The man who lost his company to Nike founder Phil Knight is the subject of a new documentary by Marq Evans. It is something that looms over the film but it is not the only melancholy element.
Claydream is a visual history of Vinton's accomplishments that was made with his cooperation. We get to see the progression of Vinton's work over the years, from Closed Mondays, the Oscar-winning 1974 short he created with Bob Gardiner, to his company's instantly recognizable commercial work from the '90s and '80s. Vinton, who was a bit of a hippie, set up a small workshop in Portland, Oregon, to keep his productions away from the Hollywood.
This movie is a visual feast, jam-packed with clips and other ephemera (including answering- machine messages from a California Raisins-obsessed Michael Jackson) that illustrate the narrative of Vinton's career every step. He never achieved the heights of his idol, Walt Disney, whose life trajectory he emulated, down to plans for a never-realized "Claymation Station" amusement park. Though he was well-liked as a person, not everyone he worked with is full of praise; there were issues over the years of sharing credit with the other animators who toiled on his projects, as well as some bad business decisions. After their Oscar win, Vinton was haunted by a split with the troubled Gardiner. The Phil Knight debacle was Vinton's biggest tragedy.
Knight and his son are not interviewed in Claydream, they are only seen in depositions and archival footage. A failed rapper, who was hired at Will Vinton, comes off particularly badly just on the basis of the facts. The documentary states that he became head of Will Vinton Studios after Vinton, who was unable to save his company, was pushed.
Vinton makes a point of turning a devastating blow into something positive. After losing his studio several years ago, he sounds proud of its continued success, specifically in the way that Laika, which has since become a Hollywood powerhouse with acclaimed titles like Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, missing Link, and Knight's Kubo, has Claydream makes it look like Vinton was able to make peace with the situation. It all came down to making an end product that was cool as it could possibly be. Vinton's legacy lives on even if he wasn't involved in any of the titles.
The movie Claydream hits theaters today.
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