I remember the rise of the Raisins and clay stop motion, and always enjoyed it. I had no idea there was a dramatic backstory and this sad arc that played out--first with an early partner and then a later one.

But it does seem like there was a nice peak in the middle where artists did great work and they really changed the face of animation--before computers were able to replace that kind of technique.

It leaves me with mixed feelings about the outcomes. But art was made, impact was had, and all-in-all I suppose it was a good span. I wish Vinton had a better outcome financially... But a fine life.

You know that a documentary is honest when you leave it having changed your mind (and probably leaving with the opposite impression from what the documentary hoped for...)

This is less about "History of Clay Animation", though there is some of that, and more "History of Will Vinton". In particular the narrative spine is the lawsuit surrounding the "takeover" of Will Vinton's studio by Phil Knight. I guess we are supposed to view this as a tragic example of, yet again, Capitalism crushing Creativity.

But that's hardly the message I took away. The message I took away was that (much like Pixar, for that matter) if you are a creative, don't pretend you're a business person, and don't complain about their salary or their decisions! If what they do is so easy, how come you are almost universally so incompetent when you guys try your hands at it?

The message for any creatives out there, I think, is primarily: find a business partner you trust early in your career, and mostly listen to them and accept that they know their side of what they are talking about.

And at the end of the day, honestly no great artistic tragedy occurred here. Laika (the rebranded Will Vinton Studios, now under the control of Travis Knight) has honestly done really good work. I don't want to be cruel and say they have done *better* work than Will Vinton Studios; but they certainly have done a better job financially, which has meant exactly the creative freedom to put together a sequence of (varied, but all pretty good!) full length movies.