vinton Studios. In 2005, Will Vinton Studios evolved into Laika.

"Every filmmaker dreams of a moment like this," Knight says. "But the truth is, I already lived my dream by making this film. Movies have always given me great joy. They enriched my life.

"They inspired me to dream."

Kubo also became only the second animated movie in Academy history to receive a nomination for Best Visual Effects; the other being Nightmare Before Christmas in 1994.

Laika says they accomplished visual effects in the movie that had never been done before in a stop-action movie including breathtaking water scenes.

The four people behind the visual effects - Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean, and Brad Schiff - say their movie "is an homage to Japanese culture and to woodblock artists including Kiyoshi Saito, it is also a tribute to special effects pioneers Ray Harryhausen, Willis O'Brien, Jim Danforth, and the many innovative FX artists who tell stories using in-camera effects, puppets, and human hands."

For Best Animated Feature, Kubo is up against: Moana, My Life as a Zucchini, The Red Turtle, and Zootopia.

For Best Visual Effects, Kubo is up against: Deepwater Horizon, Doctor Strange, The Jungle Book, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

The Oscars will be handed out on February 26.

Image via Laika/Focus Features.