How Working With Netflix Compares To Disney And LAIKA, According To Wendell And Savage Director Henry Selick [Set Visit]

Needless to say, it looks like Selick had a lot of creative control over the film. Although he's made some great movies with support from Disney and Laika, that level of creative control is apparently something he doesn't know. According to Selick, he had good control over his directorial debut, 1993's "A Nightmare Before Christmas," potentially due to producer Tim Burton personally looking for him. Unfortunately, he didn't have a similar experience for his sequel, 1996's "James and the Giant Peach."

"Disney got a lot more involved," he explained, "and suddenly a lot more energy was sucked into politics."

That, combined with the creative about-face of 2001's "Monkeybone," is what ultimately drew Selick to the burgeoning LAIKA. Given the studio's relationship with indie-leaning Focus Features and not a more commercial distributor like Disney or 20th Century Fox (which the former now owns), it's easy to see why the director was interested in working with a new studio. for "Coraline. "

"They supported me really well. They might not know better, but it was great," Selick said. "The biggest pushback came from the distributors, Focus Features...they wanted it to be like a regular cartoon."

While this has created some tension between Selick and the producers at Focus, don't expect a movement to #ReleaseTheSelickCut to form anytime soon. He maintained that he still received a lot of creative support while working on "Coraline".